Sacramento News & Review writer Jeff McCrory recently got a first-hand look at the devastation from last summer’s wildfires when he hiked the Beacroft Trail in Tahoe National Forest with his brother. Here’s a few tidbits from the excellent article:
Inhale deeply. Try to smell the fall season: the whisper of snow, decaying leaves, the mineral tang of mud—scents that should be in the air on a drizzly Sunday in the Sierras.
Instead, all I smell is last summer.
This was the summer of the great wildfires. There were more than 2,700 of them throughout California. “Government Springs/Westville” is the name somebody gave the blaze that affected the section of the Tahoe National Forest where my brother Josh and I are descending the steep Beacroft Trail. Its smoke poured into the valley below, stewed and made Sacramento stink like a giant ashtray for days on end.
“Does it smell like ash everywhere up here?” I ask.
It’s all too common now for we hikers to walk our favorite trails through burnt-out sections. How have the fires of the last few years affected where you wander in the wilderness?
