Sorry for the late letter this morning. I received a call from Cal Fires yesterday asking for a spotter pilot near the Lake Tahoe region.
So, the early AM found me flying a wide circle around the Sierra foothills with a pair of binoculars and a GPS calling in new smoke plumes to Central Command in Sacramento.
When you get near the big fires, the turbulence is incredible and you wonder if the plane can hold together. These are things better observed from a distance.
Thank you, Clyde Cessna for building such great aircraft!
Thankfully, the kids are old enough to drive themselves to school. I gave them $20 for dinner in case I didn’t come back.
Don’t worry about me. I evacuated out of Lake Tahoe weeks ago, as even back then, the smoke was so thick that the air was unbreathable. All of Lake Tahoe has now been evacuated, except for Incline Village at the northern tip.
There are now 70 bulldozers building a giant fire break at South Lake Tahoe. The 25,000 residents have been moved to emergency evacuation centers throughout northern Nevada.
The casinos are all closed but the hotels are open to house firefighting and support teams. Some teams have been lost to Covid. The water bombers are knocking the daylights out of the West Shore.
Welcome to the nightmare scenario. This is a disaster on a biblical scale.
At home, we are watching the TV, amazed at videos of 600-pound bears on fire running out of the mountains.
In the meantime, I have received dozens of emails, phone calls, and text messages from subscribers asking about my safety.
Don’t worry, all is well here out in San Francisco. But thanks for asking!
The View from Incline Village, Nevada
