AshevilleCaliforniaCherokee NationDead Kennedysforest fireNantahala ForestNorth CarolinaTryonWestern Carolina
Fire on the Mountain
Or maybe we
should quote from the Dead Kennedys:
No junk food
Just earthy goods
I ate weird berries
In the woods.
Now I’m seeing colors,
I’m getting higher,
I think I’ll start
A FOREST FIRE!
There will
be some nice posts coming up over the next few weeks that talk about Western
Carolina and more of what it has to offer, as if this hasn’t been made
perfectly clear already in this blog. Even luckier than where we’ve traveled around
the world is the actual selection of our home. It never gets old writing about the
place.
Over Veterans Day, we decided we could use a little getaway. With the kids in the back behaving, we cruised past Hendersonville and Asheville until the streets started to narrow further out west. On the map, this would be the most western part of North Carolina, or the green nose tip.
Liebi knows these places very well, which helps. Our primary goal is to engage in family activities. We hike some, we find some playgrounds (important). I’ll get to our visit at the Cherokee Reservation later, for now I’ll focus on the first grim discovery of the trip.
Perhaps you’ve heard of it by now. It takes us about 10 solidly wooded miles to figure out what all those firefighters are doing, beginning in Swain County or the Nantahala National Forest. This wasn’t a prime Veterans Day march. The further north we drive, the hazier it gets. A little November fog, right? Wrong. How about a forest fire? You didn’t think California trademarked those, did you? It’s still burning, by the way, and the first reports suggest arson. Though it seems largely contained, I swear I can still see the haze all the way here in Tryon. From my experiences in California, fires travel fast.
By now, the fires have reached Chimney Rock, which is closer to our house than we would prefer. In all, there are forest fires everywhere in the south: Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, you name it. The worst of them just happen to be in North Carolina.
The problem with that is not just the endangerment of all life involved, whether this is human, animal, or plant. There is also the air quality we need to consider. In our area, it is already red, meaning it is unhealthy to breathe. The only color that is worse is purple. Almost 40,000 acres burnt and no end in sight. Firefighters throughout the state have been summoned to help out.
Deep breath. Or maybe not, with the existing air quality. Forest fires. In November. In states that have four seasons. Add the ten inches of rainwater shortage, and you have a recipe for disaster. I sure hope the long-term solution involves something other than praying.
Over Veterans Day, we decided we could use a little getaway. With the kids in the back behaving, we cruised past Hendersonville and Asheville until the streets started to narrow further out west. On the map, this would be the most western part of North Carolina, or the green nose tip.
Liebi knows these places very well, which helps. Our primary goal is to engage in family activities. We hike some, we find some playgrounds (important). I’ll get to our visit at the Cherokee Reservation later, for now I’ll focus on the first grim discovery of the trip.
Perhaps you’ve heard of it by now. It takes us about 10 solidly wooded miles to figure out what all those firefighters are doing, beginning in Swain County or the Nantahala National Forest. This wasn’t a prime Veterans Day march. The further north we drive, the hazier it gets. A little November fog, right? Wrong. How about a forest fire? You didn’t think California trademarked those, did you? It’s still burning, by the way, and the first reports suggest arson. Though it seems largely contained, I swear I can still see the haze all the way here in Tryon. From my experiences in California, fires travel fast.
By now, the fires have reached Chimney Rock, which is closer to our house than we would prefer. In all, there are forest fires everywhere in the south: Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, you name it. The worst of them just happen to be in North Carolina.
The problem with that is not just the endangerment of all life involved, whether this is human, animal, or plant. There is also the air quality we need to consider. In our area, it is already red, meaning it is unhealthy to breathe. The only color that is worse is purple. Almost 40,000 acres burnt and no end in sight. Firefighters throughout the state have been summoned to help out.
Deep breath. Or maybe not, with the existing air quality. Forest fires. In November. In states that have four seasons. Add the ten inches of rainwater shortage, and you have a recipe for disaster. I sure hope the long-term solution involves something other than praying.
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