20120921_1300-Table-Mountain-Fire

Yesterday we visited the Table Mountain Fire in an attempt to save my father’s cabin.  The fire is about one mile away from it.  So we trimmed the branches 6 feet up the trees, cleared brush, moved branches and firewood away from the cabin and scattered them, raked needles away and wet the ground around it.  Here is the cabin after our efforts.

We did the same for the other structures on the property.  This includes the cabin my brother built.  The firefighters had actually started the castle clearing before we arrived.

We loaded the snowmobiles on a car trailer to bring home.

And the quads on another trailer.

Here is one of the helicopters that were flying around over us during the day.

And here is the view of the valley.  You cannot see anything for all the smoke.

Here is a nearby original homesteaders cabin that I hope will not be lost in the fire.  We did not have time to help clear around it.

This is how the sun looked while we were on the mountain.

As we left, here is one of the many escape route tags on the road, presumably for the firefighters if the fire flares up suddenly.

Here is the area of burn in the valley from the previous fire this summer.

And here is a barn farther down in the valley with a lot of smoke from the fire behind it.

And here is the fire camp.

Here are the range sheep that were pulled from the mountain because of the fire.

And here is the eerie sunset over Cle Elum as we were heading home.

So we can say we did what we could.  Now it is up to the fire, the weather and the firefighters whether the cabin will survive.