Hood Mountain

As we started along the trail this morning in the Sonoma Valley Regional Park, I again noticed a sign asking us to help them monitor the recovery of the area by placing our camera in the bracket, taking a picture and emailing it to the park district. I did this once months ago but was struck once again by how quickly things are recovering.

 Underneath the very tall grasses there are still charcoal patches of burned soil. I saw a truncated tree with a heart shaped hole at the top where once there was a crown of leaves and branches. The entire inside of the trunk was hollow and blackened. A few trees are gone, leaving nothing but a blackened hole in the ground.

However, as the grasses turn golden, the wildflowers die back, but the buckeye trees are flowering, the surviving oaks have leafed out and the madrones are sporting their mahogany red bark and glossy green leaves. Many trees which showed no sign of life are beginning to sprout new growth at their burned bases. The weather has improved, the blue sky has reappeared, and the birds were calling to one another, making it a perfect morning for a walk.

On the way home we decided to take a drive up Nun's Canyon Road where the Nun's fire started. Like many rural roads, it is poorly paved and only one lane wide. It runs next to a creek and we saw many bridges crossing the creek to burned out homesites. Some of the bridges have been rebuilt but most of them are still impassable. We didn't drive far, as a sign informed us that we had reached the last turnaround spot. 

We passed the studio of Sonoma Valley artist Bryan Tedrick, known for his massive metal and wood horse sculptures. He was working on one one such sculpture, commissioned by the Geyserville Community Foundation when it was swept by flames, but the unique combination of redwood and metal didn't burn. It was installed last week on the sculpture trail near the entrance to the town. We recognized his studio by the fact that another horse sculpture was standing in a field next to the studio.

The drive back home along Highway 12 is always pleasant, and since I am finally trying to use my 'new' camera (the date on the pictures was January 2014 until I entered there current date into the camera) I thought it would be a good idea to document the recovery  of Hood Mountain, which is right behind our house and was very hard hit by the Nun's Fire. Today's shot shows the rocky outcropping of the peak itself on the left and the secondary peak to the right of it which was completely burned and hasn't showed many signs of recovery.

From a distance, though, it looks pretty good, and up close, there will be lots of signs like we saw in the park today.