One of our Autumn colors here is, well… white.

There was fog this morning, filling the valley, and I had decided to just rest up and finish getting over a cold that I’ve had for several days, but just after noon the clouds started to thin out and I could see fresh snow on the peaks to the west. I accepted the invitation, and the trail to Big Hole Lookout seemed just right.

The fresh snow looked good enough to eat. So how do you do that?

You scoop some up with your nose, then stick your tongue wayyy out and…

And while Buster was having a wonderful time eating snow and getting wet and muddy I couldn’t resist recording scenes of the not-quite-ready-to-leave-summer vegetation meeting about 4 inches of new snow.

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An abrupt change

This is pretty much the same way that this scene has looked since around the end of August, but this morning there is a huge difference. The haze today is fog and water vapor, not smoke from the fires. What a relief! There is still much work to be done on the fires, but the threat is very much less.

Sheep Gap Fire, September 11, 2017 ~ Day 14

This afternoon the sun came out for a while and much of the fire activity shifted toward the west so I went down there to get a visual fire update from that end.

Denizen of the log deck

This little Cottontail has been hanging out right next to the log deck lately. After I have cut all of the wood that I will need for this winter there will still be a lot of logs left. I will cover them to keep the snow off and that will create a wonderfully safe, dry shelter where he will most likely live all winter.

Sheep Gap Fire, September 10, 2017

For the past week the Sheep Gap Fire, which is now one of six fires in what has been named the “Highway 200 Complex”, has been completely hidden in smoke which has been held on the valley floor by an inversion layer. That caused lower temperatures and reigned in the fire somewhat allowing the fire crews to construct dozer lines in front of it on the north and east sides, protecting the homes there. So far no homes have been lost.

Yesterday afternoon a west wind came up which cleared out a lot of the smoke, making some of the fire area visible again. The first of the following pictures was taken last evening, the rest this morning.

Sheep Gap Fire, Night of September 2, 2017

The fire has gotten much worse. Hopefully it will settle down later tonight. The flames and coals are spread over more than a mile east and west and come way down the mountain.The last three photos were taken at about 8:30 tonight, the first one from my driveway an hour earlier.