Once I had completed all the tasks I could do to help, I had a few minutes to quickly take some pictures and went one last time down to the shore. By then the lighting had changed and the sky was getting darker. Ash had washed up on shore and was present in the water as well.

While I was down at the shoreline, ash started to rain down on us and I remember thinking that it was “time to go.” And yet I still stood there another moment or two because it just didn’t seem real. I was breathing the smoke but didn’t actually see the flames, so there was a false sense of security that felt like it was just a precaution and the fire probably wouldn’t come this far…

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Kayaks and other items were strewn all over the shore. People had put their chairs, boats, and other items that they could not pack out with them down by the shore in hopes that it would be ok. The wheels you see in this picture are used for docks. They help to carry the weight of the dock as it is moved in and out of the water.

You can see in my pictures where the water line was when the fire started, where the water line was when we got the most ash, and where the water is now. We anticipate that the water level will go down even further as fire crews use it for their helicopters and trucks. It may also evaporate from the heat. When we were there the air was very humid although everything else was fairly dry.

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