Happy Father's Day!
Joe Thomas (TA Member and avid hiker) and I hiked to the Tortolita Fire Area this morning. It was an early departure (5:00 AM) to beat the heat. We took the Wild Burro to Alamo Springs Spur to Wild Burro and at the Windmill/Water Tank, we bushwhacked north about a mile to the southern boundary of the Tortolita Fire Area. This is a 14.85 mile roundtrip and took about 5.5 hours.
The southern portion of the Tortolita Fire Area is not as bad we expected. The fire in this location was patchy but the vegetation damage in those areas that were burned is dramatic. We did not see any saguaros impacted by the fire in this area. It is fortunate that the Fire Fighters got this fire under control because the fire could have easily come down into the Wild Burro Wash basin.
The following is a collage of photos taken this morning. You will see photos along the Wild Burro Trail including a fairly large bighorn sheep without horns (aka steer!), windmill/water tank, smoke from Bighorn Fire in the distance and many photos from the Tortolita Fire Area.
We hope to visit the center of the Tortolita Fire Area where the damage may be more extensive. This will require some reconnaissance with OHVs to get us into an area where we can hike to the center of the fire area.
