On trying to get out of town

June 10, 2012

"Oh, my bags are packed, I'm ready to go ..."

I'm not exactly leaving on a jet plane, either literally or figuratively, but I'm having trouble actually getting out the door. There are two factors causing the delay.

The first is the worn out chainring on my bike. I already mentioned that in discussion of my bike. I didn't actually discover it until I replaced the chain and cassette, which I had delayed until last minute. Despite the plethora of bike shops in town, I couldn't find a 36 tooth chainring locally, and asked a shop to order it in. So in a sense I'm out of sequence here. The chainring hasn't actually been replaced yet.

The second factor causing delay is the High Park Fire. It's burning fast and furious just outside of Fort Collins. The smoke is quite bad and there are quite a few road closures. I thought I would leave town on 287. Route 287 is not directly in the burn area, but passes close by, and a section is closed right now due to poor visibility from the smoke. Given the fire location, there really isn't a good alternative unless I head east first, which I'd rather not do. And I don't want to breathe in all the smoke as I huff and puff up the hills! As I write this, the fire is 0% contained.

From my front door...The High Park fire on the first day, June 9, less than 200 acres burning. The fire is to the west of town. I live on the east side.

The same view on June 13, the 5th day of the fire, now estimated at 46,600 acres. Yes, there are clouds in addition to the smoke, but most of that is smoke.

Update Saturday 6/16/12

The fire is still raging west of Fort Collins. It's up over 54,000 acres, and a staggering 181 homes are reported lost so far. Hats off to the firefighters and crew who are working so hard to control it! My thoughts and best wishes certainly go out to the evacuees. The east side of the fire, closest to town, is under control, but the west and north is still spreading. The air quality seems to have improved substantially, although that may be the result of a shift in the winds.

My replacement chainring came in yesterday afternoon, and I had the shop install it. It was a good reminder of why I shouldn't (and usually don't) take my bike into the local shops. I just wanted their muscle for loosening the chainring bolts, which had been a challenge on the smallest chainring. I got a bit of a lecture about mixing incompatible groups and a suggestion that I change my front derailleur!

Today I rode out to Bingham Hill to take a look at the burned area, and also to check out the shifting on my bike and listen to the lack of noise from the new chainring. Bike-wise, everything is okay. The hills facing Bingham Hill are burnt, but not actively burning, although a few puffs of smoke were visible from that area.

With everything finally coming together, I'm planning to leave tomorrow.

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