That picture shows the fire as being on part of the Lawson Landing property (the street it was shot from would be Tahiti, off of Oceana Dr, there is a dead end turn around on that cliff, the actual 'downtown' is behind the house, to the left). Until a few years ago, the area shown burning was grazed by cattle. Before that, each year hundreds of TONS of sand was hauled away (it's a very fine grained sand and frequently used as sand trap hazards at golf courses, playgrounds or similar, not coarse construction grade sand). In the 70's it was a popular place to learn how to hang glide (why did they ALWAYS crash their kites at the TOP of the dunes, meaning everything had to be packed up to the crash site to haul their sorry broken butts down?). The wind almost never stops and fog is ever present, anything above 70 F is considered a warm day, any wind under 30 MPH is just a breeze.
However you can thank the invasive whiners who took the family to court, who told the Lawsons what they would be allowed to do with and on their own property (no more sand sales for one). The end result was the much of the PRIVATE property is now 'protected habitat' (nothing lives there) by fencing it off with no access; which also reduced the camping area (dry camping, water and restrooms available, prices went up, duh). Further, the clam digging was now limited (been popular and active for 100+ years, still fertile diggings that never ran out but THAT doesn't matter). The grazing was also stopped and the result is that now there was a fire of a size not seen in decades there in the taller grass (largest I saw was under a quarter acre)... so no winners. It's protected, yet still gone. Our nanny system of justice in it's ultimate stupidity. What will hold the sand in place now whiners?
While it's (obviously) at sea level, rain has little impact there since the sand drains extremely well (it does get muddy for a few hours after heavy rains along the shore), so drought has little effect there (fog washes in and soaks everything down, often, frequently, commonly and nearly daily; that is the primary precip for much of the year).
It's also an access point for a few mile hike to one of the best abalone grounds in the state. No, I won't tell you where or how. Been there, done that, they were delicious, I gave the shells away. So are the local oysters (another sad story, another family business shut down after 60+ years)... BBQ'ed with garlic butter, mmmm.
After so many years stationed there, if one has to ask why I have little tolerance for fog and wind, why I prefer warm and sunshine... now you know (my time at Point Reyes added to that). But I should say, the locals are mostly ranchers and farmers and are some of the FINEST folks I've ever had the pleasure of being around. While I tried to serve them, they taught me valuable life lessons and I'm forever grateful. Some of their kids were hired as seasonal employees and some of those became my bosses... and I didn't mind a bit, they're good folks.
Rick
On 4/16/2016 3:20 PM, Kim Noyes kimnoyes@gmail.com [californiadisasters] wrote:
Interesting.... and most of the members here don't know that by a bizarre bit of fate and coincidence, my mom and I noticed a strike team of Marin County CDF engines staying at the Gold Country Inn in Angels Camp during the days following the advent of the Old Gulch Fire in August, 1992... of which you were a member and a captain of an engine company stationed from over in that part of Marin County.BTW, here is an image of that fire last night: http://eclecticarcania.blogspot.com/2016/04/picture-of-day-fire-of-ill-omen.html
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