andrel's Journal: Bullock Fire

I meet my advisor every Tuesday morning, so I'm supposed to spend Monday evenings preparing. Naturally, I instead grabbed my scope and drove out to look at the Bullock Fire raging in the Santa Catalina mountains.

The fire is man-made and quite pretty. The smoke clouds above it were a nice shade of orange, similar to a good sunset. (Not as pretty as a sunset ICBM launch, but still quite pleasant.) The scope turns out to be exactly the right tool. With 20x magnification it offers a much better view than my 8x binocs, and the tripod holds it steady. I tried zooming to higher magnification but quickly went back to 20x. I could clearly see flames in the treetops, and watched the fire evolve for about 20 minutes.

I haven't yet smelled this fire, probably because it is a mile higher than Tucson and mostly on the other side of the Catalinas. The smell of a forest fire can be very scary, especially if it wakes you up in the middle of the night. This happened to me a few years ago in New Mexico. (I wasn't there during the big fire that burned much of the town; this was the summer before.)

The DJ's on KUAT have been warning all day they may suddenly go off the air if the fire reaches their transmitter tower on Mt. Bigelow. I couldn't see the tower, possibly because it was hidden behind the flames. (I'm not certain the tower is visible from Tucson. I've never noticed it in the past; the towers on Radio Ridge are further to the NW.) They're still on the air, so I don't think the tower has burned. Steward's got several scopes on Bigelow as do the planetary defenders.

On the drive out I saw several nighthawks. While scoping I heard Common Poorwill, Lesser Nighthawk, and Elf Owl. On the way back I saw the highlight of the evening, a family of four Javelinas crossing the road. These are the first wild Javelinas I've ever seen!