Over the weekend a couple of us - Tom Morrison, Rafael Ramirez, Debbie Hodge and I - did a few hours on the Sonoita Training hill, and then decided to check out Miller since the Carr road has opened.

The fire damage was failry limited down low. There was a large burnt-out area along highway 92 between the Mesquite Tree restaurant and the LZ and the burnt smell was very intense there. The LZ itself was ok. Of course, several businesses burned down, including Nick's Bar.

The road up the campgrounds was in excellent condition, the best I've ever seen it. As we drove up the hill, the fire damage got worse above about half way up, with more and larger burnt-out areas. It looks like they were able to save the forest in the immediate vicinity of the campgrounds, but outside of that there was a lot of burned area.

Above the USFS gate to launch things got much worse. Our road has a lot of erosion damage and one spot near the launches is especially bad. I think we can probably manage with hand tools and a few days' of work, but in the meantime be prepared for a little very difficult 4wd.

The top of the reefs where the launches are is totally burned out. Much of the vegetation is killed to the ground, although some of the oak scrub is starting to throw shoots. A few larger pines survived because the trunks burned but the growth at the top survived. But it's very barren up there right now, and will be for a while.

The southeast launch looks fine. A little material has washed off but it's completely usable. The brush that was growing in front of the launch is now gone, so airflow might be a little less turbulent.

The north and east launches are ok, and all of the growth around and between them has burned off. Nothing but dead, standing trunks remain. We discussed the possibility of widening the two launches or even merging them together to form one wide launch. No idea if USFS permission would be required to remove the remaining dead material.

Anyway, other than looking like a moonscape and being a little harder to get to, the launches are accessible and usable.

I'll post photos when I get a little more time.

John