I visited my sister and her boyfriend out in Silverado Canyon. Yes, the one that almost burned last month. It was REAL close. The canyon proper has never burned in recorded history. They definitely dodged a bullet.

I did some hiking in the area behind their house, not in the burn area, though. Unfortunately it was so hazy I couldn't see the burn area. The only obvious evidence was a fire break along the ridge across the canyon from where I was. Beyond that all I could tell on the further ridges was where there no silhouette of trees along those slopes that burned.

This particular hike was pretty tough. It's a very steep slope. My GPS told me I only went about 2100 feet distance, but I climbed 1000 feet in that span. Some parts were steeper than 45 degrees.

I need to find some information about the geologic history of those mountains. From the hill top I was on I could see a lot of layering in one area. Along the way up I also passed a small rock face that had an obvious fault or fracture in it, with an offset of at least 1 foot.

Oh yeah, I had some good turkey too!

Brian