2018 December

The first weekend of December we had heard that the stripers were plentiful at our local Lake Skinner, so we took a friend that had been begging to go fishing with us and headed up there for the weekend.  We had a nice time in spite of the cold – and only caught ONE fish =(

 

Then, as luck would have it, Mother Nature had other plans for us for the upcoming winter season.  It was less than six months after the Holy Fire when She decided that normally drought-ridden southern California should have the wettest winter in recent memory.  Thanks to the massive devastation caused by the fire in the Cleveland National Forest that sits just above our resort, those rains brought massive debris flows, mud flows, and just lots of water in places where we really did not need water!!

A friend of ours took this video during the debris flow.  Sorry I could not rotate it!

Joel and I had the dubious distinction of being the first residents to lose significant property during what turned out to be the first of three major debris flows.  Our backyard shed – including 5 of our 8 very expensive bikes – broke off its foundation of cinder blocks and was swept downstream.  Several friends told us that they saw it “floating” completely intact for quite a distance before it hit rocks, trees and other debris and broke completely apart, spewing the contents and many chunks of itself in just about every place imaginable throughout the creek bed.  Most of the items sunk into the mud, never to be seen again. But we did find some remnants of various articles only partially buried when we took a few walks along the creek.  We also found a dead horse (numerous were drowned from surrounding ranches) a dead snake and the carcass of a rabbit, after the local wildlife had made a snack of it.

Cleanup was a huge job, but as usual our entire community was there to help

Joel had actually been on site when the flow started and almost was caught on a bridge that was swept away moments after he would have been on it had the general manager not chased him away.  The few friends that stayed behind, ignoring the evacuation orders, said the rumbling and roaring of the debris washing by was deafening and scary as hell.  Another friend videotaped some of the flow.  It is absolutely unbelievable the power of water and mud!!  What it took Mother Nature less than 10 minutes to deposit in our yard took US almost a week to remove.  The destruction and damage to the club grounds was immense and frightening!

Some of our neighbors and friends had it worse than we did

These picnic tables in our dry camping area show just how deep the mud was in places

Top left – Tennis courts #5 & 6; Top right – Two cars pushed together by the mud         Bottom – Some of the rocks and debris deposited at the lowest level of the resort

Left – The creek before the first debris flow

Right – Joel walking the “new” creek bed looking for any of our belongings that might have survived intact.  Look how much wider the “new” creek is compared to the “old” creek bed!