Along the Timberline: and the thunder rolls...

A summer thunderstorm materializes over the Oregon desert. A bolt of electricity connects heaven and earth igniting a lone mahogany tree into a blaze of fire...and the thunder rolls. The heavy winds intensify the flames and pushes the wake of destruction at high speeds across the desertscape incenerating everything in it's path.

Hundreds of thousands of acres of pristine mountains of giant sagebrush and bitterbrush decimated. Grass prairies intermixed with aspen and mahogany where Oregon's largest flocks of sage grouse performed their annual leks are now gone. All that is left behind are rocks and a heavy layer of sterile ash. The fire was hot. I stand on a ridge looking for miles at the charred landscape. Large dust storms whip the ash across the empty valley, I feel like I am on jupiter in search of any form of life.

Months ago Emily and I were elated to discover she had drawn a tag for one of Oregon's coveted mule deer tags. It isn't that the unit harbors Arizona strip-type bucks, the hunt is special because of the remote beauty of the mountain and the limited tags for the unit that allow a few bucks to get some age. Now were not sure how the hunt will be.

To discover that the majority of the unit had burned in two major fires this summer totaling 1.5 million acres is overly-devastating. Not knowing what to expect, I went and made a scouting trip with good friend Chuck, who as well drew the tag.

We were relieved to see green patches of vegetation within the ashes that escaped the fire providing water and feed. We were relieved to see some of the best wildlife habitat on the mountain survive the fire. We were relieved to see a decent number of deer, sage grouse, antelope, and other wildlife on the mountain.