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Mailman on the road to Yarnell Arizona and the great Yarnell fire
- Thread starter Mailman
- Start date
From my house, I traveled US 60 NW thru Wittman, Morristown and Wickenburg. Past Wickenburg turn North on Az hwy 89 thru Congress to Yarnell. If you pull up a map on your computer and enlarge it, you’ll see that the road gets really squiggly before Yarnell. Those are the mountain switchbacks going up to the observation point.
PS, I’ll check the Kickstarter!
Great ride and write up and pics Bob.......again....always.....
Good research, and reading your story about the firemen, who lost their lives, is a good reminder that we take their job for granted at times...........We always hear about fires and when they are put out but never hear of the near misses and the logistics surrounding the work that goes into reading the weather pasterns by the days, hours, hour, minutes.... and correlating that and organizing the men on the ground.........
It's not just a country thing is it........firefighters are traveling all over the world helping to control the big ones............Its one of the few organizations i donate to
And i am going to say it..............the Ride thread, (kinda a wast of thread space the way it is set up), should have had the provision for a separate post in the ride thread. Another great story/ride will be lost to the archives again when the ride thread continues to get longer and longer that no one is going to take the time to sift through it to read a couple of good rides posted in it
There said it........
Good research, and reading your story about the firemen, who lost their lives, is a good reminder that we take their job for granted at times...........We always hear about fires and when they are put out but never hear of the near misses and the logistics surrounding the work that goes into reading the weather pasterns by the days, hours, hour, minutes.... and correlating that and organizing the men on the ground.........
It's not just a country thing is it........firefighters are traveling all over the world helping to control the big ones............Its one of the few organizations i donate to
And i am going to say it..............the Ride thread, (kinda a wast of thread space the way it is set up), should have had the provision for a separate post in the ride thread. Another great story/ride will be lost to the archives again when the ride thread continues to get longer and longer that no one is going to take the time to sift through it to read a couple of good rides posted in it
There said it........
Thanks for the nice comments. I didn’t want to write too much about the fire fighters, but I think this is another interesting point. It was a tragic chain of events that led to their deaths. Standard practice is to have a man on high ground acting as a spotter and communicating with the crew.
Failure number 1. The spotters position was over run with fire and he was ordered to evacuate.
Failure number 2. The radios kept breaking up and they lost communication with the crew.
Failure number 3. The fire boss attempted to rescue the crew by driving a truck in to get them, but couldn’t get through the fire.
Failure number 4. A plane loaded with fire retardants was in the air directly over them at the time, but was unaware of the men being trapped below.
Failure number 5. The crew not recognizing that the fire had done a 180 degree shift and turned back on them.
The crew had only one survivor, the spotter who had been ordered to evacuate his position.
Another note. They were all young men in their early 20’s , most with wives and kids. And they were a volunteer unit, which meant that they were not state government employees. When they were killed the state denied their widows and children any survivor benefits. Public outcry eventually won out and the families were taken care of.
As for the ride thread. I will probably continue to use it when I’m out bopping around. And if I do a big ride that has research involved and lots of photos, I may do my own thing. It’s all good.
Failure number 1. The spotters position was over run with fire and he was ordered to evacuate.
Failure number 2. The radios kept breaking up and they lost communication with the crew.
Failure number 3. The fire boss attempted to rescue the crew by driving a truck in to get them, but couldn’t get through the fire.
Failure number 4. A plane loaded with fire retardants was in the air directly over them at the time, but was unaware of the men being trapped below.
Failure number 5. The crew not recognizing that the fire had done a 180 degree shift and turned back on them.
The crew had only one survivor, the spotter who had been ordered to evacuate his position.
Another note. They were all young men in their early 20’s , most with wives and kids. And they were a volunteer unit, which meant that they were not state government employees. When they were killed the state denied their widows and children any survivor benefits. Public outcry eventually won out and the families were taken care of.
As for the ride thread. I will probably continue to use it when I’m out bopping around. And if I do a big ride that has research involved and lots of photos, I may do my own thing. It’s all good.
No it’s actually a very nice road to ride on.
I have to agree with Skull, this should be a separate section of the forum. Somewhere Mailman could have a thread as " Mailmans Southwest USA Phoenix area" and others for their areas. That way if you decided to take a trip you might get some insight about the area you're going to.
Michaelo
650Mick
Loved every bit of it Bob, great read and interesting history to boot. I like the idea of riding for hours to actually arrive in some isolation outpost that even google struggles to find
Keep’em coming
Keep’em coming
I love it when you post these adventures. Pictures and narrative are excellent, and destinations to dream about.
Thanks Bob.
Thanks Bob.
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