This year we had to deal with two major fires: the Bridge Fire in\u00a0 the Wrightwood area and the more recent Eaton Fire. Both fires\u00a0 have closed major sections of the racecourse until December 31,\u00a0 2025.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The Bridge Fire started on September 8, 2024 and burned\u00a0 through November 24, 2024. It burned 56,030 acres in the\u00a0 Wrightwood (WW) area that included both Inspiration Point (IP) and\u00a0 Vincent Gap (VG) and Grassy Hollow and other Campground area.\u00a0 During the peak of the fire, WW residents were required to evacuate\u00a0 their homes in WW. It was that serious. USFS issued a Bridge Fire\u00a0 Closure Order that will keep the ANF burn area closed until\u00a0 December 31, 2025.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n However, Hwy 2 has been cleared from WW to both IP and VG\u00a0 to provide access into the burn area to repair the trails and\u00a0 campground that was damaged in the burn area. Hwy 2 will remain\u00a0 closed in the burn area from Big Pines (near WW) to Islip Saddle (IS) while trails and campgrounds are being repaired and the General\u00a0 Public would only interfere with the on-going campground repairs.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Hwy 2 is closed between VG and IS from previous winter storm\u00a0 damage and that repair process has been going on for several years\u00a0 now.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The Eaton Fire started January 7, 2025 in the Eaton Canyon\u00a0 area just North of Altadena, fueled by extremely strong Santa Ana\u00a0 Winds and very dry vegetation due lack of rain in the greater Los\u00a0 Angeles Area. The\u00a0 fire spread rapidly ultimately burning over 14,000 acres in several\u00a0 weeks. Tragically, the fire resulted in 17 fatalities and destroyed over\u00a0 9000 structures, making it one of the most destructive wildfires in\u00a0 California history. I have lived in San Gabriel Valley a long time and\u00a0 never seen such a destructive fire.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n AC100 Trails from Redbox to the Finish were severely damaged.\u00a0 However, the major damage to the trails was not caused by the fire\u00a0 but the heavy rains that followed the fire that washed lot of the\u00a0 \u201cgroundcover\u201d abovr the trails leaving lots of bare rocks. The fire\u00a0 burned a lot of the \u201cgroundcover\u201d above the trails that previously\u00a0 kept the rain from flooding the trails. The Eaton Fire area of the ANF\u00a0 will be closed until December 31, 2025.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Trails from Redbox to the Finish in the Eaton Fire Area of the\u00a0 ANF are severely damaged and chances that we will get access o\u00a0 that area for this year\u2019s race is remote.\u00a0<\/span>However, there may have a chance to access the PCT Trail in\u00a0 the Bridge Fire Burn area from Wrightwood to Inspiration Point and\u00a0<\/span>on to Vincent Gap which is currently closed. The gate on Hwy 2 is\u00a0 currently locked at Big Pines (near WW) as well as the gates at VG\u00a0 and IS.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Several weeks ago, I submitted my application for 2025 AC100\u00a0 as a Out n Back race, from WW to SC (50miles) and back to WW with\u00a0 the USFS. Similar to the Out n Back AC100 we had in 2022.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n However, since the Bridge Fire area is still closed to the public\u00a0 (and USFS wants to keep it closed to the public), I proposed to the\u00a0 USFS, to put the 2025 AC100 and keep the area closed to the public\u00a0 by not allowing crews or the public access to both IP and VG and\u00a0 just allow IP and VG volunteers access to put on their aid station and\u00a0 runners to use the PCT trails.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The PCT Trails were not as heavily damaged as the Eaton Fire area trails, because they did not get the heavy rainfall in the Bridge\u00a0 Fire Area as they did in the Eaton Fire Area.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Apparently, the big damage to the trails is caused by following\u00a0 heavy rainfall that washes the topsoil of the trails. That is what\u00a0 happened the Mt Wilson Trail Race trails (which is cancelled this\u00a0 year) after the Eaton Fire and that is what happened the trails in the\u00a0 deep canyons below Chantry after the Bobcat Fire. A lot the trail in\u00a0 the Chantry area was washed away by the winter rainfall because a\u00a0 lot of the \u201cgroundcover\u201d above the trails was burned away and there\u00a0 was much \u201cground cover\u201d to hold the rain, which flooded and\u00a0 washed away all of the trail topsoil.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n USFS is currently considering my application to put an Out n\u00a0 Back Race thru the Bridge Fire Closed Area this year, avoiding the\u00a0 Eaton Fire Closed Area. The good news is they haven\u2019t said no, yet. I\u00a0 think, there may be a \u201cremote\u201d chance that we may be able to put an\u00a0 a Out n Back Race \u201cin a closed area\u201d since we successfully did it in\u00a0 2022.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n If we have another Out n Back like we had in 2022, attached is\u00a0 the Cutof Table we used with a 36 hour race for those who might not\u00a0 be familiar with that race format. We will probably used something\u00a0 like this, if the USFS allows it. I am just trying to avoid a\u00a0 cancellation.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Dealing with wildfires is the New Normal if you are going to put\u00a0 on a race in the ANF. First the Bobcat Fire in 2021 (and all the\u00a0 problems it brought that we are still dealing with), Bridge Fire in 2024\u00a0 and now the Eaton Fire in 2025.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Conocido<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" INTRODUCTION\u00a0 This year we had to deal with two major fires: the Bridge Fire in\u00a0 the Wrightwood area and the more recent Eaton Fire. Both fires\u00a0 have closed major sections of the racecourse until December 31,\u00a0 2025.\u00a0 The Bridge Fire started on September 8, 2024 and burned\u00a0 through November 24, 2024. It burned 56,030 acres […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20213,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ac100.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/mtw2.webp?fit=1920%2C1080&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ac100.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ac100.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ac100.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ac100.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ac100.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20211"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/ac100.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20211\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20222,"href":"https:\/\/ac100.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20211\/revisions\/20222"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ac100.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ac100.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ac100.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ac100.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}DISCUSSION\u00a0<\/b><\/h2>\n
CONCLUSION\u00a0<\/b><\/h2>\n