On Sunday morning (8-26-07) ElfinForest in northern San DiegoCounty
had the honor of having Hurricane Dean visit on his way off the continent.
Needless to say by the time Dean came through it was mere remains of the
monster it once was. However, that did not stop Dean from causing all
kinds of trouble in parched southern California.
The evening prior to Dean’s visit I hosted a benefit
for the Escondido Creek Conservancy with over 120 people here at the Lazy J
Ranch. When I fell asleep at 2 a.m., exhausted and with out updated
weather the last thing I thought I would wake up to was thunder and
lightening. But at 6 am (Dean was cruel to the end) I was rudely awakened
by thunder and lightening. Because of the drought and thousands of acres
of wilted chaparral that surround the ranch I was up instantly with binoculars
searching for any sign of a lighting strike. We were lucky as all the
strikes were east of us and did not cause any major fires. We did get rain,
blessed, wet rain.
Here at the ranch we got one half and inch over several
hours. I watched it come down the Questhaven canyon north east of
me. The neighbors in the canyon said it sounded like a freight train barreling
down on them. The far eastern end of the Escondido Creek water shed got
up to 2 inches in a very short time. This caused a flash flood not seen
in decades in the creek.
In many places the creek flooded over 50 feet from its banks
– on each side! The water ran angry and dirty for several hours
bringing all kinds of debris with it. I, of course, was more worried
about the trails – my training trails. How damaged would they be,
would I be able to ride in a day or two, if they were in need of repair how
would that be accomplished? It really looked bad from the ground, I
was sure my favorite trails would be gone forever.
Today I got was able to view the damage from Jazzi’s
back. Drum roll please - can you believe it? Only one small area is
in need of any major repair. And it is removing old cut
bamboo. Yes, some limbs need to be trimmed here and their, yes, the
rocks in the creek are all different. But we got lucky! The only
nasty thing I came across was a very cranky rattle snake who was trying to dry
out along side the trail. The other good news is the rain has lessened
the fire danger for a bit. And, I guess I get to keep training and keep
working towards my first 50 mile ride this fall. Jazzi is not too sure
she really wants to do that!
