Scamping, an epic RV trip:

[AC0GV]

SCAMPING, AN EPIC RV TRIP:
IN THE YEAR OF THE WILDFIRES
(and COVID 19) 3829.1 miles
When asked by friends if they should get an RV, I have always told them that the RV life is not for everyone. If you need everything to go your way and cannot solve problems the RV lifestyle is not for you.
It is important to have a plan but be flexible. Allow for side trips, you will see things along the way that take an hour or two every time you stop. This year I jogged to Little big horn on an unplanned day, If I had not, I would have missed it and it is a day I will always remember. I then backtracked to Pompei’s Pillar only to find access blocked.
It is also important to have a backup plan and sometimes that plan needs to be “Give up, go home, get tested for covid 19”. I drove 830 miles in 21 hours one day to get out of the smoke and fire.
I drove past a LOT of things that I wanted to do in South Dakota, so next year it is going to be a week-long South Dakota trip.
I would make a big point that the media is not covering the wildfires. There is a lot more going on than is being reported. Many are arson fires, the death total will be far for that thirty, and many more will suffer from smoke inhalation.
My Covid 19 test was negative and what I probably have is smoke inhalation symptoms. If this is what it is like not to have Covid, I sure do not want it.

And a big thank you to the Cody Walmart, I told them I was sick and could not go on, They never gave me permission to park, but they never asked me to leave.

[shrimpscampi]

It does sound like an EPIC trip indeed! I'm glad you're COVID negative and safe. I live on the East Coast and we've been watching the news coverage of the fires. The situation is horrific and a complete tragedy for people, animals, property, etc. If they are being under-reported, that is even more scary.

[Glenn Baglo]

Not sure how you know what the media is not telling you about the fires. What is your source?

[AC0GV]

Originally Posted by shrimpscampi

. If they are being under-reported, that is even more scary.

Family says 13-year-old boy died in Oregon wildfire trying to save grandmother
LYONS, Ore. -- The fire was 15 miles away, so the Oregon family went to sleep but planned to leave soon.

On Monday evening, Angela Mosso had packed a few things for the family to take with them and her husband, Chris Tofte, drove to town to borrow a friend's trailer to carry the family, their dog and their belongings.

But as family members slept, the Beachie Creek Fire bore down, the Statesman Journal reported. Eventually, it reached their house, turning a night of calm preparation into harrowing loss.

Gov. Kate Brown said more than 40,000 Oregonians have been evacuated from their homes as two large windblown wildfires rage across the Pacific Northwest. About 500,000 people are in different levels of evacuation zones, either having been told to leave or to prepare to do so. Dozens of people are reported missing and at least six fatalities have been reported.

Thirteen-year-old Wyatt Tofte of Lyons, Oregon, and his grandmother Peggy Mosso, 71, are among them. They died trying to escape the fire that engulfed their home Tuesday morning.

The three initially escaped the house with their dog and three cats, setting out in one of the family's cars. But they didn't make it far.

Lonnie Bertalotto, Angela's brother, thinks the tires melted and the car caught fire. As the flames grew around them, Angela Mosso realized she had to save Wyatt. She told him to run for it with the dog.

She also realized that if she wanted to survive, she had no choice but to leave behind her mother, Peggy Mosso, whose remains were identified by the Marion County Sheriff's Office on Friday. She had a broken knee that was to be operated on in a few days, Bertalotto said Friday.

Angela Mosso walked nearly three miles on the hot asphalt. Sometime around 4 a.m., Chris Tofte returned with the trailer, driving through a blockade that separated him from the inferno and his family.

As Tofte struggled to navigate the dark, smokey road, he almost ran over a barefoot woman in her underwear with charred hair and a blackened mouth. Tofte helped her into his car, telling her that he was looking for his wife and son.

She told him: "I am your wife."

Once in the car, Tofte turned around and sped back toward the blockade. He left his wife of 24 years with paramedics and turned back to find his son, Wyatt.

But at that point, the fires had spread even farther. Tofte couldn't make it as far as he did the first time, so he searched for his son the next day and night.

On social media, friends and relatives posted photos of Wyatt and thousands of people shared his image.

Finally, on Wednesday, Tofte spoke with sheriff's deputies from Marion County. They said Wyatt was found behind the wheel of the family's vehicle back at the property with his dog Duke on his lap. Peggy Mosso's remains were also found in the vehicle.

[Glenn Baglo]

Originally Posted by AC0GV

Family says 13-year-old boy died in Oregon wildfire trying to save grandmother

Read it in the newspaper and heard it on TV and radio.

[shrimpscampi]

That is so heartbreaking.

[AC0GV]

Originally Posted by Glenn Baglo

Not sure how you know what the media is not telling you about the fires. What is your source?

Listening to the small market radio stations that were reporting the news.
Problem with searching is that you need to know about it before you can search for it and then you WILL not have internet. The night that I was at a roadblock in Idaho, there was no phone service at all. Note also that some phones have priority in an emergency and others are blocked. At one point when I tried to send an email to a loved one I got a message of "you can not send email at this time".

[Glenn Baglo]

Originally Posted by AC0GV

Listening to the small market radio stations that were reporting the news.

Well, those are media. If you get your news from FOX or CNN, you'll get nothing but Trump.

[AC0GV]

Originally Posted by Glenn Baglo

Well, those are media. If you get your news from FOX or CNN, you'll get nothing but Trump.

After twenty years of broadcasting and hearing reports of events that we were at it made me think the reporter was there on a different day then I was.

[Donna D.]

IF you want to know anything about the wildfires in California, Oregon or Washington just ask. There are plenty of members of this forum that live in these states and we can give you accurate info.

THIS is the fire lines for the four biggest wildfires in Oregon at the present time:

The Archie Fire, outside the Roseburg/Glide area: https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/closures/7176/?

The Holiday Farm Fire, east of Eugene: https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/7170/

The Beachie Creek fire, east of Salem: https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/7001/

The Riverside Fire, south of Portland: https://ccgis-mapservice.maps.arcgis...75a5ccf1c84b30

I live in Portland, Oregon. I haven't left my house for seven days, except to walk out to the mailbox. Our AQI (Air Quality Index) is in the 400 range. (Currently Yuma, AZ is 72 and considered Moderate).


SORRY KENNETH for taking your thread off in a different direction

[Ttocs M]

Using national news sources is NOT a good way to keep updated for fire information as there is a time delay and editing of information to fit the national news broadcast time.

Here are Public Fire Information Websites:
http://inciweb.nwcg.gov.
https://www.nifc.gov/
https://egp.nwcg.gov/egp.
https://wildfiresnearme.wfmrda.com.

This site might be good in trip planning and during a trip, regardless of what state you're traveling in:
https://www.fs.usda.gov/science-tech...re/information

I was in evacuation level 1 (plan)and monitored the wildfire official news reports and the local news for updates. Fortunately my zone did not go to higher levels.

Here are the evacuation levels: https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE...prd3852749.pdf

Another lesson for us all: if you can find one, pack an N-95 mask for your trips...you never know when you might need it.

[KateJoy]

My husband and I had been in the Mt Hood area most of them summer and evacuated Monday September 7th to Clackamas only to have to evacuate again the next day. We were only a mile from a large industrial fire that threatened the hotel we went to.

One of the most frightening aspects of all this has been the sheer amount of misinformation (conspiracy theories) locals have been spreading. There is no evidence that the large wildfires in that area (Beachie Creek and Riverside) were sparked by arsonists, though some arsonists in Portland have been arrested - none of the fires they started spread and we’re all tamped our almost immediately because they were spotted quickly. The fires that have become infernos spread in isolated deeply forested areas before they came close to threatening communities.

These fires (along with the White River Fire up near Hood) were sparked by tinder dry conditions, a freak wind storm and dry lightning storms.

There have been roving gangs of armed vigilantes patrolling the area and threatening to kill anyone they don’t recognize in the name of protecting property. Priorities are truly backwards in the rural parts of Oregon. It’s unlikely husband and I will go back any time soon. Between the rural gun ammosexuals and the ongoing violence in Portland, let the state burn down for all we care.

[KateJoy]

In addition to inciweb and other resources listed above, the best resource we found for the Riverside and Beachie Creek fires was Clackamas Co Sherrif’s Dept Twitter feed for timely and accurate information about the fires, evacuation, and crime in the area.

https://mobile.twitter.com/ClackCoSheriff

[Ghos]

Originally Posted by KateJoy

My husband and I had been in the Mt Hood area most of them summer and evacuated Monday September 7th to Clackamas only to have to evacuate again the next day. We were only a mile from a large industrial fire that threatened the hotel we went to.

One of the most frightening aspects of all this has been the sheer amount of misinformation (conspiracy theories) locals have been spreading. There is no evidence that the large wildfires in that area (Beachie Creek and Riverside) were sparked by arsonists, though some arsonists in Portland have been arrested - none of the fires they started spread and we’re all tamped our almost immediately because they were spotted quickly. The fires that have become infernos spread in isolated deeply forested areas before they came close to threatening communities.

These fires (along with the White River Fire up near Hood) were sparked by tinder dry conditions, a freak wind storm and dry lightning storms.

There have been roving gangs of armed vigilantes patrolling the area and threatening to kill anyone they don’t recognize in the name of protecting property. Priorities are truly backwards in the rural parts of Oregon. It’s unlikely husband and I will go back any time soon. Between the rural gun ammosexuals and the ongoing violence in Portland, let the state burn down for all we care.

Well, the oregonians (including me) care. Every state in America has people like that and is ok if you don’t come back.