Sunday ride, part 1.

We drove a 150 mile loop yesterday. We had snow, fog, rain and sun. As we turned out of our drive the snow was pretty. The first cool spot was the local golf course. Pike Nat'l Forest is all around us. The next thing we knew we were driving for a long time thru what was the sad remains of a very large fire. We finally decided it was the Hayman fire. The largest fire in Colorado history. It is very ugly. I remember that fire. There was a depressed female forest service employee that was upset about a dear john letter so she decided to burn it. Off to Yoga. I joined the gym today!!!!!!

Here's some facts about it:

Burned area 138,114 acres

Ignition source arson

Land use forest, rural

Fatalities 6

Perpetrator(s) Terry Barton

The Hayman Fire was a forest fire that started 95 miles (153 km) southwest of Denver, Colorado and 35 miles (56 km) northwest of Colorado Springs on June 8, 2002, and became the largest fire in the state's recorded history. Hundreds of forestry officials and firefighters fought the fast-moving inferno, which caused nearly $40 million in damages, burned 133 homes and forced the evacuation of 5,340 people. Smoke could be seen and smelled across the state from Vail, 108 miles (174 km) northwest, to Burlington, 188 miles (303 km) east, and from Broomfield, 120 miles (190 km) north, to Walsenburg, 130 miles (210 km) south. The fire wasn't contained until July 2, 2002 and was finally brought under control on July 18, 2002. The cause of the wildfire was found to be arson.
When then-Governor Bill Owens responded to a reporter’s question following an aerial tour of the fires (“What does it look like up there?”), Owens said “It looks as if all of Colorado is burning today”. Many western slope residents blamed Owens for driving away tourists with the press’s truncated version of the quote (“All of Colorado is burning”).