Friday, December 23, 2022

Ken’s Story about the Mountain Lion

 Ken’s Story about the Mountain Lion

    The fire started a ½ block from my house… I wasn’t there but my son and housemate were told to immediately evacuate and take nothing, as the firefighters surrounded the street of my ¼ acre tinderbox corner property to fight the fire licking against the back of the houses across the street, which faced the Ashland Pond.   

    Many theories of how the fire started, some dependent on political persuasion. Was it arson? ANTIFA? Someone smoking? Homeless? Nobody knows. But then there was also this, the month before a 22-year old woman was found drowned in the Ashland Pond under sad and seemingly self-inflicted and confused circumstances (https://www.mailtribune.com/crime-courts-and-emergencies/2020/08/04/missing-ashland-woman-found-dead/). Which created a definite, perhaps ghostly ‘feeling’ in respect to this beautiful Pond. The night before the blaze I was walking around, and the wind was blowing and it felt very dry… and ominous.

    The day after the blaze I was already back in the house and the fire had swept down the bike path and the Greenway and into the destruction of the communities further down. The initial response of the Ashland Fire Department had saved us, but the devastation gathered steam and rolled on down from here. The next day, and for days to come, the fire fighters and local people were still putting out the embers with hoses around the pond. The inside of the trees glowed for days, deep orange fires still within. An apocalyptic Mordor-like feeling permeated the environment.  

    I decided anyway to ride my bike along the bike path and see what it looked like. Earlier that 2nd day it was too smoky to be healthy. Later in the early evening I decided to go. There was some initial blockage, but nothing had really been codified into a stern “DO NOT” warning signs yet, it was still too early. I was alone on the path and after a while I had a fairly clear ride….and then I saw the mountain lion.

    I jumped off and was very dazzled at first, it seemed all to surreal. I snapped a photo. It seems to me to capture the spirit of that moment, the sky…. our lifestyle and patterns creating the circumstance for perhaps just the beginning chapters of what we will have to deal with because of our self-created Climate Change. That isn’t just about us - but about the creatures that take the hit due to us. 


  I had no idea that these large cats, these animals were in our midst, down here away from the forest. 

    They hide from us well. How strange it should die in this matter lying next to the bike path.
  
   
      

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Intro

     The purpose of this blog is to document the history of the Almeda Fire. To protect contributors, we have intentionally not allowed comm...