THE DESTRUCTION FROM THE "EL DORADO FIRE" LAST MONTH

 The fire was in Oak Glen a popular Apple Farming area with a little village and lots of small ranches and apple farms.  People go up there this time of year for apple picking.  It's a quaint beautiful little area.

The first photo is a picture of the park beyond those gates where a couple had a "gender reveal" party by lighting a smoke bomb type thing that puts out blue or pink smoke for the gender.  This sparked a fire that quickly ran up into the mountains .  This couple must feel terrible that their gender reveal party caused a fire like this.

(Laura thought u would like to see it )   

 We went up yesterday to this area  to see how it looked.  The fire burned a total of about 25,000 acres and only four homes - So that is good news, although sad for the loss of 4 homes.  

The Bobcat fire on the other hand, a huge fire closer to Los Angeles in the San Gabriel Mountain area burned 90, 000 plus acres.  

We haven't had our typical Santa Ana winds here in our mountains so that's been so nice not to have to worry about fires around here.

A SUNDAY - DIFFERENT DAY DIFFERENT LAKE

 Walked along the trail by  water over at Lake Arrowhead.  It's always a treat when autumn arrives in the mountains.  Of course, nothing like the northwest, the Sierras, and  back east which I can spend hours looking on instagram for  fall colors in Vermont and other places.  But, we aren't at the peak yet - still have almost a month to go before some of the best colors show up in November. 

Mainly the colors we are getting are from aspens, black oaks, scarlet oaks,  sweet gums (liquid amber), dogwoods, and some redbuds.  November according to last years photos is when it really starts to get colorful.    

There are still several boats in the docks but a lot have been stored until next spring.  

THOMPSON CREEK TRAIL

 A couple days ago we met our son and walked this trail - it's a beautiful trail - around 3 to 4 miles out and back.  If you keep going you can get to what is called Claremont Loop and go up into the mountains - it's a more rigorous walk and one we've only done one time.  We would probably have done it more than once but then we moved to the mountains and can find plenty of rigorous hikes up here.

It was a beautiful day and I've only found out recently from my son that this trail is considered haunted.  hmmm.  Maybe I need to go at night for a l ittle excitement.  

The beginning of the trial you walk by a few houses or in some case a horse ranch.  The two guys in the distance are my husband , the mountain hippy with the ponytail and my youngest son.  I lagged behind constantly taking photos.  

MORNING WALK AROUND OUR LAKE

 It was so cool this morning I headed out early and there were more people out walking in the morning than I usually see in the afternoon.  Our temps have come down nicely and  our nights are getting almost cold.  

The fountains will probably run until we get down to freezing temps - not sure  though because i don't remember what month they turn them off.  There was a new duck in the lake but I don't know what it is.

  I collected a few leaves but so far the only thing that is really showing their fall colors are the dogwoods and their reddish seed pods and black oak trees.   I find more fall colors at a little higher altitude up in Lake Arrowhead and also Big Bear Lake.  Being at about 5000 feet here it takes a little longer for fall to show up.  I did the banner above with leaves i collected a week or so ago at Lake Arrowhead.

Our lake is a nice walk - about 3 miles if you stay up on the road and go around and less if u are on the shoreline.   There's longer trails elsewhere but anymore I prefer just about an hour of walking and not any longer.

The orange building is  Toni's Mexican Restaurant.  They have a nice outside seating area up top and we've stopped there recently for an appetizer and margaritas - and that was definitely a treat.