© 2014, Theresa Mae Funk, all rights reserved.

We first noticed the hell fire cloud on Sunday, September 14th during our final round of the Gold Pan Open Disc Golf Tournament at Pioneer Park in Somerset, located approximately 15 miles to the south of Pollock Pines, California.   The Sierra Nevada foothills are a tinder box of heavy timber and steep terrain, something that the jack-ass arsonist who deliberately set this fire knew would make containment nearly impossible.  The latest update indicates that the 73, 184 acre fire is 10% contained.

As we made the 57 mile drive home to Sacramento County, I kept looking back at the huge plume of smoke, silently praying for a miracle deluge of rain that still, has not arrived.

Twenty minutes and 30 miles later, the hell fire cloud ominously looms over the landscape that inspires much of my original works on paper,

and I take one last passing shot of this day’s fiery grief.

© 2014, Theresa Mae Funk, all rights reserved.