Between one thing and another (including some more sprinkles and thunder/lightning risks after the big rain Tuesday night), it took me three days to get out to Spring Creek Basin to check on the state of things. Only parts of the arroyos – Spring Creek above – were still damp, and this isn’t even close to as rearranged as I’ve seen Spring Creek and this crossing after a big rain over Spring Creek Basin. I’ve been turning the valve to one trough on and off manually because part of the float is broken, and I hope to report soon that we’ve fixed that. Fortunately, there’s plenty of water in the tanks to fill the trough pretty quickly (good pressure).
And kicking right on the heels of that encouraging news, some really awful news again: One of the two firefighters injured when Emily Barker, Nick Hutcherson and Sydney Watson were killed fighting the Knowles Fire, which merged into the Snyder Fire, has died. Nathan Matthews, 43, from Nebraska, died Friday. No details are being released about the second injured firefighter to protect the privacy of that person and their family. Prayers are with them all, along with the family of Nicholas Dale, the Canadian pilot killed while fighting the Gold Mountain Fire near Ouray.
The Ferris Fire is thankfully 97 percent contained, and progress continues with suppression repair work, especially along roads affected by the fire.
Spring Creek Basin Mustangs 
Firefighters- ❤️🙏
This is such sad news, TJ. I had hoped all those hospitalized firefighters from the Knowles / Sydney would recover from their injuries. So sorry to hear this. We are grateful that the Ferris fire is pretty much overwith, except for the sorrow in processing the catastrophic losses. We are so thankful that no one was killed or badly injured fighting this thing. That familiar and often problematic crossing DOES look pretty tame compared to its condition after other rain events! Love those gentle mustang faces staring back at me. ❤️