While on the flatter portion of the early part of the trail (that unknowingly at the beginning is 15 mile long in a loop) we were walking by many burned out areas from the 2004 fire season. Kate points out some of the burned trees. As an aside, I tried to take my sister, Stella, out to this trail last year around the time of the fire, but luckily the road had been closed off since the fires were in the area. I did not know that the location of one of the fires was on this trail.