On September 4th, a fire started in the northern part of the Texas Lost Pines, eventually burning almost 35,000 acres and destroying 1,500 homes. In the middle of that fire was our property and Camp Wilderness Ridge. Robyn, Aaron and the boys were at the cabin for the Labor Day weekend. A friend drove up the road and gave them warning to evacuate immediately. They tossed the boys in the van, leaving behind all of the items they had taken for the long weekend. As they departed, a wall of smoke foretold the damage that was to come. All four structures on the property were completely destroyed, along with everything in them. Our goose-neck trailer survived the fire untouched. 50-80% of the forest was destroyed – we will not know for some time which trees will survive the heat and flames after two years of drought. We gained access to the property on September 13th and these pictures are from that visit. We were unable to salvage anything usable during the first visit but hope that there will be some hand-tools and other items found on future visits.
Camp Wilderness Ridge suffered a similar fate, losing most of their structures and a large part of their forest. They are planning to continue the ministry, rebuilding if there is adequate forest saved, relocating if not.
