Sunfish Pond Fire (Warren Cnty NJ) from the air

I wrote about the Sunfish Pond Fire that burned on the Appalachian Ridge north of the Delaware Water Gap in NJ here and here. To review the Sunfish Pond Fire was first reported by a hiker on the afternoon of August 6. In a steep, remote, and inaccessible area, the NJ Forest Fire Service contained the fire on August 10. It rained the night of August 12.

On Friday August 13, I went for scenic ride. At the time of the flight, I knew that the fire was already contained, that there were no Temporary Flight Restrictions and/or NOTAMs over the fire area (I don't believe there every were any), and that it had rained the night before. I therefore felt safe asking the pilot, if we could fly over the burn area on top of the Appalachian Ridge. Just so you know, we would not fly over an uncontained wildland fire if there was any chance of air operations in support of ground crews, TFR or no TFR.

A couple of hours after I got home after my flight, I found out that the Sunfish Pond Fire had been declared under control about 30 minutes before we took off.

Back to our flight, the weather that morning was beautiful with minimal winds. The minimal winds made our flight to and over the Ridge fairly easy. And I could take photos without risking getting air sick, something I could not do if it was windy.

We flew past Sunfish Pond because I was thinking about the mileage that I had hiked a few years ago from the Dunnefield Creek Parking area, off of I-80, to Sunfish Pond. The distance I walked was in statue miles, in aviation nautical miles are used. One statute mile equals about .898 nautical miles. Moreover, the distance walked may be a little longer than flying distance. Fortunately, hiking this area and being familiar with the hiking maps of the area meant that I recognized landmarks from the air. So it wasn't to long before we found Sunfish Pond. And once we did, the burn area was easy to spot. I took photos, four of which I am showing you here.

In the first photo with Sunfish Pond at the top of the photo, you will see a lighter patch of vegetation on the right hand side of the photo. I think that is an old burn area. In this photo the camera is pointing more or less due east. The Appalachian Trial is between the new burn and older burn. The ground elevation at Sunfish Pond is around 1,300 ft above sea level.

Here are three more photos that I took that day. Enjoy!