I started out early in the morning, about a half hour before sunrise, when there is enough light to see a good distance. I did a final check of the bike: gas, oil, tire pressure, supplies. I started up the bike, and walked it out of the garage, letting it idle for a few minutes to warm up the engine while I locked up and set the alarms. I got on the bike, and started down my now overgrown driveway and road. I coasted to the front gate, opened the gate, walked the bike through the gate, and then closed it. After a final check of the bike to make sure it was running smoothly, I put on my helmet and sunglasses, and pulled down the visor. I buttoned up my heavy leather jacket, put on my gloves, and I was off.
I headed down the road towards Foresthill. At every major hill, I stopped and did a careful 360-degree scan of the area. I looked for smoke from fireplaces. It was a clear, calm morning, so any smoke from a fireplace or campfire would go straight up.
I got closer to the main road into Foresthill from the wilderness area. It starts a long downhill run about 5 miles out of town. The road at that point has a few gentle curves in it, and you can see a long way from the top of the hill. I got to that point, turned off the bike, and spent about 20 minutes with my binoculars looking at the town and surrounding area.
It looked quite deserted. I didn't see any smoke from morning fires. I did see quite a few burned out buildings. It looked like the small grocery store took a hit, along with the two small gas stations, and some other buildings. Georgetown isn't a very big town, maybe a 15-20 city blocks square business area, along with some houses in the 'downtown' area, and then other houses spread out around it. Population during normal times was about 1000, now it was much less; actually, it looked closer to zero. There were several blocks of the downtown area that were fire damaged, and many houses in the area also were damaged.
I could see the elementary/high school area. That would be where you would expect to see people. And there were none that I could see. There wasn't a hospital in Foresthill, just a couple of doctor's offices. The nearest hospital was in Auburn, about 45 miles away. I could see other damaged areas in the town. The fire station was burned to the ground. A couple of the churches were heavily damaged. The hardware store had been damaged. And that was just the damage I could see with my binoculars.
I took a sip of water from my water bottle, and then placed it back into its pocket in my backpack. I made sure that the rifle was secure and loaded, but available. And my handgun was readily available and loaded.
I got back on my bike, started it up, and headed down the road towards the town.