From the ashes: Recovery on Cobb Mountain
The tree is a burly Douglas fir, soaring 140 feet into the sky, its trunk so thick that two men, arms stretched wide, cannot fully embrace it. Through the years, a handcrafted swing, attached by cable wire to an iron rod high above the tree’s base, has given scores of children the giddy feeling of flight.
On a bright autumn day, David Leonard stood on his family’s burned-out land on Cobb Mountain, the highest peak in the majestic Mayacamas range in north-central California, and rested a hand on the fir’s scorched bark.
“It’s like part of our family,” he said. His thick-soled shoes sank into soil coated with soot and torched pine needles. His eyes, a soft green, were tired.
“I just hope it makes it.”
Very little on the Leonards’ property survived the epic wildfire that roared through Lake County in September. The cozy home that David and his wife, Cindy, had shared for 17 years, along a steep, twisting road in the unincorporated community of Cobb, was burned to its concrete foundation.
This story was originally published February 14, 2016 at 6:42 PM with the headline "From the ashes: Recovery on Cobb Mountain."