Smoke smoke everywhere

[John Kasaian]

here in CA because of wild fires!
206963
From the Yosemite webcam at Turtleback Dome facing El Capitan and Half Dome
An arsonist started a fire in Big Sur, there are fires in Napa and SoCal and we can smell smoke here in Fresno.

[Vaughn]

Not too bad right here right now in NW CA...but we have fires going not far to the north...and my son might get called out for fire camp duty down south out of Fort Bragg.

[Heroique]

Fires are rampant in Calif. and Oregon.

Here in Wash. state, we've been spared the worst (for now).

Does every LFer heading into dry woods check with their local forest service office before heading in?

And if you do, and learn of no active dangers, then head into the forest and smell smoke, do you know smart steps to take?

Here's an older thread I remember with ideas from our more experienced forest trekkers:

https://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?123340-LFers-you-re-in-a-dry-wilderness-You-smell-smoke-What-s-your-plan&highlight=smoke

Me, I avoid the loneliest areas of Wash. state when fire danger is high, even when no fires are active.

[Tin Can]

I closely follow most fires, especially CA as I have friends there

The west is on fire and I think I can smell smoke over here by the Mississippi

Be quick and careful, we each get one life...

[Mark Sampson]

Tough times for all of you in California. Recently I witnessed the Bighorn Fire (which burned for five weeks in the mountains above Tucson). I'd never seen a forest fire before, much less had one threaten the town where I lived. No homes were burned by the Bighorn (it was all at higher altitudes in the National Forest). Still, it was an unsettling experience for this ex-easterner to see the huge clouds of smoke and the fires burning in V-shaped lines down the valleys.
I hope you all can stay safe and remain unharmed!

[Vaughn]

Clear here so far this morning, but only because of an on-shore wind pushing everything eastward.

[Heroique]

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown has just issued a state of emergency due to the state's fires.

They're popping-up all over the Cascade Mountains and growing fast.

Here's a look at Oregon's ongoing Green Ridge Fire (source: Inciweb):

206978

"Terrifying, let's please stay home," my wooden Ries tripod thinks.

[Matt Stage]

We had a eerie red sun this morning in San Fernando Valley. Fires to the north and to the east of here. There is a hint of smoke in the air.

[David Lindquist]

I see evacuation orders for Fairfield CA have been listed; I'd been thinking of Bob Watkins and Precision Camera Works. Don't know his exact location in the Greater Fairfield Metropolitan Area (if such a term can be applied). The address given on his website is a UPS store "nearby the shop."

David

[Drew Wiley]

I'm hoping to use some of that haze creatively with color film. But it's pretty unhealthy too; so I'm going to hike strictly on the east side of the Sierra where the fires have been minimal so far. The air was perfectly fine along the Bay here until about noon yesterday. We'd had two utterly weird days of high winds and lightning. I didn't get any of the kind of record heat they got inland. No apparent fires right after all the lighting either. But then, they suspect that smoldering things due to lightning were why things suddenly sprung up yesterday, and with the winds involved, one of the two really big fires went from zero to over a hundred thousand acres in just a matter of hours across the River, with another big fire in the Santa Cruz mountains. I had to go to the airport, and the drive had an amazing orange and brown sunset. Worst smoke I've ever seen around here. The ocean breeze is starting to clear it out now, but it might settle back in when the wind stops after dark. Fairfield might be in big trouble at the moment; I'll check the evening news. Hwy 80 toward Reno closed. ... I'm sort of right in the middle of the air quality at the moment : opaque brown skies to the East, clearing distinctly blue sky toward the West, a bit of distinct smoke odor still in the air, but no lung irritation.

[Erik Larsen]

Sitting on my patio in Grand Junction, CO I now know what the people of Pompei must have felt. It is snowing ash from a massive fire 20 miles or so north of here up in the Bookcliffs. It's raging through mostly wilderness scrub and juniper with no sign of stopping. Interstate 70 is closed as well as Douglas pass. 2020 truly is the apocalypse!

[tgtaylor]

Here in the bay area things have deteriorated since I posted this post Wednesday on my blog: https://spiritsofsilver.com/blog/wildfires_8192020. Big Basin State Park, California's first state park, is on fire as is Pt Reyes National Seashore. Even Ano Nuevo on the immediate pacific coast is either on fire or at least threatened. On the evening news last night they showed a video clip taken from Pigeon Point light looking east that showed a line of fire moving across the ridgeline towards the ocean. Even Lick observatory was threatened last night with several of the employee residences burned and they are worried about the fire returning tonight. All parks in the east bay are closed as is many if not all in the greater bay area and the city of San Jose is now surrounded by wildfires with zero containment and is reminiscent of Stalingrad being encircled by the Russian army during WWII. Although I don't expect it to come to pass, all of my cameras, lenses, telescope, binoculars and negatives are packed in their hard waterproof cases ready to go and the car has 3/4 tank of gas.

Thomas

[Drew Wiley]

Hard to say the long term effect on natural things. The headwaters of Alameda Creek contain the some of the largest oaks in the world, and how well they survive really depends on how the fire behaves, and how it moves. Redwoods like in Big Basin are naturally fire resistant, but the overall ecosystem might shift, with watersheds diminishing with less forest cover. The loss of homes and ranches is of course tragic, but California brush is genetically engineered to want to burn every few decades, allowing fresh growth. Native Americans cleared land with fire for millennia. But now there's the thousand pound gorilla of rapid climate change hanging around; and that's a very bad mix with residential sprawl into the woods. Grasslands will recover quickly, perhaps even better. Health-wise, bad air quality plus thousands of people being evacuated and potentially forced into closer proximity in shelters or whatever is its own perfect storm during a pandemic. The climate is already past a dangerous tipping point, and there are still millions of dead trees out there. Fortunately, there has been some progress with the learning curve, with evacuations proceeding better. Some lives have just been lost, but not as chaotically as the last two years. Having survived several major forest fires myself in my youth, it has always astounded me how quickly people forget, and fail to prepare in wooded areas. Now, maybe at last, it's starting to become a priority.

[Drew Wiley]

There's some relief on the way with the Pt Reyes fire in terms of coastal fog again. The fire is still confined to the coastal side of the ridge between the ocean and Mt Wittemburg in Woodward Canyon, which has a trail visited far less often than the Bear Valley trail below the mountain. There are some lovely old growth firs higher up in the cloud forest area. Some old growth has no doubt been lost in the canyon itself; but that's just part of an inevitable cycle, especially in the vicinity of bishop pines which burn like crazy when old. For every bishop pine which burned about 20 years ago in the nearby Mt Vision fire, about another 30 sprung up within just a few years, until competition for light causes most of the competitors to die off into thick branchy underbrush, and begin a whole new cycle. The forest will recover, and the fire is still quite a ways from Bolinas or any other structures. Further south, Big Basin lost most of its facilities and campground, so that will probably be closed awhile for repairs after the fires end. The old growth redwoods themselves have already endured many such fires over the centuries. Chaparral lost in the even bigger fires between the coast range and central valley rejuvenates in 15 years or so; but one of the pioneering species soon after a fire is poison oak.

[Heroique]

Quick note: If you see a fire and think it's new or unreported, call 911.

There are additional ways to report, but this is easy to remember.

Our D.N.R. in Wash. state is asking people to do this.

[Vaughn]

Well, before it gets too hot, I'll run the 3006 Drum full of 5x7s...tap water and room both at 74F. Outside it is 83F, down from 88F earlier, clear air, some clouds...too beautiful, knowing what the rest of the state is going through.

I am glad I got out of fire-fighting when I did...I was only 36, but I wanted to get older, have a family, and all that cool stuff.

[tgtaylor]

Here in California it would be difficult to determine if a fire was new or unreported as there are several hundred burning and are reported as complexes such as "CZU Lightning Complex Fire" which contain several fires over a wide region. Anyway there isn't much CalFire can do that it isn't already doing as, according to the late newscast last night they said that they were out of engines to deploy and were awaiting several hundred to arrive from as far away as the east coast and even Australia.

Thomas

[Drew Wiley]

The worst case I experienced as a kid was when an arsonists drove up the road south of Yosemite and set several fires which then merged. Back then they determined the acreage as estimated according to specific source, even though it was basically a single premeditated fire over 400,000 acres in size. My first year of high school, half the kids were homeless due to it. The arsonist was caught starting yet another fire, and locked up in the nut house for the rest of his life. But those were primarily brush and forest fires. Way more unhealthy was the Santa Rosa fire and other suburban/woods interface fires the last few autumns, which rained down toxic burnt plastic and aluminum and oil ash. Talked to my sister in the Monterey area last night, and the smoke is considerably worse than even here along SF Bay. It varies almost hourly. At the moment, I've got a good breeze and mostly blue sky, but still smell smoke. There's another thunderstorm forecast this upcoming weekend, but hard to say if it will be anything remotely as weird as the last one. I'm accustomed to severe thunderstorms in the mountains; but not much burns above timberline. Lots of forest fires are human caused instead, and natural lightning fires were once more localized. But now just about anything can trigger a big one, with so much dry and dead tinder at mid-elevations, and so much suburban sprawl where is makes little sense in this respect.

[angusparker]

I was at the South end of Dillon Beach a few days ago and got to see the mushroom cloud plumes of three fires while enjoying clean marine air. Kind of surreal. Sonoma Valley is really getting bad with 250 plus as the high count today. San Francisco at least the North part was between 50-100 so pretty manageable. Check out purpleair.com for better local air quality data than the government provides. The data comes from consumer grade sensors that cost about $200 but are surprisingly accurate. Happy to hear the deaths have been far fewer than the Santa Rosa fires of a few years ago that were devastating.

[Jim Noel]

These are the best fire reports I can get in San Diego. Thank you, and please continue to keep us up to date. I have a sister in Eureka and children near Big Bend.

[Bernice Loui]

Today's mid morning sun from Coastside.
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Bernice

[tgtaylor]

I use IQAir https://www.iqair.com/usa/california/hayward. I have it set-up for Hayward but you can scroll through the map or search by location. It's updated hourly (about 10 minutes past the hour) and gives complete weather info including graphic air flows in a region.

Thomas

[Jim Noel]

Thanks for the link.

[Vaughn]

We got hit with heavy smoke yesterday afternoon -- a hay barn fire closer to the coast with all the smoke blowing up-canyon at us. Today, light general haze of smoke everywhere.

[John Kasaian]

I went for a hike in Yosemite yesterday---blue sky and clean(er) air, however I wasn't down in the murky valley.

[Tin Can]

There's enough smoke here in ILL from CA that I have needed my 10 year old inhaler several days

[Drew Wiley]

Wow. I just got back from the eastern Sierra. Remarkable how fast smoke conditions daily change. Owens Valley and Mono Basin, and even Bridgeport area were horrible. Smoke was coming over even the highest peaks and passes not only from our big coastal fires, but from an out of control burn south of Mineral King in Golden Trout Wilderness, as well as from a fire below Yosemite to the west, now under control. I had hoped to backpack into Sabrina Basin, but the air quality was miserable, so I drove up into the White Mtns and bristlecone area instead, where the air was perfectly clear, with wonderful cloud formations, but rather windy. Very few people. By the time I headed north on 395 again, the Mammoth Lks and Virginia Lks areas had cleared completely, with some spectacular morning clouds over the Ritter Range. Home at last here on the Bay, a lot of fog is back, which is helping them contain the fire over on Pt Reyes. I'm a bit anxious how some of my favorite trails will look once they reopen the Park, with some of those wonderful old growth firs no doubt gone, but just in a certain portion. Strange as it may seem, a certain amount of veiling smoke does wonderful things for photography, especially color. I made good use of it, but tried my best to breathe as little smoke as possible, especially in terms of where I camped. For those of you who use Sonora Pass quite a bit, they're almost completely done widening and repaving that road; it's remarkably easier to drive, though of course as steep as ever near the top. And John K - your favorite Deli in Lee Vining is still going full throttle.

[Vaughn]

Dang -- too many good roads already...

The sun is barely shining through clouds and a yellow filter today.

[Drew Wiley]

Don't worry, Vaughn. The Leavitt Lk road off of Sonora Pass hasn't been maintained at all, and went from easy 4WD to rather serious at spots. Same as ever around the Pass - lots of weekend campers here n there, almost zero on weekdays. I kinda feel sorry for a FS supervisor who drove all the way down from Shasta because he had a day permit to hike up Mt Whitney, which would have had zero view from the top that day, even if one's burning lungs could handle all the smoke. I played a bit of cat and mouse with Mt Williamson and a telephoto, the in n' out smoke giving an almost impressionist rendering of it, but finally gave up. Hot too. I got more than my fair share of promising shots anyway these past few days. I'm getting eager to see how all the negs turn out, and then the real work begins. A red filter was a "must" most of the time, but I used a light YG too.

[Vaughn]

Only been on the E Ticket ride up to the top of Half Dome twice. First time a fire was just starting in the next valley over from Little Yosemite -- anyone backpacking up to LY that day had to turn around and go back down to the Valley, and the Dome closed the next day. The other time, general fires restricted views. I certainly would not do it again but regret not experiencing it in the 70s.

I have a handful of 5x7 negatives to print (pt/pd) from recent local trips...a backpack and a bicycle trip. I'll coat the paper late tonight and air dry...print in the morning. Then I will feel better about going out and exposing more negatives.

[Drew Wiley]

They had Hwy 120 completely closed into Yosemite mid-week due to a fire near the intersection of Hwy 49. The smoke coming over Tioga Pass was miserable, and Mono Lk barely visible from Hwy 395 just a few yards away. Two days later, a completely different story as the wind shifted, and everything about the Lake was clear and sparkly. In Yosemite Valley, the haze is often miserable in summer due to all the damn campfires they illogically permit, plus the smog coming up from the central valley. A hot sneezy place in summer. The last summertime I was seriously in the Park, I was way up in the Lyell Fork, having crossed over the top from the south, with nobody else in sight for an entire week except the guy backpacking with me. A tiny wisp of smoke from fires lower down created just the exact amount of softening in the evening light I was hoping for, at least for the sake of color film. In the morning it was totally crisp, and more suited to black and white work. But I gotta stop pontificating and start developing film, cleaning my gear, etc. Gosh, Vaughn, after this viral mess settles down, I'd sure like to see some of your carbon and pt/pd prints in person.

[Vaughn]

Well, I did not coat last night -- got too wrapped up at looking at negatives and the time slipped by...by the time I got the paper out and went to grab the platinum it was almost midnight. Tonight! Wish I could say this SIP has gotten me busy, but the opposite is true. And so it goes... It would be fun to have a LF get-together up here in the redwoods...but I am certainly not voluntering to organize and run such an adventure, LOL.

Not so yellow today, 75F at noon and probably will be our high temp. Light breeze from the ocean, 6 miles away. A little watering this morning. I have a brown thumb, but I must say I am impressed with my potatoes. Last fall I planted a few sprouted baby potatoes of various colors from my cupboard...all wiped out by the winter frosts, so I thought. They regrew this spring and I had my first harvest this week of the one plant that was ahead of the rest. Now if I can keep the lemon I transplanted alive (it was dying on someone else) and the two Chilean trees alive of my son's he entrusted me with, I will be amazed.

[Drew Wiley]

I have an enormous Chilean Aracaria tree. They are amazing because they're adapted to high winds, and the branches are so limber they never break. But there are thorny fronds everywhere on my driveway after these wind storms. Squirrels like to nest in the tree because nothing else is able to climb it. They're one of the most ancient forms of conifer, and it's hard to imagine that certain sauropods were once apparently adapted to eating their needle-tipped fronds, and others to rough redwood fronds - another Jurassic snack. The cones themselves are as heavy as pineapples, but grow close to the trunk and drop only once a year on a hot day, except that squirrels gnaw them down first. But the tree rains down sticky fluid constantly. I sure miss my hot weather ranch crops from the hills since I sold that place- even had a vineyard, various orchard trees, all kinds of melons, barrel potatoes, all kinds of vegetables and squash, corn rows. Store bought just ain't the same. I do have a cold weather thick-skinned lemon tree here that does well year-round, and an apple and plum tree that do well - and yeah, it is cold today (highs in the low 50's), and smelling like smoke again. Even the damn ants can't stand the smoke and are starting to commute across my shop floor toward the darkroom. A bit of citrus solvent spray solved that.

[Vaughn]

The university I went to in NZ had a giant Chilean Aracaria (monkey puzzle) that blew over in a 120 MPH wind storm while I was there (1975). It was a beautiful tree. Redwoods on campus grew amazing fast, also.

Trees I have are Robles...a fast-growing (30+ meters) deciduous broadleaf. Same genus as NZ beeches (which are evergreen).

[Drew Wiley]

I was just outside raking up the Monkey Puzzle fronds. I've been in hurricane force winds atop mtn summits, but thankfully never anything like that here. There are a number of very tall (200 ft) old Aracarias in Santa Barbara. When I bought this place 40 yrs ago, mine was about 16 ft tall; now its about 80 ft. I bagged a basic field biology degree long ago, but was just one course away from five other degree options, including botany. But can't seem to remember a damn thing now. The botanical garden up the canyon from me has a representative sampling of almost all the California evergreens, including even the Channel Islands subspecies; that's where I go to refresh my memory. The rarest are the Calif nutmegs, with their flat needles and peculiar nutmeg "cones". There was a single example up the road from my place in the Sierras, and quite a cluster around Crystal Cave in Sequoia. The tallest redwood ever discovered was uphill from me, cut down in the 1880's so some scientist could count the rings. Now not even a stump if left, or single old growth tree, except for planted second growth. I wonder if there's a true old growth redwood anywhere in the Bay area (exclusive of Big Basin etc). There are a few enormous bases which have re-sprouted second-growth perimeter trees. And here I am, once owning an all old-growth house, and now looking at my back wall made of true tight vertical-grain wainscoting, and even real redwood ply shop sliding doors. And all that old growth redwood I've been involved with refinishing! Some of the UC Berk buildings have wonderful examples, but so did most of the Julia Morgan classic buildings that I either consulted on, sold equipment for, or earlier, refinished myself. Bernard Maybeck used a lot of redwood too, but unlike his student Julia Morgan, he made a lot of structural mistakes.

[Vaughn]

It was an odd wind storm across the Canterbury Plains. No clouds just the wind...at it's height in the early morning hours, down to 60 mph at sun-up. No gusts...just solid wind. The view out my 4th floor window (new brick building that shook all night) was of windbreaks all shattered in the dusty sunrise. Thousands of acres of planted radiata pine flattened.

Just did some checking...the northwester gale grew over the last 45 years -- only up to a little over 100 mph (170 kph).

There is a new trail, well, a collection of trails and sections of road being put together....and has been walked by some brave souls. Starts in my old wilderness, the Yolla Bollys (from the east over South Yolla Bolly Peak/Mt Linn) along some of the wilderness trails I maintained in the 1980s, and ends north and west up in Crescent City. The Bigfoot Trail -- 360 miles long, thirty-two (32) different conifer species along the trail.

https://www.bigfoottrail.org/

A great book is The Dark Range: A Naturalist's Night Notebook by David Rains Wallace, 1978 -- a night walk west from the Central Valley to the top of the Yolla Bollys.

[Drew Wiley]

Interesting. I assume you know that Radiata pines occur naturally only on three little promontories on the San Mateo coast, where they're all stunted and twisty and small, much like cypresses right along the shore. Then a dairy farmer in a sheltered hollow of Drake's Bay planted a bunch out of the wind for perhaps fence posts or firewood - who knows? And lo and behold, they all grew straight as a telephone pole! Then more recently, as good clear cuts of sugar pine became scarce, and substitutes for moulding and siding were being experimented with via finger-jointed scrap, and all hell was breaking loose because the different pieces had differential rates of moisture expansion/contraction due to varying ring and grain structure, then someone figured out that by deliberately growing and harvesting radiata at the same time, the pieces would be consistent. So plantations started up in Chile and New Zealand, and now even other places. ... That trail sounds interesting. Something I never seem to see here on the central coast is Pacific Yew. I suppose you have some in the Yolla Bollys, maybe some Port Orford Cedar too in wetter areas?

[Vaughn]

Actually, The Radiata in NZ came via South Africa, I believe. No radiata in the Yolla Bollys, no Port Orford as far as I know. A few yew, the foxtail pine, of course.

[Drew Wiley]

Well, the moulding and siding companies who pioneered radiata use, who we were one of the prime drivers of, told us it was CA radiata, because they were behind the first Chilean plantations. And gosh, I was the very person doing jobsite troubleshooting, going nuts trying to get good moisture meters in the hands of contractors before the lawyers bought them! But just like salmon farming, once the cat was out of the bag, experimenting with slightly different species and climates inevitably began. Another big factor was glues. Factories in China and Thailand etc still use more efficient formaldehyde-based glues which are now banned here for health reasons; so having tree farms closer to them would trim shipping costs. So it really depends on who is behind any specific tree farm, which might even involve hybrids or genetically altered trees by now. One of the pictures on the wall behind me was framed in a sustainable farmed hybrid eucalyptus material genetically engineered to resemble true mahogany. But it's actually far heavier and denser, even though rapid-growing. I was one of the first people to test dimensional cuts of it (as opposed to veneer applications), but being high silica, it ate up carbide way too fast to be cost-effective for routine moulding use.

[Drew Wiley]

Now back to fires - a sad point is the loss of the Condor Sanctuary in the Big Sur Mtns. It was up to a 23,000 acre fire yesterday, and appears to have been started by arson. A local thug and illegal pot grower was apparently trying to conceal incriminating parts of his operation by setting them on fire, and has been arrested. Closer to me, the Pt Reyes fire has been basically corralled, but views will not be the same, and one side or other of at least some of the magical cloud forest trails on Mt Wittenburg, a number of moss-draped old growth fir trees have been lost. But other trails are unaffected. A tongue of burn crossed over the top and down a ridge almost to the Visitor Center, so a burn scar will be visible even from there, but it was stopped from spreading.

[John Kasaian]

We took the chairlift up and hiked down China Peak yesterday. We were above the yuck---blue skies and fluffy white clouds and no smoke all the way down to the lodge---2-1/4 miles.

[Drew Wiley]

John, I heard first-person stories about China Charlie from the first county road supervisor in the hills, who passed away about 50 yrs ago - quite a character himself, who lived just 3mi down the old SJ&E RR grade from us. Charlie had a number of unusual expletives, and was married to an Indian gal, but spent all his summers alone on horseback in the headwaters of Big Creek. Last Wed I briefly stopped at the viewpoint at the top of Mammoth Pass and it was so clear I could see down canyon past Kaiser Peak clear to my old porch vista. But just the day before, one could barely make out even Mt Morrison from 395.

[Vaughn]

Radiata has been grown in the Southern Hemisphere since the mid-1800's (NZ - 1859). Who knows, maybe what is being grown in CA has come full circle!

[Drew Wiley]

Indeed, Vaughn. But your dates are way off. Contiguous Gondwanaland was considerably earlier. And "split apart" is technically more correct than "full circle"! Maybe it will all crash together again at the high rate of 3mm a year; but standing around waiting for it to happen might be kinda boring. Up at UCB they have quite a collection of fossilized dinosaur poop. I wonder if the've been able to identify any kinds of seeds in them. Very little of Calif itself is good for radiata farming. Too windy in the correct climate, which is why all the natural ones are small and twisty. I should hunt for a stump or fallen tree in that Drakes Bay grove I described and count the rings. But those probably go back the mid-1800's too, just like the other dairy farms around there. Perhaps there's some local historical documentation. The entire Natl Seashore is still closed for fire mop-up purposes. Of course, some tree DNA testing here n' there could tell quite a story. But I realize you redwood habitat folks of secret Sasquatch ancestry are terrified of DNA research. Nothing to be ashamed of; a little more fur is valuable in winter.

[Vaughn]

My dates are correct. Radiata arrived in Australia in the 1870s and New Zealand in 1859.

More than likely arrived with the Gold Rush from California.

PS -- It would be curious to know who was raising seedlings (or shipping seeds) out of California at the time. A story goes that a planter in Chile (1800s) ordered conifer seeds from CA...he received different than he ordered...he got radiata. (a story from my son...forestry major in Chile when he got the story). Now one of their main commercial tree species.

PS #2 Radiata was declared a noxious weed in South Africa in the 1980s.

Another beautiful day here...about a 35F difference between morning and noon (47 to 81, now dropping a little)...almost fall-like, but that is a ways away. Almost full moon was white last night...yellow the night before.

[Drew Wiley]

Oh gosh. I've lost some of my contacts since retirement. I did stumble into one of them visiting back there a few months ago. He's a decade older than me, and now into hardwood sales, but might remember. So dang much was going on, and I was basically juggling three interwoven careers. The company owner was really smart, and realized that if we were given an incentive to grow our own moonlight incomes parallel to his own priorities, not only would we be haggling less with him about pay, but we in turn would bring him a lot of new business. So all at the same time I might be doing a technical consult or trouble-shooting session for him, I was welcome to promote my own services as a color consultant and architectural photographer. And as far as outdoor opportunities, I was given 6 weeks annual vacation, plus four weeks paid holiday time, which could be accrued or even compensated for in cash if I didn't use up all of it, plus excellent health benefits.
All hell broke loose when old-growth redwood siding became scarce and experiments were beginning in finger-jointed pine and cedar. I can't remember the exact vendor specifics of Radiata siding introduction, since my own very intense purchasing role was in hard lines like equipment, locks, coatings, etc. But it seems that Kelleher first introduced it into mouldings, though my main push with them was for vertical grain fir mouldings (very common need for local restoration work). So I do clearly remember many details and technical issues as even Radiata products improved, but not the dates. All a blur on that front. I also was commuting on weekends to my small ranch in the Sierras, which needed constant attention in terms of maintenance, forest fire prevention, large gardens, etc. Busy, busy, busy, but still squeezed in 12 or 13 LF backpacking trips a year. Now I'd be happy with just one, smoke-free.
Over the years I've become very skeptical of certain forest certifications, or how all kinds of marketing designations have appeared over species which are really quite different, or else, just different cuts of the same thing. We had a botanical expert on staff, the same phD who basically invented the ingredients of all kinds of modern herbicides like RoundUp, and then was shocked to see Dow weaponizing them during the Vietnam war. I really enjoyed break room conversations with him. A superb botanical memory. He had two careers himself the whole time, one there, and another at the University. He never owned a car and commuted on the same bicycle he purchased in the 1940's as a student, and even kept his original umbrella, duct-taped decade after decade. We did discuss radiata among other things. He suffered from all kinds of weird cancers and balance issues due to his herbicide research, but nonetheless kept working into his 80's, when he was stuck by a car on his bicycle and killed four years ago. He lived alone and extremely simply, and it took six month to find his next of kin, someone in Switzerland who didn't even know him, but who suddenly inherited eight million dollars!

[AnalogAngler]

I've followed this forum for a while but rarely post. One of the great things about this forum is that I was curious to know other people's experiences with the fires, and found an interesting discussion about California history and western timber species as well!

I had to evacuate for the "Moc" fire here in California but am now back safe and sound and no damage other than some spoiled food. We are fortunate to have some great people to support us while we were displaced.

It was an interesting experience to try to decide what to take and what to leave. For anyone in fire areas (or other natural disasters, plenty to choose from), highly recommend you make your list of things you want to save long before you need it as it is difficult to keep all your wits while preparing to flee. I thought we were pretty well set but then as we were driving away a couple things came to mind and I was kicking myself for the next few days as we watched the news for updates on the progress of the fire.

A friend provided some guidance for personal items which I found a useful way to consider: Is the person that made/gifted the item it still alive? Could they make/find me another one?

For anyone else displaced by the fires, hope you fare as well as we did; thoughts are with you.

-AnalogAngler

[John Kasaian]

John, I heard first-person stories about China Charlie from the first county road supervisor in the hills, who passed away about 50 yrs ago - quite a character himself, who lived just 3mi down the old SJ&E RR grade from us. Charlie had a number of unusual expletives, and was married to an Indian gal, but spent all his summers alone on horseback in the headwaters of Big Creek. Last Wed I briefly stopped at the viewpoint at the top of Mammoth Pass and it was so clear I could see down canyon past Kaiser Peak clear to my old porch vista. But just the day before, one could barely make out even Mt Morrison from 395.

China Charlie was quite a character, that's for sure!

[Drew Wiley]

Don't have much time to chat now. Enjoying a REAL orange flesh melon for breakfast that I picked up at a farm stand in the Valley on the way home. They think it will be smokey here for quite awhile as the Pt Reyes Woodward Fire smolders. So much smoke that they had to use drones equipped with infrared to assess last nite's report. They have a containment perimeter they think will hold. But about another 1200 acres were affected. It's really hard at this point to know how much of the iconic old growth fir cloud forest at the top might have been lost, because ashfall ignited downhill activity on the other side of the ridge almost to the Pt Reyes visitor center. But no buildings, either private or federal, have been lost in this fire, unlike the catastrophic Mt Vision fire 20yrs ago, which was much hotter due to all the pitchy Bishop pine. The summit forest of Mt Wittenberg is sandwiched between several wide trails accessible to trucks and so forth, so maybe when the smoke lifts, some of it will have survived. But I awoke with a very eerie feeling this morning that my own 8x10 work done over the last 30 yrs might be the only memory of those intricate summit tree tunnels, misty magic, and so forth. I can't think of anyone else who would have seriously photographed it; and certainly never encountered anyone else up there so equipped - on the beach areas yes, but not up in soggy bushwhacking territory. It takes several hundred years to recover that kind of forest, if the ecosystem isn't permanently changed. Most of the moisture in the soil and streams comes from fog collected by the canopies of old-growth trees, and there it is mostly fir rather than redwood. Fortunately, Firtop and its long ridge to the south of Bear Valley was unaffected by this fire, and still has its own substantial cloud forest. But it's hard to imagine that familiar sights I viewed in my ground glass only a month ago might be lost forever for all practical purposes, and that a quantity of prints I "what-if" drymounted this past Spring for sake of posterity might truly have significance for posterity. Life can sure send you a curve ball at times.

[Vaughn]

A lot of the Yolla Bollys are still burning with spot fires and a large fire taking up most of the east side...61 thousand acres, 40% contained (Butte/Tehama Fire). A firefighter died there yesterday...her son is also on the fire.

[Drew Wiley]

Still too smokey for serious outdoor exercise here. It looks like the summit ridge and summit itself of Mt Wittenburg over at Pt Reyes survived, either due to that area routinely being cloud forest damper than the lower areas, or also because the trail as far as Sky Camp slightly below the summit ridge is a well maintained gravel service road. All four trails leading uphill from the Visitor Center area were heavily impacted by fire, as was the Woodward Trail up from the coast where the fire started. Two other trails lying slightly north are in the Vision Fire zone of 20 yrs ago, so did not re-burn this time due to lack of accumulated old tinder. The rest is fairly predictable. A year or two clearing the affected trails of fallen burnt trees, which they were already doing relative to sudden oak syndrome downfall. The coastal strand was mostly grass and lupine, and will recover very quickly. Marshier areas will be a riot of fireweed and other wildflowers over the next five years, and accessible from the Coast Trail. Pioneering species on affected upslopes will be poison oak, wild blackberry, huqe quantities of crowded Bishop pine, then as shade gradually arises, thimbleberries, alder, etc, with burnt snags and probably some surviving firs, just like in the adjacent recovering Vision fire. But on the drier slopes on the Hwy 1 side of the hill, I'll miss the owls and pileated woodpeckers that depended on old dead firs, the majestic old live oaks, colorful madrones, and the wonderfully intricate tree tunnel effects of old fir understory which I so often photograph. But there is still quite a bit of that left on the even longer ridges to the south of Bear Valley, where the fire was stopped. It was up to 4500 acres yesterday, but much of that area increase was due to deliberate backfires set on the grassier areas adjacent residential areas and park facilities. Gosh, I remember working the fires as a young feller. It's hard work, and I can hardly imagine what career forest fire fighters endure, sometimes at the risk of their lives, as you just pointed out.

[Peter Lewin]

Hope this is not political, I don’t think it is (unless possibly you live in CA). Big article in NYTimes on whether insurance companies have to continue insuring homes in fire zones. One side of review said it was needed to maintain a housing market. Opposite view was why should companies insure homes that had burned multiple times. Any views? (Mods please delete if this gets too lengthy or turns political.)

[Drew Wiley]

It's just a fact of life and has been for thousands of years. The politics are a mere footnote to it. California chaparral and certain forest conifers are genetically engineered to readily burn when they're mature; a number of species actually require fire to open their seeds or cones. What has changed is the rapidly sprawling population and decades of intervening fire suppression. And what you need to understand is that huge fires are more frequent not only here in CA, but occurring in nearly all the other Western states too, especially due to the staggering amounts of beetle-killed pines due to warmer winters, and even in enormous sections of western Canada and now clear up into Alaska; even in Siberia and Scandinavia now. Western pine beetles might well reach the eastern and southern US pine forests at some point. Another big problem is invasive cheatgrass in the Great Basin, which burns far more easily than native species of grass. I'll give a personal example. I just couldn't keep up with all the work involved realistically clearing my own mountain property multiple times a year as I was approaching retirement. So as much as I didn't want to, I sold the ranch to a young farm couple with the energy, commitment, and heavy equipment necessary. And themselves being realistic, just like me they have kept many acres clear around them. If you are within a Forest Service jurisdiction, they monitor landholders. Either you clear your mandated defensive space or they come in with a court order, a crew, and appropriately charge you a huge punitive sum. Still, the insurance companies don't keep track of how individuals maintain their private properties except for sake of issuing initial policies. They only draw broad statistical brushstrokes from a distance based on county, zip code etc. And this is in fact more realistic for them because big fires can ignite ashfall feeder fires not only across twenty-foot wide mandated fire breaks, but easily over twenty MILES away. And now with a lot of suburbanization and downright luxury homes worth millions of dollars being built deep into brush and forest, the insurance companies either have to re-strategize, outright default, or devise all kinds of excuses to significantly delay payments, which absolutely has happened more than once. So what they're mostly doing now in high-risk zones is refusing to renew policies, and instead referring former customers to high-risk insurers with obviously higher rates, which tend to actually be subsidiary companies they themselves own! I imagine that will become the trend in places which repeatedly flood too.

[John Kasaian]

The Creek Fire blew up overnight. The campers at Mammoth Pools were told to get in the water, they can't get them out.
https://www.sacbee.com/news/california/fires/article245523200.html

[Drew Wiley]

We just received the report here, John. This one could turn into a monster. The last time there was a fire near Big Creek I saw the smoke in Utah retuning home, and the sky above Mammoth Pass looked like Vesuvius erupting all night long. It's already jumped the River, and it's almost impossible to fight down in there. I was the last kid the little bobtail school bus picked up after daily running the Million Dollar Mile blasted across the cliff (a hair-raising one lane road between two hydro power plants not accessible to the public). As soon as my best friend got his driver's license at 16, his dad caught us loading 600 ft of rope in the back of the pickup and fortunately stopped us. On a hunting trip with him a few days before we were eyeballing a still unclimbed today huge overhanging rotten rock across the River below Mammoth Pool which we named The Stove because it resembled the door of an old fashioned cast iron stove. Sure glad I got in a long hike from Granite Creek into Harriet Bench and the headwaters of the Lyell Fork of the Merced 3 yrs ago. The smoke must be atrocious there now.

[karl french]

Hopefully not. I'm heading up and over in about a week.

[Drew Wiley]

They might not even let anyone up the road. Where exactly do you plan to go? Hwys 120 and 49 were closed for awhile last wk. This is an unusual extremely risky year. High winds are anticipated mid week, and the smoke could spread far and wide. If the fire moves laterally, it would get into the second largest Ponderosa Pine forest in the world, now 95% dead from beetles. This fire is growing exponentially, and it's not going to get controlled anytime soon. That's the second highest canyon wall on the continent, only behind Spanish Mtn on the Middle Fork of the Kings further south. That pinch point in the canyon acts like a venturi, and Mammoth Pass like a sucking bellows. The smoke in Mono Basin and Mammoth could be even worse than last week when it was rising up to around 17000 ft and spilling over even the highest peaks above Owens Valley. The Bishop area was even worse. But on the way back a few days later, the wind direction had dramatically shifted, and Mammoth, Mono Basin, and Sonora Pass had exceptionally clear air, but Owens Valley was still a mess.

[tgtaylor]

That high pressure system is going to swing all that smoke into the bay area. The pm2.5 concentration where I live is now approaching the unhealthy range an midnight and in parts of SF it's in the very unhealthy range. It's really going to be a bad day today when the sun comes out and the ridge moves further in.

Thomas

[karl french]

Not bad in SF yet. The Creek fire looks like a bad situation.

[John Kasaian]

https://www.foxnews.com/us/california-wildfire-prompts-air-rescues-of-more-than-160-stranded-campers

[Drew Wiley]

Late night news had some spooky self-recorded cell videos of backpackers wildly driving through walls of flames on the dirt road toward Beasore Mdws probably. I still have friends trying to do the full length of the Sierra "High Trail" route. Most of that is well above timberline, so not at so much risk of fire per se, but the smoke itself might be seriously risk in the northern half at this point. My lungs were starting to bother me. I got only about an hour and a half of clear air to zip up the canyon behind me here on the East Bay and get my legs stretched hiking up the ridge and bagging a couple of nice shapshots. It was clear almost all day yesterday, but was too hot to do much. I'm quite sensitive to smoke due to all the big forest fires I survived as a kid, so hope that none of the smoke from this latest fire reaches here, right when the Pt Reyes fire is finally nearing control.
For those unfamiliar with the area, Mammoth Pool, where campers are stranded, is the hydroelectric reservoir furtherest up the San Joaquin River, but prior to the giant rotunda or basin where the three high country forks of the San Joaquin River merge, one of which contains Balloon Dome, larger than Half Dome in Yosemite, set within a series of glacial canyons rarely visited. Slightly upriver from that there was a lightning caused burn last year, and then still further up the Middle Fork you finally reach Devil's Postpile, Red's Meadow, and Mammoth Mtn.
There are a handful of historic structures at risk from this fire, and a small number of summer cabins; but the main human risk at this point would be to campers and backpackers, that is, unless the wind reverses course and the fire impacts the resort areas around Hwy 168 south of the River. There are hundreds of square miles of dead pines adjacent to all that which are quite susceptible to a major incident. 168 on the west side of the range is now closed to the public. The completely detached other half of 168 is over toward Bishop.

[AnalogAngler]

Balloon dome looks really interesting...may have to add it to the list of places to see when everything is not on fire.

We tried to hike to Ten Lakes in Yosemite yesterday. The smoke cloud blotted out the sun about halfway there and had to turn around at the pass as we were getting pelted by tiny black cinders. Not the relaxing hike we'd hoped for, though we did get to see some wildlife. When we got back to the car it had a layer of ash all over.

Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

[tgtaylor]

Two small earthquakes just occurred on the Hayward Fault 3KM ESE of San Leandro. The first, at 1136, was a mag 2.6 at a depth of 9.4 km and the 2d, at 1143, at the same location but at a depth of 10.1km was mag 3.4. I didn't feel the first but did the second which felt like something hitting the apt building twice. No damage but can't help thinking that on top of all the fires, smoke, and heat, the last thing we need is a major earthquake to occur.

Thomas

[Vaughn]

I was visiting a friend in Hayward when a 3.5 hit a few years ago -- I was surprised at the shaking, as most of ours are out to sea and 4s and 5s get mellowed. Since then we've had a couple good land-based quakes not too far away that demonstrated the difference.

I have the earthquake center bookmarked to check on shaking -- quake, or low-boy w/ excavator passing by? Big enough quake and I won't have to worry about checking the internet!

[Drew Wiley]

I live just a 5 min walk from the Hayward Fault. Haven't noticed anything. My lot is on one of the few areas underlain by granite, so shock waves pass through very fast. But in nearby neighborhoods built over fill or Pliocene mudstone (both basically Jello, just like the Marina District in SF), it's a whole different story. A 3.0 doesn't even wake me up.

[Drew Wiley]

Half of Big Creek is now destroyed. I once knew all of those families. And evacuation prep orders have been issued for North Fork and Bass Lake. The latter is a dead tree death trap waiting to happen. Shaver Lk is already being evacuated. But if the wind shifts ashfall east instead, Mammoth Lakes will be potentially at high risk.

[Vaughn]

I live just a 5 min walk from the Hayward Fault... My friends lived just a few blocks east of I880 down by Hwy92. Doubt there is much very solid anywhere near -- the redwoods probably just use to sway a bunch back in the good old days when there were redwoods there in abundance. If my house falls off its 'foundation', at least it does not have far to go...

[John Kasaian]

The town of Shaver Lake is surrounded by the fire.
The Army National Guard is using a Chinook to airlift campers out of Mammoth Pool(160-200 so far I heard) the rest were told to get in the water to escape the flames.
North Fork has been evacuated, that's about 9 miles from Bass Lake which is close to HWY 41 and the South gate to YNP.
The fire exploded so fast one Pack outfit had to turn their livestock loose to hopefully find their own way to safety, the employees just barely getting out themselves.

[karl french]

It's not good. Now up to 75000 acres and 0% containment.

[angusparker]

Hope this is not political, I don’t think it is (unless possibly you live in CA). Big article in NYTimes on whether insurance companies have to continue insuring homes in fire zones. One side of review said it was needed to maintain a housing market. Opposite view was why should companies insure homes that had burned multiple times. Any views? (Mods please delete if this gets too lengthy or turns political.)

It’s called moral hazard and until a price signal like the inability to buy insurance and no subsidies from government for rebuilding communities in fire zones happens, nothing will make a difference. In CA, housing costs are driving the idiocy, and fire suppression and climate change is making previously safe areas unsafe. So there will be many more Paradises in the future.

[angusparker]

The direct impact is terrible or course, but the indirect impact of the smoke on the health of vulnerable communities is probably just as great. Fires are now creating a material reduction in the quality of life of just about every Californian. In San Francisco, we can now count on about two weeks a year of debilitating, worst in the world level, air quality. I’m so sick of it on top of everything else.

[tgtaylor]

Here's a useful suggestion I received this morning:

If that pyrocumulonimbus cloud moves over you and ash starts raining down, it could be too late to outhike the fire and I would be looking for the closest lake, or the most direct path above treeline. If you see embers, you need to move like your life depends on it because you will soon be surrounded by spotfires.


Thomas

[Drew Wiley]

John - what remains of some of the old SJ&E bldgs across the little road from my old place is now a makeshift evacuee center, with everything either uphill from there or down in the canyon on high alert. The immediate area burned decades ago and is now relatively defensible grass rangeland, but they're requesting evacuation anyway, clear down to Squaw Leap at the head of Millerton Lk. Regarding certain other comments, these communities began either as logging operations in the 1880's or in relation to the very largest engineering projects in human history up to that point related to hydroelectric development. The particular power plant currently offline due to the fire once provided nearly all of LA's electricity. Resorts for those seeking cooler summer weather also began in the 1800's along what is now the Hwy 168 corridor. Those towns are still essential to the Forest Service and power generation companies, but mainly rely on an outdoor recreation economy, including skiers in winter. The nature of the terrain simply does not allow developer-style suburban sprawl like the Paradise fire area. Most of the region is uninhabited, especially past the ski resort. But one distinct problem with resort properties is that they tend to often involve time shares or seasonal occupants who are relatively naive about forest fire risks. Through the grapevine last night, I heard from locals that a number of new very expensive resort homes around Huntington Lake have burned. Further downhill in the brushier areas even more at risk you've got scattered little ranches and native American plots that have been around for not only multiple generations but potentially millennia. Cancel their fire insurance and where will they go? - nowhere! These kinds of folks are tied to the land and have already survived numerous catastrophic fires. And are all their cattle somehow going to get instantly rounded up and squeezed into some animal shelter? Again, this is very sparsely populated country. I had to walk 9 miles to visit the nearest friend my own age growing up. But those rugged areas in the Canyon are ripe with fuel which could easily ignite and almost instantly wipe out any resort communities at mid-elevation above. Chaparral brush burns on almost predictable 40 year cycles. What has dramatically changed in this case isn't suburban sprawl into brush like some Calif hotspots, but the massive global-warming related pine dieoff at mid elevations. But I'm not going to complain if a bunch of meth labs and pot or opium poppy plots get incinerated around North Fork.

[John Kasaian]

Word just came in that Inyo County shut down. Saddlebag Lake Resort closed for the season.

[tgtaylor]

Most of the national forests in the area will close at 5pm today: https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/inyo/news-events/?cid=FSEPRD799165; There are reports of ash falling on Donahue Pass this morning, and this is the current conditions from Muir Trail Ranch:

“We may soon be under evacuation orders here, and that would shut down our season for sure. We don't have a good projection about what this situation will look like in one or two weeks' time. With heavy smoke conditions here and our only road based exit closed, we are NOT recommending that people hike in to this area if they have any other options." MTR is a major resupply station on the JMT about a day south of Reds Meadow.

Thomas

[Vaughn]

My son is coming home today after a couple weeks of straight work for CalFire -- in the camps, not on the line. It will be good to see him.

[revdoc]

Watch out for the smoke! It's a much greater hazard then most people think. The smoke from the recent fires here in Australia probably killed far more people than the fire itself.

[Drew Wiley]

Tom - the Muir Trail Ranch is owned by a gal I grew up with. As teenagers, she and her sister spent their entire summers on horseback in the high country, catching trout, while their parents ran the dude ranch and lake ferry. Their winter ranch was right over the hill from us - a mere 2000 ft climb with a 300 vertical cliff at the top. You must have been one helluva hiker if you factor Blayney Mdws (JMT Ranch) just a day from Red's Mdw. Three high passes in between. I never have been able to figure out JMT speed hikers so zombified trying to clock time that they don't see or remember a darn thing. I always preferred the "scenic route" instead. The JMT/PCT is a freeway.

[Darren Kruger]

Press release today from the US Forest service "Forest Service Temporarily Closes Southern California National Forests, Adds Prohibitions in Others": https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/r5/news-events/?cid=FSEPRD799162



Most of California remains under the threat of unprecedented and dangerous fire conditions with a combination of extreme heat, significant wind events, dry conditions, and firefighting resources that are stretched to the limit. Due to these conditions, the USDA Forest Service Pacific Southwest Region is announcing the following temporary closures and fire restrictions to provide for public safety and reduce the potential for human caused fire starts. They will go into effect at 5:00 pm Pacific Standard Time on Monday, September 7, 2020, and will be re-evaluated daily as conditions change.


Closure of the following National Forests

Stanislaus National Forest
Sierra National Forest
Sequoia National Forest
Inyo National Forest
Los Padres National Forest
Angeles National Forest
San Bernardino National Forest
Cleveland National Forest

Prohibition of the use of any ignition source on all National Forest System lands (campfires, gas stoves, etc.) throughout California.
Closure of all developed campgrounds and day-use sites on National Forests in California.

[John Kasaian]

The fire is now burning West Village in Shaver Lake.

[Drew Wiley]

The scale of this is unprecedented. Folks need to also keep in mind the scale of the primary Creek Fire evacuation itself. It's moving through a canyon twice as deep as the Grand Canyon, and involves hundreds of square miles considered high risk, considerably more area than even the previous monster CA fires this year. The FS is rightfully paranoid about the predicted westward wind shift over the next two days, which could lead the currently active fire right into enormous tracts of dead pine, with hot ash potentially falling 15 or 20 miles further. I've lived through that kind of scenario, so realize the gravity of the situation. Fires ripping through those deep remote canyons are extremely difficult to fight.

[John Kasaian]

Prather is being evacuated this morning.

[Drew Wiley]

I keep checking the official satellite map based on thermal imaging. We awoke here, clear over on the Bay, to thick smoke and a pale pink sun. It's distinctly wood smoke, most of it probably from the nearly instant destruction of the whole of Jose Basin, where nearly all the pines were beetle-killed. I'm guardedly optimistic about our family home because the young family we sold it to own heavy equipment and have done a superb job with fire breaks and brush control, and because it's adjacent to a road junction critical to fire truck activity. But monster fires like this one drop hot ash far and wide, with the shift in winds bringing that to lower elevations westward. It's also burning south into the Kings drainage of Blue Canyon. Meadow Lakes and Alder Springs have been overtaken.
Up-canyon, I'm worried about old historical places like the Hogue Ranch and it's moss-chinked log house (Jesse Ross Cabin), where the Fuji apple was first hybridized, long before it was mass cultivated elsewhere. They called them Fuji's because the entire crop each year was shipped to Japan, which fetched the highest price, unless you drove there yourself and bought them from their little stand. Sweetest apples ever - no store-bought Fuji compares.

[tgtaylor]

Passing this along:

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT!

JMT HIKERS ON THE TRAIL or those supporting hikers via communication devices:

If you are in the vicinity of [VVR or MTR[/B], the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office is encouraging hikers to head to one of three locations in order to make it easy for first responders to account for everyone. Three temporary refuge areas have been established for people to go and shelter in place.
1. VVR/Edison Lake
2. MTR/Blayney Meadow
3. China Peak Resort
This will make it easier to coordinate an evacuation if people are in just a few spots instead of spread out on the trail. You can get current information once you reach one of those places. JMT hikers are not in immediate danger but the Creek Fire is fast-moving and we have gusty winds and very low humidity predicted for the next couple of days.
INYO and SIERRA NF are both CLOSED. This means your hike is over if you are in or heading toward these locations.
Other locations: SOBO hikers, if you are between Yosemite and Red’s Meadow, go back to Yosemite or, if you’re close to Red’s, exit at Red’s Meadow. If you are coming NOBO, exit via an east side lateral trail if you can.

Thomas

[tgtaylor]

IQAir reports that the current AQI as of 0700 in Lone Pine is over 1000 PM10:

LIVE LONE PINE AQI RANKING
Real-time Lone Pine air quality ranking

# STATION US AQI
1 Lone Pine
1003

2 Lizard Tail
861

07:00, Sep 8 (local time)

Thomas

[Vaughn]

A red sun at dawn...

[Drew Wiley]

Most of the high country is simply outside cell phone coverage, and all this atmospheric mess probably doesn't help either. I have left texts for my friends still up there, but it's unlikely they have reception. My main worry is them getting disoriented in the smoke and getting lost. Actual fire risk above timberline is low, and there are plenty of lakes and active streams. But smoke inhalation is itself a serious health risk sometimes with long-term consequences. And Just trying to get to, or get back to, some official exit point might be unrealistic if its hard to even breathe carrying a heavy pack. There's hardly even any visibility way down in Yosemite Valley itself, or further down in Oakhurst.
Vaughn - our sun is still a pale orange-pink disc, with the smoke mixed with coastal fog. Surreal. Something I found curious last week is how the National Weather Service rated the air quality in Owens Valley as horrible, while the local Tourist Bureau at the same time was posting it as excellent. Figures.
The Creek Fire is now right above the high school which serves as the command center for this fire, and which my father predominantly built after the Dam project was completed. It's not at risk, but that southeast trend of the fire has no doubt destroyed a lot of homes and cabins on peripheral spurs to Hwy 168 above, which the fire has jumped. For the moment, it's moving away from my own former property, but could easily impact old friends of mine who built up in the brush.

[tgtaylor]

This is from Monday morning:

View from Kearsarge Pass at 8am this morning. I woke up about 1am smelling smoke and never really got back to sleep. Wore my buff the entire way down to Onion Valley and it was still hard to breathe. Smoke all the way south past Lancaster.


207590

Kearsarge Pass is close to Independence, Ca and at an elevation of ~12,000'. It's about 5 mile from the top of the pass to the Onion Valley trailhead. Glen Pass is about 5 miles to the right of the image.

Thomas

[MrFujicaman]

Ya'll stay safe out there!

[Drew Wiley]

I camped one night at Onion Valley last week,Tom. Had no interest in hiking up to the Pass. Was over it and into the solitude of Center Basin a few years ago. A nearby camper barely made it up to Robinson Lk and back on a dayhike due to breathing difficulties. I had ashfall all night due to a far smaller fire on the other side of the range south of Mineral King, which was sending smoke plumes 17,000 ft high, clear over the top. But still, the air was significantly better than lower down in Owens Valley or in Mono Basin that particular day. The thermocumulus character of this more recent, far more dangerous Creek Fire has gone as high as 50,000 ft.

[Dann Corbit]

Washington and Idaho are also ablaze. Lots of highways have closures. I have 25 acres that might burn to the ground (there is a big, uncontrolled blaze within a mile). I have family in an area plaged by wildfires right now. It seems like they get worse every year.

[John Kasaian]

Army National Guard helicopter pilots and crews are doing an amazing job evacuating hikers, flying at night in the mountains and using night vision goggles through the fire,smoke and turbulence. They definitely have The Right Stuff.
This morning I saw another Blackhawk come in from another part of the State to join the effort.

[Drew Wiley]

The dicey issue with my friends is that they were attempting a tweak on the so-called High Route mostly off-trail the length of the range all the way from Whitney clear north past Yosemite, and exiting at Twin Lks above Bridgeport, and are therefore unlikely to encounter other fleeing hikers or be intuitively looked for by aircraft. And they probably didn't file any kind of reasonably specific route plan in advance, since current online only options don't accept those kinds of off-trail details. There's little actual fire risk that high above timberline, but I can't imagine trying to hike in that kind of smoke. One of them is lugging at least 90 lbs because they were attempting the entire route without resupply. I did my best to talk them into doing it in sections instead, and at nearly 71, couldn't realistically guide them myself over the whole length in one hypothetical push. There are a number of tricky low-Class-3 spots where it's easy to get off-track onto the cliffs. I can only hope they've sheltered themselves in place at some high lake and are waiting this one out, not realizing that this is an incident that isn't going away for quite awhile. At least they'll have sufficient food and a serious Bibler tent shelter.

[John Kasaian]

The dicey issue with my friends is that they were attempting a tweak on the so-called High Route mostly off-trail the length of the range all the way from Whitney clear north past Yosemite, and exiting at Twin Lks above Bridgeport, and are therefore unlikely to encounter other fleeing hikers or be intuitively looked for by aircraft. And they probably didn't file any kind of reasonably specific route plan in advance, since current online only options don't accept those kinds of off-trail details. There's little actual fire risk that high above timberline, but I can't imagine trying to hike in that kind of smoke. One of them is lugging at least 90 lbs because they were attempting the entire route without resupply. I did my best to talk them into doing it in sections instead, and at nearly 71, couldn't realistically guide them myself over the whole length in one hypothetical push. There are a number of tricky low-Class-3 spots where it's easy to get off-track onto the cliffs. I can only hope they've sheltered themselves in place at some high lake and are waiting this one out, not realizing that this is an incident that isn't going away for quite awhile. At least they'll have sufficient food and a serious Bibler tent shelter.

Drew, isn't spending that much trail time above the timberline hazardous because of lightning? Before the fire started there was quite a bit of stormy weather up there!

[Drew Wiley]

John, the older person involved, now in his mid 40's, accompanied me on several trips where he learned first hand the risk of sudden lightning storms, and therefore how and when to time ridge, high pass, and bare area crossings. We dealt with a number of extreme lightning storms both in the Sierras and Rockies, so I'm not particularly worried about that. He's also done the entire JMT solo twice in autumn, enduring multiple serious blizzards. The so-called Sierra High Route, whether the Roper version or longer ones, basically parallels the Muir Trail, but at higher elevation, but also uses the JMT/PCT itself about 30% of the way. High passes themselves are intermittent; but there are many more up/down intermediate obstacles than the developed trail, some quite strenuous and convoluted. I had my own even higher version before the term High Route was even coined. I wasn't trying to establish any kind of "alternate route" for sake of a guidebook or something like that; it was just about getting as much off-trail and into solitude as possible, almost randomly.
I was hoping for a weather event in Sabrina basin last week, but it obviously didn't work out. But I did get wonderful cloud formations minus lightning up atop the White Mtns. I had to default to MF gear when the winds acted up, but got some nice 4x5's too.
You might have heard by now that Cressman's iconic old store was destroyed yesterday when the fire jumped 168. And the couple that bought my property were camping at Edison Lk and among those transported out of there last night by helicopter, but are not allowed to return home. At least the fire is now trending southeast, the other direction. The real extent of loss to places like Meadow Lakes, Alder Springs, and Bretz Mill will be known only after either the smoke finally lifts or it's safe enough for inspectors to enter those areas. Even the Highway Patrol has been asked to leave for sake of their own safety.
Another positive note is that the northern part of the Sierra Scenic Byway has been spared by the wind reversal, so places like Granite Creek, Jackass Mdws, Beasore Mdws, Fresno Dome, and Nelder Grove seem safe, at least for now. The Shuteye Peak complex - my former living room view - was surrounded by fire, but it's nearly all bare granite anyway, so couldn't have been affected much.

[Dugan]

At this point, I'm thinking of taking up smoking...for my health!
:rolleyes:

[Drew Wiley]

It was a bit surreal just a few minutes ago seeing actual footage of the couple who bought my house on primetime national news aboard a rescue helicopter, airlifting them last night from a camping trip higher up the road. It will probably go international too. These rescues involve people trapped near actual roads, in one instance in a ski resort parking lot. They haven't even begun searching the backcountry beyond the fire zone for those potentially impaired by smoke. There's another huge fire in the very south of the range which hasn't gotten any attention because it's far from anything developed and not a popular hiking area; but it's pumping out a lot of smoke too.

[John Kasaian]

We just learned that Oakhurst and Coarsegold are preparing for evacuation, A new emergency shelter is being established in Mariposa.

[reddesert]

A friend of mine was planning to start a High Route hike on Sunday, southbound, but bailed before starting due to the smoke. The Sierra and Inyo NF are now temporarily closed for hiking. He reports just taking a couple of miles walk at Horseshoe Meadows was a lung burner from the smoke.

I spent a long night once in a tent in Dusy Basin scared out of my wits by a four hour middle-of-the-night lightning storm, but often you can get long stretches of clear weather, or lightning occurs more predictably in the afternoon so you get off the high passes before it builds.

[Drew Wiley]

The thermocumulus cloud in this instance was creating its own lighting and very loud thunder. Here on the coast over 150 miles from the fire, we didn't even have a sunrise this morning It's actually darker even now now, mid-morning, than at dawn, darker than an eclipse or moonlit night, with a faint apricot glow every direction of the sky. Wood smoke smell. The color photographic light inland must be phenomenal; but breathing must be a chore. I remember some magical thunderstom nights in Dusy Basin, with the thunder claps echoing back and forth between the sheer cliffs. It was in October the last time. The storm finally ended, the moon appeared, and a then a coyote pack started a howl session that itself echoed six times or between the cliffs for every howl. A unforgettable wonderful experience. But then in the early hours of the morning two climbers tripped over my tent guy line. They had been strapped onto the sheer face of appropriately named Thunderbolt Peak the whole time, and somehow survived, got down, and staggered all dazed back toward camp by moonlight.

[tgtaylor]

The sky color in the bay area this morning is otherworldly - like looking through a deep orange filter:


https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50323281648_82d803e707_z.jpg

Taken at 0930 this morning. Sunrise was at 0647.

Thomas

[Sal Santamaura]

The sky color in the bay area this morning is otherworldly - like looking through a deep orange filter...Down here it's been something like that, with slight variations from dark yellow to medium orange, for quite a few days. We're many tens of miles from the nearest fires, but wind has been light and in the wrong directions. Air quality index varies from low 60s to near 300. I don't expect much improvement until high pressure dominating the west breaks down. Probably not before next month.

[Vaughn]

Same here. it stayed dawn until 11am

[Andrew O'Neill]

Yesterday was pretty bad up here in BC, with lots of smoke from California and Washington. Today is better. Our fire season has been quite tame compared to previous summers...fingers crossed!

[Drew Wiley]

It's now noon and the roosters just started crowing, and the porch cats woke up looking for breakfast. Ashfall over everything. I spent most of the morning filing a missing hiker report regarding my friends, who have been out 10 days now. But the various agencies are overwhelmed with unaccounted for backpackers right now.

[Roger Thoms]

Drew, I hope your friends are ok, I’ll keep them in my thoughts.

Roget

[Dugan]

Sunny 16 rule for today...
ISO 100, f 4.0 8/10, @ 4 seconds.207609

[Drew Wiley]

Thanks Roger. The scale of this is unprecedented, but just a harbinger of things to come. There are over 13 million dead pines in Sierra Natl Forest alone. But the population density is low. What they are really worried about next is something like this occurring in Tahoe NF, which not only has lots of dead pines, but way more people. As far as my friends go, there are mutual friends digging up digital pictures of them right now, in case someone has encountered them. The helicopters can't begin to search for tents in the high country until they've caught up with search and rescue in the burning forest areas below, and until smoke itself clears up somewhat.

[Bernice Loui]

Coastside Northern California today
207613


NASA sat view.
207614


Bernice

[Vaughn]

As dark as dusk since early afternoon.

[John Kasaian]

Drew, I hope your friends are ok, I’ll keep them in my thoughts.

Roget

Me too!

[Tin Can]

My tiny local newspaper had extensive coverage online yesterday

It is sad and dangerous

Good luck to all

[Drew Wiley]

I've been in contact with people in charge of rescues and so forth, and the windward push of smoke this direction, toward the coast, has substantially improved conditions east up higher along the Muir Trail and so forth, where there are still apparently a considerable number of hikers they really wish weren't there, since search and rescue resources are already severely overtaxed, and dramatic new fires have suddenly broken out further north. The current focus is on people potentially stranded on roads or cabins or trails lower down in the woods, where the risk is extreme.
But based upon whatever details could be put together, it's probable that my friends have just in the past day or so crossed over the top from the Kings into the San Joaquin drainage, and thank goodness, their itinerary shows them in about a day planning to egress the off-trail portion and default onto the standard Muir Trail the rest of the trip north, where they'll encounter other people along the way, and also soon be able to exit at Reds Meadow in Devil's Postpile if necessary.
I warned them about the northern portion of the "High Route" based on their fast schedule and skill level, and thank goodness, it appears they took my advice after all. That would have involved them dipping way down into a deep canyon, zig-zagging between cliffs, where the inevitable bad smoke would make route finding especially precarious. The official Muir Trail totally detours all of that.

[tgtaylor]

La Nina is here:

https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/La-Nina-is-here-threatening-even-bigger-blazes-15556516.php

Thomas

[Vaughn]

I will certainly appreciate the extra moisture it potentially can bring here up here...not good for the rest of CA -- and while the models used to predict such things are getting better all the time, things seem to be getting weirder all the time climate-wise. But climate is what you have and weather is what you get.

Yesterday has heavy on the smoke and medium on the fog. Today it is heavier on the fog, a little lighter on the smoke. Ten in the morning, 53F.

[Drew Wiley]

The golden amber light light today is photographically exquisite. But I'm not going to take advantage of it or even take a brief country road drive because the air quality is miserable. I sneeze within a minute of going outdoors. Flakes of ash falling constantly.

[tgtaylor]

The sun at ~ 3:30 this afternoon:


https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50328502151_ce44318c8f.jpg

Thomas

[Drew Wiley]

I did finally make it out. The light was warm but fully 3 stops dimmer than ordinary, and the air temp about 30 degrees lower than typical this time of year, but not as dark or red as yesterday or as Thomas' shot above. I was trying out my new nearly-new Texas Leica which arrived the very next morning after I ordered it from Tokyo. I guess it helps to be within half an hour of the FexEx airport terminal.

[MrFujicaman]

I think if you want to take multi-day hikes out west, you need a satellite phone,

[Drew Wiley]

That is correct, but not infallible. They're still battery dependent; and they're expensive. Yet another option is an emergency satellite rescue beacon, but the problem with them, now that they're getting popular, is that too many inexperienced people use them unwisely when they're merely too tired, or have a stomach ache due to being not acclimated yet, etc, diverting limited rescue resources from dire needs truly needing them. And in the case of these major fires, the entire system is overwhelmed, regardless.

[tgtaylor]

Shot that with the Canon G9 P&S with the lens zoomed out as it would go while assuming the stereotypical digital photography pose with the camera held high at arms length above my head. I had the camera on “automatic” but I remember seeing 1/500 second and it says that f4.8 is the maximum aperture. Considering that I don't care for it as I do with my film cameras – it's usually kept in a kitchen drawer and even for weeks on end in the car's arm rest – its been a remarkably reliable camera since I purchased it new back in 2007. The current AQI in my neighborhood is 272 and rising but luckily I bought a Honeywell HEPA ait purifier a couple of months back and the current AQI in the apartment is fluctuates between 25 and 30 with all the windows and patio door closed (double pane) and on the “turbo” setting. Keeping the outside air out causes the indoor CO2 level to rise but at lease the outside temperature has been in the upper 50's to 70's for the past two days and not into the tripple digits that it was – 106 on Monday or Tuesday.

Thomas

[Andrew O'Neill]

....aaaaaaand the smoke is back again, along with an invasion of your moths!! :(

[Bernice Loui]

207660


Bernice

[Tin Can]

Blood-hungry, hurricane-fuelled mosquito swarms killing livestock in Louisiana (https://globalnews.ca/news/7326419/killer-mosquitoes-cows-louisana-swarm/)

Africa already had locusts

[Drew Wiley]

Just wait until vast Dustbowl-like storms begin anew in the middle part of the country. No place to hide. But bugs? - mosquitos and biting flies are now the no.1 cause of certain moose herds in the lower 48 and adjacent Canada having trouble maintaining their population, which in turn is a symptom of climate-change-related longer summers and warmer winters. And caribou herds in the arctic have their movements dictated by where the bugs are and aren't, because flies and mosquitos weaken many of them too. This might well be the first year in the past 40 that I don't get in a summer backpack trip due to delaying it until mosquito season was over, and now having to factor fire hazard instead. Both make you run.

[Vaughn]

Another day of thick fog and smoke, temps mid-60s...we are the lucky ones around here. Major evacuations underway within the county, with the State's largest wildfire of record approaching the county from the southeast, and fires in the northeastern part of the county. The coast here is the local place of refuge, with fairgrounds and other facilities starting to fill with refugees. Shelters for animals (pets and large animals) have also been set-up.

Some fires in the northern county are unstaffed, with resources (fire crews, tankers, air support) unavailable. What is available are trying to save towns, other structures and cultural sites of importance.

[tgtaylor]

As of Friday morning, some 3.1 million acres — the equivalent of four Rhode Islands — have been torched this year by a seemingly unending parade of fires, according to Cal Fire. With several of the largest blazes at less than 25-percent containment, that total was certain to rise - According to SF Gate. The noon news said that was 3% of California. The CO2 concentration rose to 1597 - unhealthy range- so this evening I will have to open the windows to bring it back down. That will let in the unhealthy air from the outside but I am counting on the air purifier to clean it up. I was surprised to read that there were 500,000 evacuations in Oregon with more coming.

Thomas

[Drew Wiley]

Portland is said to have even worse air quality than here at the moment, and the big fire south of there is badly understaffed. They even had their command center burn down. Calif. fatalities are mainly in the burn adjacent to where the deadly Paradise Fire of two years ago was. Washington had more acreage burn in a single day than in a typical year. The Creek Fire upcanyon from my home town area is now on record as the fastest moving fire ever in this country, with the largest thermocumulus cloud ever recorded in this country too. It's mainly moving south toward the lower Kings drainage; but they're still evacuating people even to the north and west due to potential wind shift. One of my friends attempting the High Route reached the Muir Trail north of Selden Pass and presumably hiked out to Edison Lk, and if so, was helicoptered to Fresno where he called from. The more experienced one is going to try to reach Red's Mdw and exit to Mammoth; but I don't know by which route yet, so am still a bit anxious, since the wind might shift east in a few days, carrying this smoke with it.

[tgtaylor]

My friend and I were down in Tehipite Valley for a week. We come out yesterday(Thursday) a day early because we knew there had to be a major fire somewhere due to the falling ash in Tehipite Valley. Our cars were parked at Rancheria Trailhead, and covered in ash. We drove out to Shaver Lake, and we were told there by a Fresno County Sheriff about what had happened since we had left civilization. We did not require rescue, and walked out on our own up and out on one of the most difficult trails in the Sierra. It was eerie and sad driving down Hwy 168 yesterday afternoon, to say the least. I guess I am just missing something, but I don’t understand why JMT hikers didn’t just continue hiking until they got to Whitney Portal. ?We never considered calling for a rescue even though I carry a Garmin In Reach satellite device.

[Drew Wiley]

There were two separate fires to the south causing terrible smoke in Kern Can and spilling over the top into Owens Valley. A small one along Rattlesnake Cr in Golden Trout Wilderness south of Mineral Kings. About 15 backpackers were helicopter rescued out of there. But then a huge fire erupted still further south lower down. I gave up on my own backpack plans and defaulted to a car camping trip where the air was clean. But I did camp one night at Onion Valley below Kearsarge Pass, and couldn't believe the sheer quantity of cars in the trailhead parking lot. The Muir Trail attracts a lot of naive neophytes, who were headed toward the pass while experienced hikers were fleeing out as fast as they could. I can't imagine hiking out of the summer heat of Tehipite under smoky conditions. I did a hundred mile round trip up above there a couple years ago in Sept, but the issue on that trip was blizzards. I'm don't tolerate heat well anymore, and the last time I hiked up from the bottom of Kings Can, I started uphill at 3AM to avoid the worst heat.

[John Kasaian]

I smoked an OPA Bloodline Maduro wrapped torpedo today.
On the patio, with my Bride's terrier-ist, watching the hummingbirds and the bees competing for the nectar in hummingbird feeder.
It couldn't be any worse, possibly even better, than breathing the air here.:rolleyes:

[Tin Can]

Good for you John!

[Willie]

Just wait until vast Dustbowl-like storms begin anew in the middle part of the country. No place to hide. But bugs? - mosquitos and biting flies are now the no.1 cause of certain moose herds in the lower 48 and adjacent Canada having trouble maintaining their population, which in turn is a symptom of climate-change-related longer summers and warmer winters. And caribou herds in the arctic have their movements dictated by where the bugs are and aren't, because flies and mosquitos weaken many of them too. This might well be the first year in the past 40 that I don't get in a summer backpack trip due to delaying it until mosquito season was over, and now having to factor fire hazard instead. Both make you run.

Unlikely Drew.

No till and low till farming practices, crop rotation, different fertilizing regimens and shelter belts make a big difference.
Air seeders make a big difference with minimal ground disturbance and newer drill seeders that put seeds directly into the ground without harrowing or plowing are used in many places. Cover crops for flelds left fallow make a big difference. Harvesting while leaving stubble for wildlife has the added benefit of not breaking up topsoil so wind won't hit it so hard with erosion as in decades past.

CRP(Crop Reserve Program) helps with land that is not actively farmed. Provides protection as well as habitat for wildlife and "moisture sinks" to help trap water so it goes into the ground rather than evaporating.

Different States have different practices and laws. Where I live farm Corporations have to be closely held Family Corporation - with them living there. No Monsanto/Bandini types allowed to own the farms and ranches. Family farms are the norm. Modern machinery means one worker can plant what took10 to do years ago. Yes, bigger tractors and such but much more efficient, including crop yields only dreamed of decades ago. Much quicker ripening crops help a lot in the Northern States and Canada both.

A Dust Bowl could happen but is very unlikely, given how farming is practiced in much of the Central USA now. Still, prairie fires are a threat as is disease, crop predation, drought and too much rain at the wrong time. Even with Climate Change in the mix things are better in many ways. We have 5 more growing days now than 50 years ago each summer. That, coupled with new quick ripening varieties mean Corn is grown here when a few decades ago it would not ripen fast enough to harvest before Winter frost hit.


A complete drought with no crops grown will hit hard but without deep plowing to break up the topsoil we won't see it nearly as bad as the Dirty Thirties. We still have people who lived through it. We have the records and evidence. No one wants it back and it is highly unlikely it will return.

[Tin Can]

According to my local TV, we have no clouds

and no blue sky

Cali Smoke is here

[Drew Wiley]

My two friends got separated trying to negotiate a high off-trail pass. One somehow made it out two days ago, the other just this afternoon. It was a close call for both. The wind has shifted east and extreme smoke conditions are anticipated over the crest of the range with the next few hours. We're expected to get a partial reprieve most of next week, but after that, the smoke here might be worse than ever. The good news is that an early season rainstorm is forecast for OR and WA.

[Mark Sampson]

Re Tin Can's recent comment, smoke from the 1988 Yellowstone fires made it as far east as western NY state. so probably even farther.
Here in Tucson it's a thin high overcast with an orange sun. The recent Bighorn fire here was tiny by comparison to what you all are going through- stay safe everyone!

[Vaughn]

So far, not the worse. They have slowed the fire approaching Humboldt County from the southeast, but still a major threat to many homes and communities. A fire due south of the county that closed the highway for a couple days is being controlled with evactuations orders lifted. Some headway made on fires in the north part of the county. Recent cool temps have helped (but has kept the smoke local, too). Possible rain on TH and Friday...probably not much, but anything will help and I have not heard that lightning is associated with the storm.

Clearer skies forecasted by Tuesday.

[MrFujicaman]

Glad to hear your friends are safe,Drew.

[John Kasaian]

Glad to hear your friends are safe,Drew.

Yup!

[Drew Wiley]

Thanks. After they've rested up a week or so, I'll get back in touch with them for details of the ordeal. Some big fires are now under control, the aforementioned Creek Fire barely is, but is starting to encounter terrain which already burned before in relatively recent years, so won't burn as fiercely this time around. But a new fire complex has started southwest of Sequoia, and the arson-related Big Sur fire is still spreading and generating a lot of smoke. They're predicting a few days of lesser smoke here, so I'll try to get my legs worked on some nearby hill, and get in a little b&w printing while I can use the air exchanger without turning the whole darkroom into an ashtray. I hosed down everything adjacent yesterday, and even sponged ash residue off one of the outdoor cats. It's a strange feeling having cabin fever in summer instead or winter.

[Drew Wiley]

John - the bad news is that the fire is now moving north and seems to be just about to overtake Jackass Mdws, Clover Mdw, Norris Cr TH, Granite Cr, etc. Hard to say beyond that uphill, since there's quite a bit of rock, and healthy firs predominate rather than dead pines, but still with a lot of old downfall present. They're expecting it to get very active due to increased winds in the deep canyons upriver from Mammoth Pool. Eventually that pinches itself off with a lot of nearly bare cliffs and what already burned a year or two ago. If it turns the other way again from there however, and hits the massive pine plateau beyond Kaiser Pk, all hell will break loose. They've been trying to establish a defensible line in between. And now with a bit of smoke clearing, they can start using planes effectively.

[Tin Can]

While looking up Arthur Tress I found the fire proof California houses

Nixon had one early on

Pure genius, almost adobe strength

Whittier Hugheston Meadows (https://www.newspapers.com/clip/21412182/forever-houses-in-hugheston-meadows/)

This link shows some history and how they were made (https://www.invisiblethemepark.com/2017/03/miracle-mid-century-city-of-steel-and-concrete-invisible-forgotten-hugheston-meadows/)


This one shows many actual homes (https://usmodernist.org/qjones-hugheston.htm)

but you still need clean air

I think we need to retreat to caves

[jp]

The upper atmosphere here in Maine is turning slightly golden orange as smoke comes in from the west.

[Drew Wiley]

The achilles heel of real adobe is any kind of roof leak. They dissolve. They're not structurally solid either. I don't know where you got that idea. And plenty of them have burned down. Just look at what has happened to most Calif. mission structures. But they are wonderfully comfortable in hot weather. Now what you can build (though not in earthquake areas - the bldg codes won't allow it) is rammed-earth construction with internal reinforcement. I know a contractor who built his personal retirement home into a natural sandstone cave or deep alcove, and added a reinforced abode front. He made all the bricks and flooring himself out of local clay materials, so it all blends into the natural setting. The very thick natural "roof" has lots of wildflowers and commuting coyotes. I've heard of that kind of thing being done in Arizona too, and have seen a few analogous "cave dwellings" in the red sandstone country of Utah. Other than scorpions, these seem like about as safe dwellings as one could imagine. No back door exit or view out the back, however.

[Drew Wiley]

The achilles heel of real adobe is a roof leak. They dissolve. They're not structurally solid either. I don't know where you got that idea. And plenty of them have burned down. Just look at what has happened to most Calif. mission structures. But they are wonderfully comfortable in hot weather. Now what you can build (though not in earthquake areas - the bldg codes won't allow it) is rammed-earth construction with internal reinforcement. I know a contractor who built his personal retirement home into a natural sandstone cave or deep alcove, and added a reinforced abode front. He made all the bricks and flooring himself out of local clay materials, so it all blends into the natural setting. The very thick natural "roof" has lots of wildflowers and commuting coyotes. I've heard of that kind of thing being done in Arizona too, and have seen a few analogous "cave dwellings" in the red sandstone country of Utah. Other than scorpions, these seem about as safe a kind of dwelling as one could imagine.

[tgtaylor]

Both the indoor and outdoor AQI are in the GREEN at my house!

[Dugan]

Same here! Woo-hoo!

[Jody_S]

People might not be ready to hear this, but at some point, as with low-lying coastal cities, some parts of the West Coast interior will no longer be habitable and people will have to relocate. And that time is soon.

[Willie]

People might not be ready to hear this, but at some point, as with low-lying coastal cities, some parts of the West Coast interior will no longer be habitable and people will have to relocate. And that time is soon.

They can sing OKLAHOMA as they drive and walk back to Tulsa?

[Drew Wiley]

Yes, Willie, the sea-level is rising, and its going to be very expensive to seawall certain urban areas; but Florida and Louisiana are going to have a vastly bigger problem with that. Most of our coastline is actually cliffs. Oklahoma now statistically has more earthquakes than California due to localized geological collapse due to fracking. And the southern plains have indeed had some very serious duststorms already in the past several years, reminiscent of dust bowl days, with clouds dumping dust far and wide. But my standard joke is about real estate prices out here, which is why techies are strapping all their earthly belonging atop their BMW's and driving to Oklahoma to find work there! If Steinbeck were alive he'd write a novel about it : The Chips of Wrath (computer chips).

[Drew Wiley]

There's suddenly a lot of blue sky this morning, and 2/3 of Pt Reyes has opened back up to the public. Hmm... I feel like some little proto-mammal sticking its fuzzy little nose out of the burrow for the first time since the Cretaceous meteor extinction event happened.

[Vaughn]

Many are customizing Sprinter Vans and are working and taking up space in the American West.

[Rick A]

We are experiencing the smoke from the western fires here in southern Pa. Hazy skies feint smoke smell, orange sunrises and sunsets we normally don't see in the Laurel Highlands.

[Drew Wiley]

The couple that bought my property were camping at the end of the road higher up (Lk Edison). It took 4 days for a chopper to get in there and get about 40 people out. The wife has just now been released from the hospital after being treated for severe smoke inhalation. But nobody is allowed back uphill to home yet. The mid elevations in between, the pine belt or what biologists term the Transition Zone, now looks like a nuke war had been there.

[Dann Corbit]

I had a 4x5 camera delayed by the fires. It was supposed to have already been delivered.
I kept looking at the shipping and for the last four days, the message attached to the FedEx shipment has been the same: "In transit TROUTDALE, OR 97060"
I called FedEx and got some robot thing, but I noticed a link to problems due to the hurricane and due to fires.
Troutdate, OR is one of the places they won't ship to and they just had big fires there.
I hope the driver is OK (and everyone else in Troutdale).

[Drew Wiley]

I have family in Portland. And the pioneer town which my mother's clan founded has been evacuated. Hope rain arrives there soon. I guess I'm lucky to be so close to the FedEx terminal here. I recently received a camera from Tokyo in less than one day. Trout apparently swim slower. Didn't the old Troutdale riverside Inn get hit by that infamous Gorge fire due to kids tossing firecrackers? I haven't been through there since that fire.

[Vaughn]

Most of the evac notices have been cancelled for Southern Humboldt (West Zone August Fire) as the fire has not crossed the Eel River. But the North Zone of the fire is still causing evacuations up in Trinity County. Two other fires north and east of here are not doing well, but not spreading quickly at this point with remaining communities and homes being protected. Hwy 199 is still closed.

From this morning's report: Smoke has been preventing the use of aircraft, however yesterday air operations were able to occur on the west side of the fire.
In the Yolla Bolly-Middle Eel Wilderness along Wrights Ridge, the August Complex North and South Zones continue to merge, therefore it is not safe to put firefighters in the area.

One of the main trails crossing the wilderness I worked in is along Wright's Ridge. Some pretty gnarly trees growing around chert outcroppings along the ridge. They are isolated enough to perhaps still be there. The ridge leads to Windy Mountain and the headwater spring of the Middle Fork Eel River.

[John Kasaian]

Yosemite NP is closed up due to air quality. The air index in Yosemite right now is 685.

[Drew Wiley]

I just got back from Pt Reyes. Most of the road closures are due to paving work. A couple trails have collapse hazards along cliffs. Their website explains all that. The fire is still smoldering a tiny bit, but unlike the huge fires in the Sierras and Northwest, the Pt Reyes Woodward Fire transpired in healthy forest and behaved more like a predictable cyclical fire. From the Hwy 1 side, it looks like at least 90% of the large firs survived, and the ones that burned were probably due for it anyway. Deciduous trees took it a little harder, but much of that was inevitable too, and probably "sudden oak death" fungal related. The backside of the hill was not visible, and no doubt suffered more due to highly flammable sappy bishop pine. But all that should regenerate fine. No houses or park facilities around the perimeter were lost. Air quality not ideal, but much better than it's been for the past month. That is due to change by the weekend, and potentially back to miserable smoke, but a bit of rain might be on the way for the Sierra.
Meanwhile, the entire south half of the range including Yosemite and everything south of there, has either been closed to entry or downright evacuated. They are understandably paranoid about either another lightning event or early arrival of strong autumn winds.

[Vaughn]

That is what makes me hopeful for some of the Yolla Bollys. There have already been a couple crowning fires through there in the 30 years since I worked there, but also some non-canopy fires doing some good work. The huge patches of whitethorn that regrow over the trail on the burnt out sections is a drag.

[LabRat]

I'm in Pasadena right now with a clear view of Mt Wilson (observatory & major broadcasting site) in the distance, and watching a line of aero super tankers circling, taking turns dumping, then still circling, probably looking if they missed a hot spot for further drops... I'm too far away to film, not long enough lens, but probably video is online...

Steve K

[Drew Wiley]

Mt Hamilton Observatory (or cluster of observatories) barely escaped one of our big fires up here, and I mean by mere yards away. The main telescope is mainly used for just teaching purposes today, because light pollution from the explosive growth of the nearby city of San Jose has rendered it almost useless except for a few wee hours before dawn.

[LabRat]

This fire was on Mt Wilson property, and (I missed the details on the radio) affected buildings on the property, including the major sismograph used to monitor earthquakes all over the world...

The telescope was suffering the same fate as many near urban observatories, but got a new lease on life when it inherited the adaptive optics assembly from the ill fated "Star Wars" military project and remains relevant... The solar observatory is still in almost daily use, as you can see bright flashes of strange colors of reflected sunlight probably bouncing off the edge of what looks like a dichroic mirror that projects the solar image deep underground...

Then there's all the broadcasting from next to it...

You could see the big changes to the smoke plumes after the aircraft dumped over them, sorta like the steam after you dump a bucket of water over a campfire...

At least here, the fire smoke that filters down smells like a campfire, not burnt paint/rubber/fiberglass resin etc, as the fire has not burnt much of man-made materials here...

Be safe, y'all!!!

Steve K

[tgtaylor]

It would be a tragic loss if anything should happen to Mt. Wilson. Among the many notable discoveries made there was the Hubble Constant with which Edwin Hubble discovered the expansion of the universe.

[Drew Wiley]

John K. - the Creek Fire has now overrun Granite Cr and up over the Niche almost to Cora Lks. I imagine the red firs along the 3mi grade up will have been hit hard, and that that section of trail will be dustier than ever. But up on the plateau it will probably just cull out the old deadfall and open up the meadows more. It's also jumped the North Fork of the River to the lower section of Iron Cr, but won't get far in all that bare rock. The grade in between, down to Hemlock Crossing, is red fir zone too, so might be a mess and eyesore. Mammoth Lks is on alert.

[tgtaylor]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/creek-fire-ignites-fire-management-133005848.html

[Helcio J Tagliolatto]

Smoke from burning in the Amazon reached São Paulo this weekend, 4000 km away. However, unlike what happens on the American West Coast, these are burned on purpose in order to occupy forest areas for agriculture. They always occur on a small scale, but in this government that encourages them, where the Environment Minister says that global warming is communist hysteria, the burning of virgin forests has skyrocketed.
This image, taken from the balcony of our house, should show an early spring crystal clear sky.

207956

[Tin Can]

Many in USA and World Wide are worried about the Amazon, we follow much of it

Politics

Greed

Sloth


Smoke from burning in the Amazon reached São Paulo this weekend, 4000 km away. However, unlike what happens on the American West Coast, these are burned on purpose in order to occupy forest areas for agriculture. They always occur on a small scale, but in this government that encourages them, where the Environment Minister says that global warming is communist hysteria, the burning of virgin forests has skyrocketed.
This image, taken from the balcony of our house, should show an early spring crystal clear sky.

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[Drew Wiley]

Tom - Interest has spread far and wide about the Creek Fire due to its especially dramatic nature. But I get a bit tired of generic what-if answers and backseat quarterbacking by people who have absolutely no idea of the variety of terrain involved or the history of the area, either natural or human. The explosive "mushroom cloud" nature of the initial big event was basically due to the manner wind currents behave in that extremely deep canyon itself, which, except for a few campgrounds, is almost totally uninhabited. Up above, an unusually high numbers of inexperienced hikers took advantage of Covid-related understaffing of the Forest Service and National Parks to enter without permits, which exacerbated rescue pandemonium.
As the fire spread toward resorts, the most rapid spread and greatest destruction was actually in areas heavily logged off in both the 1880's and 1960's, which were the most beetle affected. And ironically, the only thing that really stops those beetles now that cold winters are gone is catastrophic fire. Talking about preemptive logging is ridiculous - none of those trees have any commercial value, and thus no financial incentive to log it, and except on the plateaus, most forest is outright inaccessible. Some of these armchair quarterbacks and politicians seem to think it's like a handkerchief suburban yard situation, and all you need is a leaf rake.
You know all this, of course, as yourself a backpacker with experience in Sierra canyons. What didn't burn (like my home town itself), didn't because the chaparral around it already burned more than once in my own lifetime, and ranching-oriented areas have more experience protecting their property from fire, whereas resort real-estate tends to attract newer buyers unaware of just how extreme the risk can be.
Further north, where the terrain is gentler, or down in the hills around LA, there's more of a factor of irresponsible sprawling development into the brush, with its inevitable consequences over time. But it's extremely difficult to even legally control that kind of thing; private land laws are almost die-cast to limit regulation except in incorporated cities. And fire resistant houses are a lot more expensive to build, especially when many hill communities now consist or retirees and people otherwise of low income. But the lion's share of land involved is actually under FS and BLM jurisdiction, which is obviously Federal responsibility, and probably taboo giving an opinion about here, given immediate circumstances.

[Jim Noel]

Good reply Drew.

[David Schaller]

What Jim said. +1

[Vaughn]

Also with the influence of the Smokey the Bear campaign and clear-cutting, over the years large areas got heavily over-stocked with trees. This creates a greater demand for water, which in drought years cannot be supplied. This weakens the trees making them more vernable to the beetles, etc. Which in turn gives us steep slopes heavy with dry fuel.

[Helcio J Tagliolatto]

Many in USA and World Wide are worried about the Amazon, we follow much of it

Politics

Greed

Sloth

And you can imagine what happens when this trio is supported by the country's own government ...

(soon Oren will block me, but a terrible feeling takes over the decent Brazilians)