LFers -- you're in a dry wilderness. You smell smoke. What's your plan?

[Preston]

Since it's fire season once again, I thought I'd repost the link to InciWeb. You can search for federally managed, or joint command fires in any state. The reports give resources, acreage, fire weather alerts, evacuations, road, trail, and campground closures. Well worth visiting if you plan to be anywhere where there is fire activity.

For non-federal fires, you should consult your state's natural resources, or forestry department.

Drew: Borate hasn't been used in many years. The current retardant is Phoschek. It's a slurry composed of water, detergents, fertilizer, and a red-orange dye. There are two types: 'Short Term' and 'Long Term'. 'Short Term' is used for direct attack on the fire's edge, and 'Long Term' is used to pre-treat areas ahead of the fire. Copters and air tankers can fly in smoke, but they do try to fly outside and upwind of the rising smoke column; not only due to visibility issues, but also turbulence, foreign object damage, and reduced air density.

Please be careful out there, everyone. A photograph isn't worth being burned over.

--P

[Drew Wiley]

Thanks for the tech update Preston.

[Sirius Glass]

Let's say that before you head into the woods, you check with the local FS office. You learn of no special warnings in your area. But once in the woods, you smell smoke.

What precautions have you taken, and what are your first steps?

Call and report it by cell phone, CB radio, 2 meter band or 70cm band to get the word out the the local Forest Service office with as much specificity as I can supply. Then get the f out of there.

[Alan Klein]

When I use to live in NYC, you'd smell some pretty bad stuff. It usually was blowing from the west from New Jersey across the Hudson River. Now that I moved to New Jersey, about 40 miles south of NYC, it's actually cleaner and I don't smell anything. Well, NJ is called the Garden State.

[Drew Wiley]

So Sirius, how are you gonna get that cell phone, CB, or whatever bandwidth to work unless you get out FIRST? None of those options are normally available to a backcountry traveler. A GPS rescue beacon might work or not, depending on local infrastructure, nature of terrain, and how backed up they are already. There are plenty of places in the West cell phones simply don't work. When I merely arrive at a typical trailhead that's true already. Then for the next week or two, you're on your own. There are a few backcountry rangers out there on the most popular trails, but otherwise, getting away from everyone is what my typical ideal of a vacation has been all about my entire life. Blizzards, lightning storm, fires, ya gotta learn how to navigate all of it on your own. Or just stay away in high risk circumstances, which certainly includes a lot of bone dry Western forest this summer.

[Heroique]

Please be careful out there, everyone. A photograph isn't worth being burned over.

Gives a whole new meaning to burning a print.

-----
Update to post #1: The Queets River fire (Wash. state) is growing, growing, growing – now the biggest fire in Olympic Nat'l Park history, currently covering 1,300 acres.

That's gigantic for a rain forest receiving more than 200 inches of rain each year, one of the wettest places in N. America.

And very likely a harbinger of a flame-filled summer/autumn for N. America, esp. the west coast states.

"The [Queets River] fire started after a warm winter prevented most of the snowpack from forming, followed by an exceedingly hot, dry spring that primed the forest for ignition. The result of this unusual alignment is what now ranks as the largest fire since the park was established, and might burn through the summer."

Source worth reading from The Seattle Times:
http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-...-about-future/

[Sirius Glass]

So Sirius, how are you gonna get that cell phone, CB, or whatever bandwidth to work unless you get out FIRST? None of those options are normally available to a backcountry traveler. A GPS rescue beacon might work or not, depending on local infrastructure, nature of terrain, and how backed up they are already. There are plenty of places in the West cell phones simply don't work. When I merely arrive at a typical trailhead that's true already. Then for the next week or two, you're on your own. There are a few backcountry rangers out there on the most popular trails, but otherwise, getting away from everyone is what my typical ideal of a vacation has been all about my entire life. Blizzards, lightning storm, fires, ya gotta learn how to navigate all of it on your own. Or just stay away in high risk circumstances, which certainly includes a lot of bone dry Western forest this summer.

Depending on the area, often amateur repeaters are available, otherwise get out first and then call by the first bandwidth available.

[Tin Can]

Depending on the area, often amateur repeaters are available, otherwise get out first and then call by the first bandwidth available.

How about HAM sat relay?

AMSAT, ARRL is working on a tiny new HAM satellite.

http://www.amsat.org/

[Sirius Glass]

How about HAM sat relay?

AMSAT, ARRL is working on a tiny new HAM satellite.

http://www.amsat.org/

Yes that is possible, I just have not tried it yet.

[Drew Wiley]

Ha. Get out first? Even in the most populous state in the country, last time I smelled smoke in the high country I was three passes back and a week by foot to the
car, then quite a drive till any FS facility, which ironically would have been a fire lookout on a jeep road. Phone reception about half an hour past that. But they've
spotted the fire long before you anyway. That's their job.