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Thread: Smoke smoke everywhere

  1. #81
    Drew Wiley
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    Re: Smoke smoke everywhere

    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.

  2. #82

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    Re: Smoke smoke everywhere

    Prather is being evacuated this morning.
    "I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority"---EB White

  3. #83
    Drew Wiley
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    Re: Smoke smoke everywhere

    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.
    Last edited by Drew Wiley; 8-Sep-2020 at 09:53.

  4. #84
    http://www.spiritsofsilver.com tgtaylor's Avatar
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    Re: Smoke smoke everywhere

    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

  5. #85
    http://www.spiritsofsilver.com tgtaylor's Avatar
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    Re: Smoke smoke everywhere

    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

  6. #86
    Vaughn's Avatar
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    Humboldt County, CA
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    Re: Smoke smoke everywhere

    A red sun at dawn...
    "Landscapes exist in the material world yet soar in the realms of the spirit..." Tsung Ping, 5th Century China

  7. #87
    Drew Wiley
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    Re: Smoke smoke everywhere

    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.

  8. #88
    http://www.spiritsofsilver.com tgtaylor's Avatar
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    Re: Smoke smoke everywhere

    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.

    Click image for larger version. 

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    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

  9. #89

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    Re: Smoke smoke everywhere

    Ya'll stay safe out there!

  10. #90
    Drew Wiley
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    Re: Smoke smoke everywhere

    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.

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