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.
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