High Sierra Topix

I went out on the Lake Sabrina trail on Saturday. We originally wanted to backpack in and stay the night, but with Bishop taking a pretty big hit from the smoke the past couple days, we decided to just go on a day hike. Got to the trailhead around 9 am and hiked out to Baboon Lakes for some lunch and fishing. Started hiking back to the trailhead from Blue Lake around 3 p.m. and got to the trailhead at 5 p.m. Within those two hours, the area went from being almost completely smoke free, to not being able to see the surrounding peaks at all! The smoke filtered in fast and thick, and the wind was forecast to be mostly coming from the east and southeast that day. Glad we decided against backpacking in.

Article in the Washington Post today:

"Scientists say California hasn't been this dry in 500 years."

Study based on evaluating tree ring growth. Pretty sad for those who love the Sierra Nevada.

Pray for rain. Stand up for the natural world. What more can we do?

Peace.

posted the study earlier at: viewtopic.php?f=9&p=101280#p101280

Could we please keep this thread limited to fire and smoke reports?

balance wrote:Pray for rain. Stand up for the natural world. What more can we do?

Fight global warming, obviously. If we don't do anything, it will only get much worse.

Loop from Kennedy Meadows (Emigrant Wilderness), Sept 10-15. Butte Fire just started so a lot of smoke to drive through. Still quite smoky, but became more haze than smoke once over Brown Bear Pass. Not a problem with breathing, but ruined any chance of good photos. Very strange combined smoke-overcast conditions. Smoke increased during the day, worst about 5-6 PM. Wind picked up Sunday, so actually had some sunshine. Became very windy the 13th. Rained all night the 14th, clearing out the smoke. Nice and clear yesterday. Not sure how long the clear skies will last, since the Butte Fire is still burning.

Did a day hike of Cirque Peak on the 19th. Although far north you could see where the smoke was the whole Southern Sierra was clear. Actually a particularly clear day.

Just returned from Taboose to Bench, very clear in the morning to mildly hazy by mid-afternoon. Now is the time to get out there!

I spent last Friday-Sunday (09/18-09/20) on a loop out of Horseshoe Meadows - Crabtree Meadows/Lake/Pass - Miter Basin - NAP - Southfork Lakes - HS Mdws. Must have just missed Rogue on Sunday. Beautiful clear skies all three days & nights.

Lots of smoke visible to the north on the drive down from HS Mdws on Sunday about 7:00 pm.

we just got back from 8 days on the high sierra trail (9/14-21).

we stayed at lodgepole 9/13. there was a bit of smoke, but not much.

it rained our entire first day (9/14) and was quite foggy the second, but otherwise we were treated to cloudless sierra days.
our final night (9/20) just above guitar lake, we could see fog rolling in to our north and west. i'm no expert but the wind felt like it was headed southeast. all looked clear the next AM on whitney, but the following morning (9/22) from our hotel in lone pine, the mountains were quite a bit more smokey-looking. our waitress said it was the smokiest she'd seen in a bit.