post Labor Day TH quotas opening up

[SSSdave]

Took a look at Eastern Sierra trailhead openings on recreation dot gov for this next weekend and although some of the most popular trailheads are still fully reserved, others actually have some openings we had not seen for all summer especially for Thursday and Friday starts. Of interest to photographers, air quality to the east in the Owens is now sparkling clear while to the west still burning fire smoke has not been flowing across the Sierra for over a week now. Also the current breezy system moving across the north state and Sierra is pushing out stale air in the Central Valley and urban areas that had been plaguing us for weeks. And the weather next weekend is looking better than this holiday weekend with a general fair weather light westerly flow.

Noticed Bishop Pass out of South Lake had openings on Thursday so just snagged one of the former for a 5-day Thursday thru Monday trip. Thus will be packing gear up tomorrow on the holiday, going to my hi tech job a couple days, then driving east over Tioga Pass Wednesday evening to pick up my pass at White Mtn 8am Thursday, and likely will be on the trail by 9am. So will spend 4 nights in Dusy Basin base camping sitting on a list of strong subjects I know very well. The advantage of this time of year for late light is the sun has moved far enough south that Agassiz and Winchell are no longer blocked by the west ridge of 12916 while not far south enough to be behind Black Giant. All one needs is clear air to the west. I did have a reservation for a 6-day trip over Bishop Pass over this holiday weekend, but cancelled a week ago due to lingering smoke issues at that time and a long range forecast of this cold breezy trough coming in. So this has worked out well minus a trivial $11 for the cancellation.

If anyone else is interested, there are 4 more openings on Thursday and 2 on Friday. Otherwise post Labor Day with quotas opening up is a opportune time to fit in a trip while weather is still summer like.

David
http://www.davidsenesac.com/2016_Trip_C ... les-0.html

Reno NWS long term forecast Sunday pm:

Warm and dry conditions expected through the weekend. Ridging in the
Eastern Pacific will slowly build towards the southwest U.S. through
the long term. Temperatures will remain above average, eventually
climbing to around 6-8 degrees above average over the weekend. That
will put western Nevada in the low to mid 90s and Sierra in the low
to mid 80s. Afternoon breezes can be expected but look to be on the
light side without another trough approaching the the Pacific
Northwest in the near future. -Zach