High Sierra Topix

zorobabel wrote:The rim fire is no longer on the firedetect map, hopefully it's out.

Sadly the fire is not out, and continues to burn, especially in the Kibbie/Flora/Eleanor axis. They are just going to let it burn itself out in the wilderness, so I imagine it will continue to spread very slowly until the first rains/snow. I hope the rain comes early this year.

You can still track the perimeter and the hot spots here:

http://www.mappingsupport.com/p/fires/2 ... e_map.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The fire is very gradually consuming all the forest SE of Kibbie and W of Flora and is now beginning to burn downhill through treeless brush toward Flora. The large pond 1/3 mile WSW of Flora, which was a landmark on the Flora/Kibbie route, is just today in flames. THere are several brand new hotspots in this region of the fire.

As far as Kibbie is concerned, the tops of all the ridges E and SE of Kibbie are in flames--you could certainly see the fire if you were at the customary camp sites on the W shore. The only question now is whether flaming debris will fall down those hillsides and ignite fires that burn to the waterline, or whether the immediate E shore of Kibbie escapes.

Further south, the fire has burned all the way to the NW shore of Eleanor Creek from the reservoir several miles up to the Kendrick Creek branch. It has also burned all the way to the Bartlett Creek branch. The question is now whether it will cross Bartlett Creek and go up the drainage that leads to Spotted Fawn, and whether it will cross Eleanor and go up Kendrick Creek toward Kendrick Lakes and Edyth. It is going very, very slowly, but it does not matter how slowly it is spreading if it has forever.

In the Hetch Hetchy area the fire actually crossed Falls Creek right above Wapama Falls, and continues to creep along in vicinity of Falls Creek. I don't see new hot spots today, though, so perhaps that area is slowing down.

The most encouraging part of the story Caddis pointed to is this:

The Rim Fire has burned 77,000 acres in wilderness areas in the northeast corner of Yosemite, but only 7 percent of that area was considered high intensity that would result in tree mortality, said Chris Holbeck, a resource biologist for the National Park Service.

"It really burned here much like a prescribed fire would to a large degree because of land management practices," Holbeck said.

Hopefully, much of the damage in the Kibbie/Flora/Eleanor region will not be severe, and perhaps many of the trees will survive. It might be worth a pack trip next June to see!

kpeter wrote:The most encouraging part of the story Caddis pointed to is this:

The Rim Fire has burned 77,000 acres in wilderness areas in the northeast corner of Yosemite, but only 7 percent of that area was considered high intensity that would result in tree mortality, said Chris Holbeck, a resource biologist for the National Park Service.

"It really burned here much like a prescribed fire would to a large degree because of land management practices," Holbeck said.

Hopefully, much of the damage in the Kibbie/Flora/Eleanor region will not be severe, and perhaps many of the trees will survive. It might be worth a pack trip next June to see!

Yes indeed this is encouraging news. Nonetheless, I'm rooting for some rain to come in and snuff this out before it proceeds up Kendrick Creek to Kendrick Creek Lakes and Edyth. I think of the big mature trees in that drainage and hope that there is insufficient fuel beneath them for them to burn, should the fire reach them.

I found this very interesting site:

http://tmappsevents.esri.com/website/ri ... tives-map/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The part I found most illuminating was the 3rd feature, which allows you to map the Yosemite National Park fire history. You can see the Kibbie Complex Fire outline from 2003 (went up Kibbie Ridge and reached the West shore of Kibbie Lake), the Frog fire from 2006 (surrounded Laurel Lake went up Morraine Ridge), etc.

This makes it very clear why the Rim fire did not go further north and get to Laurel Lake. Its northern boundary is almost identical to the southern boundary of the Frog Fire.

Unfortunately, the area south of Kibbie and north of Morraine Ridge has not burned before, so that is why this fire threatens some of our favorite areas.

Also interesting is that the Rim fire burned right over the huge Ackerson fire from 1996 in the whole Cottonwood Creek/south of Hetch Hetchy area. That was only 17 years ago--I doubt that the trees that were regrowing from 1996 were tall enough to escape the brush fire, so it sounds like that the clock will be reset on regrowing from the Ackerson fire.

To get an idea of how fires are managed in NW Yosemite, I went back and read newspaper accounts of the Kibbie fire of 2003.

http://www.uniondemocrat.com/News/Local ... -clear-air" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Apparently lightning set off about 5 fires along Kibbie Ridge on July 29, 2003. These fires were allowed to burn together and they kept going until October 3, 2003. They were only extinguished when the smoke began to blow back and anger people in the central valley. Obviously the Kibbie Ridge trail was closed during this time. Anyone who has hiked the Kibbie Ridge trail since 2003 can tell you what the effects of this slow "low-intensity" fire were--it certainly did kill many trees that are still falling across the trail with every windstorm. But it did not sterilize the ground the way that the Rim Fire did on August 21 and 22.

The fires that are still smouldering are probably a lot more like the Kibbie Complex fire at this point than they are like the center of the Rim Fire. But anyone who expects the current fire to prune brush while leaving forests intact--well, take a look at Kibbie Ridge.

Dramatic flare-up today in Cherry Creek canyon in an area that had been dormant. The fire went suddenly from Cherry Creek (just north of Cherry Creek Lake ~4900') to the top of Kibbie Ridge (~6960') and is now burning on top of Kibbie ridge right on the trail in the direction of Lookout Point. All this area burned in 2003, so this is 10 years of brush and what the 2003 fire left. The fire had burned earlier on Kibbie Ridge but gone out--this is reigniting the ridge from a different direction--the bottom of the canyon.

I've fought fires in mountainous terrain before, and this kind of fast flare--uphill thousands of feet--on a hot day--is really problematic. That may be why at 3:00 this afternoon the Forest Service announced they are putting back the expected containment date by 10 days, to October 1.
I include the last picture to show the kind of terrain on Kibbie Ridge that is now burning, although it has not yet reached the precise point shown.

Kpeter wrote:
Dramatic flare-up today in Cherry Creek canyon in an area that had been dormant.

This is not good news. The weather system moving in seems to be loosing strength
and has increasing winds which is not good news.

Radar shows bands of rain have passed through the Kibbie/Eleanor fire zone beginning around 2:20 this afternoon. Snow level projected at 7900 feet--so this storm is not just bringing dampness, but some cool weather.

No new hotspots or expansion of the fire perimeter are showing since yesterday.

Lets hope this is the end of it.

We just drove home and it rained (very intense and hard rain) from Monitor Pass to Sacramento. The rain was so intense that we could hardly drive in places. In Lee Vining we could see big black clouds over Tioga Pass. It has been ghastly windy the last three days (we were in Little Lakes Valley out of Rock Creek). But, no sign of smoke anywhere on the east side.

As of this morning, the incident report noted:
"The fire will continue to spread slowly in rocky areas within the Yosemite and Emigrant Wilderness Areas east of Cherry Lake and north of Hetch Hetchy reservoir."
Just as we surmised, they were letting it burn and this is the only area where it is not being confined within lines.

A good article on the damage, which is uneven, and the threat of erosion in particular:
http://www.mercurynews.com/science/ci_2 ... ng-erosion" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
I have seen several references to the destruction of an historic 1930s ranger cabin, and elsewhere I learned it is indeed the Miguel Meadows station.

Meanwhile, Cherry Lake had .11 inch of rain today and the humidity is 86%. The high today was only 63. No new hot spots have appeared, nor has the fire perimeter expanded today.

Tomorrow will be sunny, 70, with 10 mph wind, and 54% humidity. While I would like to see more rain, that forecast is not the kind where one would expect a flare up or expansion of the fire, particularly with a little dampness left from today's rain.

Fire map today shows no new or old hot spots, anywhere. However, the fire perimeter has expanded some on Kibbie ridge and is nearly to Lookout Point. Whether this is due to slow smouldering post-storm or is simply an update of pre-storm fire damage I do not know.