High Sierra Topix

B² - thank you for the most generous offer! Will keep it in mind for that day when I can't get out west and fall back to something here on the east coast. I grew up in LA, was "teethed" in the Sierra, and then living the better part of my life in AZ was always within driving distance. Being now in upstate NY I go west as much as I can, but just as often take my summer trek closer to home. Your offer makes a Long Trail thru hike possible.

B² - hope your Sierra hike works out.

I'm asthmatic, so fire smoke is really bad for me. Winds can shift if you are out for a few days, but with some luck you can avoid large fire smoke often if there are just a few big fires going. Last year was an exception, as there were so many fires burning at once from late August through October that it became very hard to even do a day hike without smoke levels getting dangerous for someone like myself.

A few years ago when the Rim Fire was going, I managed to drive on the edge of the smoke over 108 with the air conditioner going strong to filter the air all the way to 395. Then I headed south to Devil's Postpile near Mammoth Lakes. I hiked the JMT from Red's Meadow into Tuolumne Meadows with some detours to nearby lakes over the course of a week. The Rim Fire smoke kept blowing mostly east, so I had a smoke free trip with beautiful weather until the day I arrived in Tuolumne Meadows and had to wait two hours for the bus to take me back to Mammoth Lakes. The Rim Fire smoke blew in while I was waiting, so the wind had shifted to blow southeast, and I was so thankful it was on my last day there.

Like others have stated, you need to be flexible on where you hike, watch the real time sensor data for a good week before your trip, and make the best choice. The larger fire briefings that are usually available online now every day or every other day have a weather forecaster assigned to the fire team, so their forecast can often be very helpful in determining where the smoke will head over the next few days.

News reports combined with my trip to Yosemite last week convince me that fire season may take over as early as mid-July. It is not just that conditions are dry; I was astonished at the number of sick or dead trees, all waiting to burn. Of course, you should have a plan B and C, but last year we were locked out of pretty much all of the Sierra, so it was not as easy as driving another 100 miles up 395.

Here are a few useful resources, just in case anyone needs them:

To see what is on fire, go here:

https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/

Icons with a diamond-shape are controlled burns. Icons with a flame are fires. Click on an icon to see details of the burn/fire. This website shows only larger burns/fires.

To see a smoke forecast, and for smaller fires, go here:

https://tools.airfire.org/websky/v2/#status

At the top you'll see a column for today. The first row of this column is an 84-hour forecast for the Continental US (CONUS). Click "MAP" in the first row. Wait a few seconds for it to load. What you'll see is a time-lapse smoke forecast. You can zoom in to the High Sierra to get a better view.

For comparison, here is the map and time-lapse for last August:

https://tools.airfire.org/websky/v2/run ... 00/#viewer

I hope this helps...

'Waiting for next year' may mean never. There is no guarantee next winter will be abnormally wet.

2020 was a below average fire season until the August lightning storm. That storm 1) covered the whole north half of the state (unusual) and 2) dry lightning (no rain with it). The state probably could have handled it except for the dry cold front and accompanying winds a week later that blew everything to hell. Even then, California was holding its own until Oregon, Washington, and Colorado cooked off and made firefighters from those states unavailable to California. At one point fire engines from North Carolina were here.

So even in this drought year, it is a dice toss whether there will be fires when you come. Just keep on eye on the weather and news, and have a fallback plan.

TurboHike wrote: ↑Sun Jun 13, 2021 7:37 am Here are a few useful resources, just in case anyone needs them:
...

I hope this helps...

THANKS! Inciweb I knew about, but the smoke models are really cool; extremely useful once we're out there, I think (we'll be hanging out with a friend in Lee Vining for a few days of altitude acclimation, so we'll have access to a computer...)

BSquared wrote: ↑Sun Jun 13, 2021 11:33 am

TurboHike wrote: ↑Sun Jun 13, 2021 7:37 am Here are a few useful resources, just in case anyone needs them:
...

I hope this helps...

THANKS! Inciweb I knew about, but the smoke models are really cool; extremely useful once we're out there, I think (we'll be hanging out with a friend in Lee Vining for a few days of altitude acclimation, so we'll have access to a computer...)

Awesome! I agree about the smoke models, btw.

Hi Bsquared,
This will add nothing substantive to your plans, but for the past decade, I've been doing an August hike with a buddy from the other V state (VA). Of course, this has put us dead in a smoke plume a couple times, and smoke does decrease the Sierra love (especially when it's so thick you cannot see your feet). So, for this year's plan, we're aiming for Mineral King, because the MK webcams never looked as awful as many of the other Sierra webcams last year. This choice almost certainly means that MK will be a cauldron of smoke by mid-August, and our plan B is to aim for exactly the area you're targeting. So, let's see whose plans get hammered hardest. One way or another, we'll be scraping our shins on granite.....hope you do, too! Cameron

Fires are, sadly, an ever present reality and you always have to be ready to revise your plans. I would recommend flying out but being flexible. I have, at the last moment, changed locations within the Sierra, (costs money nowadays with permits but that is what it is.) or even gone as far as Lassen at the last minute. Lassen is quite beautiful.
Heat is another concern. Last week we were going to go to Sequoia but the last day changed plans and went to the Eastern Sierra for higher altitude during a severe heat wave. (We were glad that we did. We were about 2000’ higher than we would have been in Sequoia and about 8 degrees cooler. )
Keep your eyes on NOAA, Inciweb and AirNow. I check all three of those constantly the days before a trip. I have sever asthma and AirNow is my guide through the summer.