Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Wild Fire In The Sierras

A co-worker of mine here in Southern California has heard from a couple of people that there is a fire somewhere in the Southern Sierras in the vicintiy of Mt. Whitney. Has anyone else heard this or have more information? If so, please post.

This National Interagency Fire Center map does not show any significant fire activity in CA.

http://firemapper.sc.egov.usda.gov/modisrr/lg_fire/lg_fire_nifc_2003-08-11.png

I was unable to find anything else with a quick search. There might be some smaller fires that have sprung up?

Anyone else have any info?

Try this link, this map does show a fire in the southern sierras.

http://activefiremaps.fs.fed.us/archive/cgb2003223_0700.jpg

hiiker

I hiked Whitnay yesterday. There is a fire in the sierras, but the smoke does not affect the Whitney area, except fot to partially obscure the view in to Lone Pine.

There is a fire in Sequoia Park, somewhere southwest of the Kawaeahs. Haven't heard the exact location. Yesterday morning you could see a lot of smoke from the PCT directly above Chicken Spring Lake. Also a lot of smoke in the Kern trench. You could smell the smoke in a lot of areas near Cottonwood Lakes on Saturday night.

As I crossed over Trail Crest on Friday, Aug 8, the smoke was just becoming visible over the far side of the Sierras. By the Guitar Lake trail intersection we could smell it. By the time we summitted the smoke had moved across the valley and made a beeline for the peak and continued into the Owens Valley. By the next day the smoke was gone.

Was running the Rae Lakes loop on Saturday and the Rae Lakes backcountry ranger had posted a message near his digs that he was aware of a small fire about four miles north of there and that it was not necessary to report it to him. We didn't see any live evidence of it at about noon on Saturday.