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What's the best site for tracking wildfires? In the Pacific Northwest, if it matters. I had used inciweb and nwcc in the past, but both seem to be lagging at best (I'm reading news articles about fires that are not on either). I vaguely remembered having a different site in the past, maybe shared here, but maybe I'm remembering wrong.
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Jul 9, 2023 17:09
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I use https://hwp-viz.gsd.esrl.noaa.gov/smoke/index.html, it's not great for finding the actual fires (the fire layer appears to do nothing) but I'm more interested in where the smoke is at anyways. The surface smoke is the most valuable to me, which also indicates where the really big fires are. Vertically integrated is good for getting a feel how blocked the sun is going to be. Caltopo's fire activity layer is very good if you want to know where all fires are.
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Jul 9, 2023 17:23
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https://maps.nwcg.gov/ tends to have incidents listed before inciweb. I use this one quite a bit.
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Jul 9, 2023 18:54
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JohnCompany posted:15k in the Bernese Alps today. Started in Kandersteg, ended past Oeschinensee. Looks amazing. 🥹
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Jul 10, 2023 19:16
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incogneato posted:What's the best site for tracking wildfires? In the Pacific Northwest, if it matters. I also use caltopo. GOES Live layer easily shows smoke, Fire Activity layer shows ongoing fires, and wind direction is useful to predict what places downwind of smoke will have poor air quality. For air quality maps I just use AirNow.gov. Usually if you know where the fires are, how big they are, the current air quality, and the wind forecast, you can get a pretty decent idea of where you'll encounter poor air quality or not on any given day. Even then, I've been surprised a few times. Very large fires and accurate wind forecasts don't seem to go hand in hand.
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Jul 11, 2023 08:26
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Went on another late evening hike on Sunday. Beforehand, I was doing some yard work on Friday and got stung twice by a yellow jacket in the side of my neck. So that sucked. It hurt like hell and swelled up quite a bit. By Sunday it looked strange and got itchy. Anyway, I left late Sunday afternoon, around 2pm, without much of a plan, I stopped halfway to Rainier and texted my wife where I decided to go. I found out the road to mowich had just opened so I went to tolmie peak fire lookout hoping the crowds would be gone and it would be a nice hike. I nearly got hit head-on by people coming down the freshly grated gravel road, going 50mph in the middle of the narrow, dusty road around blind corners. It would be one thing if it was one person but it was nearly a dozen times. I was going especially slow through the blind spots and corners knowing it was possible. I'm a very confident driver, especially in the mountains, but this fresh gravel causes vehicles to swim a little as the rock is still very loose, sometimes causing cars to turn wider than normal, or you catch a groove and swerve. Watching these people panic swerve when being surprised coming around a corner was terrifying. Then there's the cloud of blinding dust that follows. I had to come to a complete stop each time because I couldn't see the front of my hood or the edge of the road for a solid 15-20 seconds. loving idiots. End of rant. Anyway the hike was great. Eunice lake was incredible and the lookout was breathtaking. The view of Rainier was very humbling and I had the lookout to myself. The lovely part was the mosquitoes were horrific. I stopped at the top for 30 seconds and was suddenly encapsulated in a cloud of mosquitoes. I had to keep moving to keep them off me. I scrambled the ridgeline for a bit but turned back as it was getting a little too spicy for being solo. I got bit on top of my bee sting area making it even more itchy than before.   And subsequent post hike fuel/poison.  When I got back to my car, there was a ton of trash in the parking lot. I was disgusted. I had already grabbed a few small things on the trail like wrappers and a Gatorade bottle that I saw. I picked up a few fast food bags in the parking lot, full of leftover food, and tossed it in the nearby trash cans. I can't believe people. "Let's drive all the way the gently caress out here to see nature and it's beauty, but let's leave our garbage up there because gently caress it and everybody who wants to see it, the wildlife that eats it, and everybody in general." It literally takes more effort to shove that poo poo down your gullet than it does to throw it in the trash. I can't stand these kinds of people. Part of me wants to become a ranger when I retire just to sit at parking lots and give fines to people who litter.
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Jul 11, 2023 09:34
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fire.airnow.gov is good because it shows smoke, air quality, and also fires on the same map. nasa worldview is neat because you can turn on fires and thermal anomolies layer and also see daily images of smoke. sometimes you just have to go to like, the forest district's facebook page to get updates if they aren't going on inciweb. When a fire is being updated on inciweb it's usually pretty good though. jamal fucked around with this message at 18:57 on Jul 11, 2023 |
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Jul 11, 2023 18:54
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jamal posted:fire.airnow.gov is good because it shows smoke, air quality, and also fires on the same map. Webcams also very useful where available. I use the ones in yosemite, mammoth lakes, and bishop a lot.
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Jul 11, 2023 19:19
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Also I assume this comes up like every page, but recommendations for a light tent setup? I'm not sure I want to get into the whole tarp tent thing when a full UL tent is pretty small and light, and I like being actually enclosed for protection from mosquitoes and other bugs and such. Also seems like 1p vs 2p is a very negligable weight difference so maybe i'd rather have the extra space. I have an rei gift card to use on it, local store has their flash air 1 and a nemo hornet 2p in stock in that category but i could also just order something from the website. Chances are i'll be bikepacking and not hiking so anything that requires trekking poles to set up is a no go. The big agnes fly creek seems to get some negative reviews about holding up in wind and then the copper spurs and tiger walls are a little more than I'd like to spend, plus some need poles for the like vestibule thing?
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Jul 11, 2023 19:36
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jamal posted:Also I assume this comes up like every page, but recommendations for a light tent setup? I'm not sure I want to get into the whole tarp tent thing when a full UL tent is pretty small and light, and I like being actually enclosed for protection from mosquitoes and other bugs and such. Also seems like 1p vs 2p is a very negligable weight difference so maybe i'd rather have the extra space. I have an rei gift card to use on it, local store has their flash air 1 and a nemo hornet 2p in stock in that category but i could also just order something from the website. Chances are i'll be bikepacking and not hiking so anything that requires trekking poles to set up is a no go. The big agnes fly creek seems to get some negative reviews about holding up in wind and then the copper spurs and tiger walls are a little more than I'd like to spend, plus some need poles for the like vestibule thing? go with a 2p tent if it is within your budget. Tents run small and the extra space is very nice. Most 2p tents are only really 2p if you are very comfortable with that person, and for 2 grown men its normally too tight to be comfortable. The weight is also much less important if you are primarily biking. any tent with poles needed for the vestibule i would not want as thats extra weight for minimal benefit as most tents have a vestibule that just uses more stakes. One option to explore for a single person setup is a hammock, though that obviously is dependent on the types of sites you will be camping at, in the SW trees are a premium for instance.
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Jul 11, 2023 20:08
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jamal posted:Chances are i'll be bikepacking and not hiking so anything that requires trekking poles to set up is a no go. For trekking pole supported tents, you can get fixed length collapsible/break-apart carbon fiber poles that weigh ~3oz, so i wouldn't necessarily write them off entirely. Especially since the total packed volume and weight is are likely both gonna be less than a freestanding tent.
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Jul 11, 2023 20:08
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I share his dislike of open tents. I put a premium on having a fully enclosed sleeping space and not having spiders and mosquitoes in the tent with me at night. being able to sleep comfortably without clothes on and stuff in the summer is worth the extra weight for me. Similar to a thicker than average sleeping pad and a collapsing camp chair. The comfort and better sleep is worth the discomfort of the extra couple pounds on the trail. If i ever did a through hike im sure my priorities would change though.
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Jul 11, 2023 20:48
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We recently got a durston x-mid 2p but haven’t actually slept in it yet. Was reasonably easy to pitch in the yard, and, while smaller than our 6 pound 3p tent, seems like a more efficient use of space We were going to use it for its maiden voyage last weekend in Denali but then my partner snapped a trekking pole 4 miles in and a 2 pole tent is rough to pitch with just 1 (telescoping) pole (my z-style poles are way too long to pitch with unfortunately)
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Jul 12, 2023 05:35
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Bloody posted:We recently got a durston x-mid 2p but haven’t actually slept in it yet. Was reasonably easy to pitch in the yard, and, while smaller than our 6 pound 3p tent, seems like a more efficient use of space I always like to take one of these https://tinyurl.com/36mkapaf For longer trips where having a backup pole might be nice. That said, I've had surprisingly good success repairing a snapped pole by bracing either side of it with tent stakes and wrapping in duct tape.
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Jul 12, 2023 06:47
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Verman posted:Tolmie Nice, I’ve been waiting for the road to Tolmie to open. The trail was in decent shape? From last year’s trip:
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Jul 12, 2023 07:04
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jhh posted:Nice, I’ve been waiting for the road to Tolmie to open. The trail was in decent shape? The road and trail were both in great shape. Just tons and tons of mosquitoes.
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Jul 12, 2023 07:15
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I'm jealous of you guys near mountainous terrain. There's some nice places in Ohio, but it gets kind of old walking around basically an ugly drained swamp most of the time. I have only been hiking a few years now, but think I had the worst hike I've ever done today. The weather and my vacation lined up to where I tried to force an overnight I've been wanting to do when I probably should have just done an easy dayhike. I immediately took the wrong trail from the trailhead and slid down a steep muddy hill onto an old mining road. I saw the road intersected back with the path in a couple miles so I decided to follow it up, but it turned into a knee high mud quagmire and within the first 5 minutes of the hike I fell into a giant mudpit. The road then split off into another old mining road that looked like no one has actually used in years that was wall to wall brambles and blowdowns. Eventually got back on the trail and spite-hiked 12 more miles until I found a pretty nice camp area. I got there way too early and it was too hot to gently caress around with a fire, so I sat down and tried to relax and do some reading but I kept dozing off in my camp chair from lack of sleep the night before and decided to lay down in my tent and take a nap, but it was miserably hot and I couldn't get to sleep and kept thinking if I left now I could get back to my car before dark and take a shower and sleep in my nice air conditioned bed. I tore down my campsite faster than I ever had before and did a torturous 5-mile uphill back to my car and went home. Definitely some lessons learned today, and I think I am done with summer camping. On the plus side this was the longest I have ever hiked with a heavy pack, and normally spiderwebs bother me a lot but I was in such a foul mood I was plowing through hundreds of them like the Juggernaut and not caring at all. Also I didn't see a single mosquito which was weird as hell because I usually get eaten alive in that area.
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Jul 12, 2023 09:54
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Summer camping is so much more tolerable if there's a swimming hole.
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Jul 12, 2023 12:51
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yeah, i do a lot of summer backpacking but the normally that solves the blisteringly hot campsite problem by either ending by a place to swim or not getting to camp until its cooler out anyway
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Jul 12, 2023 15:01
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Just going to throw out hammock camping for people who are thinking of solo tents. Its not for everyone, but good lord its the most comfortably I sleep when I get the chance. Its not a huge weight penalty and for me in my area it makes campsite selection way easier.
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Jul 12, 2023 15:41
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a_gelatinous_cube posted:I have only been hiking a few years now, but think I had the worst hike I've ever done today. Sometimes you just need to bail. It can be for various reasons but if you've just hit your limit, there's nothing wrong with going home. Forcing yourself to stay and "enjoy it" when you're clearly not isn't always the best decision. I always suggest giving it the old college try but you know when it's time to go. I've bailed on trips for various reasons (heat, bugs, rain). One trip I wanted to get away due to a combo of work and personal stress at the time thinking this would be a good reset. I hiked in and planned to stay 3 days. Well, being alone with my thoughts and all this stress and no distractions wasn't actually what I needed at the time. I was miserable with nobody to talk to and just circled these issues over and over again in my head. I packed up the next morning and I came home and met up with friends. Other times, hiking is the best escape for me. Long story short, it's your trip and you shouldn't feel bad about bailing. It is often the smart decision if your Spidey sense is going off, listening to it can prevent further issues. When we get emotional (stressed, frustrated, uncomfortable etc) we often act in haste and are more prone to making small mistakes which in the outdoors can be big mistakes. There are lots of survival stories of people who made small mistakes out of frustration, or forced themselves to tough it out and ended up in a bad scenario. Sometimes trips just suck and the best choice is saying, gently caress it, getting in the car and grabbing a fatty burger, taco, and/or an Oreo blizzard on the way home.
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Jul 12, 2023 16:01
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Yeah sometimes bailing is for the best. My SO and I tried to do a backpacking trip in the Desolation Wilderness a few years ago in a shoulder season. We started off from the trailhead in a mist, and after half a mile that turned to pea-sized hail. We were already miserable and soaked from mid-thigh down since our rain gear just sheds all of the water onto our legs, and I was daydreaming about heating some water in my Nalgene and throwing it in my sleeping bag when I realized that I’d left the bottle back at the trailhead. We turned around and got a hotel with a hot tub that night instead.
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Jul 12, 2023 17:10
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a_gelatinous_cube posted:I'm jealous of you guys near mountainous terrain. There's some nice places in Ohio, but it gets kind of old walking around basically an ugly drained swamp most of the time. Try kayak camping. Its usually nice and cool by the water, there are tons of places to camp (either legally or stealth), and you can load all the heavy poo poo you can think of into the boat and not have to carry it. It’s a full day’s drive for you, but the Buffalo River in Arkansas is one of the most sparsely populated (except for the inbred feral hillbillies) areas in the US where you can go for days without seeing another person. I used to go every spring, and if I didn’t live in WA now I’d still be doing it.
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Jul 12, 2023 18:39
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a_gelatinous_cube posted:I'm jealous of you guys near mountainous terrain. There's some nice places in Ohio, but it gets kind of old walking around basically an ugly drained swamp most of the time. It is a bit of a drive from Ohio, but the Boundary Waters in Minnesota or the Apostle Islands in Wisconsin. The Boundary waters require portaging if you want get far, but the Apostle Islands you can Kayak to your desitination and set up camp. Probably the best part of these locations is that you get to leave Ohio.
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Jul 13, 2023 09:36
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I'm definitely trying to work myself out on some longer road trips in the future. I hit up Allegheny park and a couple smaller ones in Pennsylvania last year, and am going to check out Red River Gorge and Dolly Sods later this year. Pretty much everywhere I've been outside of Ohio has been nicer than Ohio. I've been slowly visiting all the state parks and forests here the last couple years, and outside of a couple places, everything is just a flavor of this:
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Jul 13, 2023 12:03
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a_gelatinous_cube posted:I'm definitely trying to work myself out on some longer road trips in the future. I hit up Allegheny park and a couple smaller ones in Pennsylvania last year, and am going to check out Red River Gorge and Dolly Sods later this year. Pretty much everywhere I've been outside of Ohio has been nicer than Ohio. I've been slowly visiting all the state parks and forests here the last couple years and outside of a couple places everything is just a flavor of this: I hear ya on this. I'm getting into car camping so I can start moving further outside of my current bubble and see more varied terrain. The goal is to be able to hop in the car, drive a few hours to a new destination, camp for the night, then get started on a hike nice and early the next morning.
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Jul 13, 2023 12:11
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a_gelatinous_cube posted:and am going to check out Red River Gorge and Dolly Sods later this year. Yeah these were going to be my top two recommendations. A lot of your best options close to Ohio are going to be in KY and WV. Raccoon Creek SP, Ohiopyle/Laurel Highlands area, and Allegheny NF, in PA, are very nice also, imo. e: omg how could I forget, Quebec Run Wilderness, near Uniontown. I got married in there 
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Jul 13, 2023 14:20
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Admittedly I haven't explored much of Alleghany, but I was a little underwhelmed the few times I've been. Maybe I just didn't find "the cool spots", but it felt very much just like "Yep, walkin' around in a big flat forest". I'm like 2 hours north of it in western New York, which is also a dismally flat crapshoot when it comes to hiking options [despite what the locals will tell you].
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Jul 13, 2023 14:23
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It took me a long time to appreciate the outdoors in the midwest. Obviously nothing out there will draw crowds like the grand canyon but it is pretty if you take the time to find spots. Tallgrass prairie always has something neat going on and a if you can find an oak savannah it's gorgeous. That said, terrain always helps. The driftless region or the north shore in Minnesota were my favorites. Shawnee NF has some good hiking too.
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Jul 13, 2023 14:37
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Yea I mean, don't get me wrong there are some nice, peaceful, pretty spots here. They're just aren't many of them - so after living here for a decade I've seen them all quite a few times and I've wholly lost motivation to go on hikes because there just isn't anything new to see. And there is nothing for a challenging hike in the region.
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Jul 13, 2023 14:43
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Dick Ripple posted:It is a bit of a drive from Ohio, but the Boundary Waters in Minnesota or the Apostle Islands in Wisconsin. The Boundary waters require portaging if you want get far, but the Apostle Islands you can Kayak to your desitination and set up camp. Probably the best part of these locations is that you get to leave Ohio. As someone who grew up in NE Ohio and now lives in northern MN I couldn't agree more. Ohio does have some nice spots but its nothing like northern MN. I'm lucky enough to be like 5 miles from the Superior Hiking Trail and can be at a Boundary Waters trailhead within 2 hours. Now getting the time to do any of that with a 2 year old and pregnant wife is another matter, but at least its nearby. Speaking of which. For those of you with kids, at what age were you able to get out and do longer 3-4 day hiking and canoeing trips? We've been doing plenty of car camping with the 2 year old but I'm dying for a longer backpacking trip now.
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Jul 13, 2023 14:44
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Sab669 posted:Admittedly I haven't explored much of Alleghany, but I was a little underwhelmed the few times I've been. Maybe I just didn't find "the cool spots", but it felt very much just like "Yep, walkin' around in a big flat forest". Maybe I've got lucky, but the few times I've been out to PA I always think this is like if you took Ohio and turned the niceness slider up about 50%.Very similar terrain but way less swampy mess. Plus there seems to be a lot of civilization returning to nature type stuff out there which I like a lot.  I think that's why I like Cuyahoga Valley NP a lot even though it's more like a giant metro park. It's kind of cool seeing this giant chunk of nature just carved out of the industrial landscape.
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Jul 13, 2023 18:40
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Sab669 posted:Admittedly I haven't explored much of Alleghany, but I was a little underwhelmed the few times I've been. Maybe I just didn't find "the cool spots", but it felt very much just like "Yep, walkin' around in a big flat forest". Allegheny*... Allegany is a different place I haven't explored Allegheny NF super extensively but the nicest spot I've found was the minister creek area. Also lots of beautiful creek spots along 666 / tionesta creek road.
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Jul 14, 2023 01:21
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Oh right. No I've mostly hiked Allegany, in NYS. Although I did poke around Allegheny in PA a bit too for some bouldering.
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Jul 14, 2023 01:46
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On Sunday I was out near Colorado Springs to do the Manitou Incline  And Pikes Peak was right there, and I've never done a 14000 foot mountain before...    I thought about hiking down, but Pikes Peak is unique in that it has multiple options to get down  There's also a road that goes up there. The parking lot is pretty big and there's a big building that has a cafeteria, a gift shop, and some exhibits. Pretty cool but there were obviously a ton of people there
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Jul 14, 2023 02:51
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Someday I will do that incline, but I got work to do. I feel kinda bad, a kind of cocky friend who lives at sea level is visiting and has never been in the mountains. He's fairly fit and wanted altitude so I picked something up at Guanella Pass because it's always easy to find parking and it's got options under two miles and over 11k. I knew it would wreck him but be doable and not insanely dangerous. The 65F temp was the start of his problems, he refused sunscreen despite me warning him about the suns intensity. So we started trucking up the trail and about a mile in he started to come down off his high horse and all I could do was laugh. Forced him to sit for 20 minutes and sip water until he felt stable again and we dropped the pace and made it to the tarn and back without issue (but he's got a nasty sunburn for a souvenir, here's hoping that lesson sticks with him). Love him but dude needed a reality check. Being a jogger at sea level helps but it isn't altitude acclimation. Still feel kinda bad though, I should have been more firm with the sunscreen. I apologized with a pizza and beer.
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Jul 14, 2023 03:32
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Sometimes people just gotta learn the hard way.
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Jul 14, 2023 06:20
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xzzy posted:The 65F temp was the start of his problems, he refused sunscreen despite me warning him about the suns intensity.  I remember when I climbed Mount Humphreys a few years back I took my hat off to prevent it from blowing away after I got above the treeline, and after I got back I spent the next several days in absolute agony as the entire top of my bald head had burned to a crisp.
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Jul 14, 2023 06:33
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xzzy posted:I knew it would wreck him but be doable and not insanely dangerous. You did the guy a solid and I wish I could do something similar for any friends that visit but I don't really live too close to any good mountain hiking spots. Speaking of altitude sickness... when I went hiking up Mount Whitney many years ago, I did it with a couple of friends who were all marathon runners. Unfortunately, there aren't any high enough peaks in Northern California to get acclimated (highest was half dome in Yosemite) so the two NorCal friends were wrecked for the last two miles of the hike. I don't do any running or jogging and I was fine the entire time (I had hiked a lot of high peaks previously, especially Mt. San Antonio). Funny thing is that we had done a test hike the day before and went up to the Golden Trout Wilderness to get a feeling for the altitude. It was bad enough that we went back into town to try to stock up on precautions and preventative measures (despite all of us knowing at the time that the true solution was to get acclimated before the trip) which included a lot of vitamin C drinks. Which, obviously, did nothing.
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Jul 14, 2023 08:08
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xzzy posted:Someday I will do that incline, but I got work to do. Did he have zero experience with hiking anything with any sort of elevation? I mean I know you said he jogs a lot but like had he never hiked up something even once to know that elevation is just a different animal? As previously mentioned I live in flat-rear end New York (like 5 hours from the 'dacks) and I knew I'd be in for an rear end whoopin when I went to Salt Lake last year. I managed to do Mount Olympus, although I was sore for a whole week afterwards. I climb, I bike, I hike, I'm in decent shape but I get no elevation in whatsoever throughout the year and was under no illusion that it'd be fine 
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Jul 14, 2023 13:09
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