This evening in the Treasure Valley sure cleared out pretty good. I was even able to see clear on up past the Butte north of Emmett. And able to see south to the Owyhee Mountains. I'm not sure what it's like in the backcountry though.

Just talked to my folks in Challis and the smoke is very bad, fires north, south, and west of them.

If your flying that way be careful/

Anyone hear from Emmet lately?

Today was a beautiful day in the Boise/Treasure Valley area. Most of the smoke was blown out by noon and it was clear the rest of the day. Had some strong winds coming from the west.

My drive home to Emmett from the Boise area was great around 7:30pm tonight. It was super clear to the north, west, south and east. But, there was still a pretty big fire burning just east of Boise up in the mountains. That smoke was blowing to the east (bummer for G3, Tom, Whee, Jomac and anybody else on the eastern side of ID). Not sure the name or the area at this point.

58Skylane wrote:Today was a beautiful day in the Boise/Treasure Valley area. Most of the smoke was blown out by noon and it was clear the rest of the day. Had some strong winds coming from the west.

My drive home to Emmett from the Boise area was great around 7:30pm tonight. It was super clear to the north, west, south and east. But, there was still a pretty big fire burning just east of Boise up in the mountains. That smoke was blowing to the east (bummer for G3, Tom, Whee, Jomac and anybody else on the eastern side of ID). Not sure the name or the area at this point.

Pat
Is your airplane at Emmett (S78) or ??? . Still awaiting motor ? I've got several 470-520's avaiable for overhaul with different flavors mild to fire breathing. I'm going turbo Injected on my 56 182-from George Thomas old 59 Anfib.

182 STOL driver wrote:

58Skylane wrote:Today was a beautiful day in the Boise/Treasure Valley area. Most of the smoke was blown out by noon and it was clear the rest of the day. Had some strong winds coming from the west.

My drive home to Emmett from the Boise area was great around 7:30pm tonight. It was super clear to the north, west, south and east. But, there was still a pretty big fire burning just east of Boise up in the mountains. That smoke was blowing to the east (bummer for G3, Tom, Whee, Jomac and anybody else on the eastern side of ID). Not sure the name or the area at this point.

Pat
Is your airplane at Emmett (S78) or ??? . Still awaiting motor ? I've got several 470-520's avaiable for overhaul with different flavors mild to fire breathing. I'm going turbo Injected on my 56 182-from George Thomas old 59 Anfib.

Not ready yet. I may start a new trucking gig this fall. If that goes well and I'm home more often. I will get started on the engine this winter. I will keep you in mind

58Skylane wrote:Today was a beautiful day in the Boise/Treasure Valley area. Most of the smoke was blown out by noon and it was clear the rest of the day. Had some strong winds coming from the west.

My drive home to Emmett from the Boise area was great around 7:30pm tonight. It was super clear to the north, west, south and east. But, there was still a pretty big fire burning just east of Boise up in the mountains. That smoke was blowing to the east (bummer for G3, Tom, Whee, Jomac and anybody else on the eastern side of ID). Not sure the name or the area at this point.

Bummer!! I was expecting clear sky's when I woke this morning. But the smoke returned.

Great day at Johnson Creek and Reed ranch today. Clear and no signs of smoke. Breakfast at Mackay Bar this morning. They were clear yesterday, but just on the edge of the smoke to the east today. They were installing a webcam that should be up on the IAF website in a few days. Awesome breakfast as usual. They wanted to spread the word that it is OK to camp at Mackay Bar. They would like to have more folks visiting. Dinner at Mackay sounds even better than breakfast! Headed to Sulphur Creek for breakfast in the morning.

11 planes at JC tonight. We are staying until tuesday. Fly Safe!

Tom

Lawleraero wrote:Great day at Johnson Creek and Reed ranch today. Clear and no signs of smoke. Breakfast at Mackay Bar this morning. They were clear yesterday, but just on the edge of the smoke to the east today. They were installing a webcam that should be up on the IAF website in a few days. Awesome breakfast as usual. They wanted to spread the word that it is OK to camp at Mackay Bar. They would like to have more folks visiting. Dinner at Mackay sounds even better than breakfast! Headed to Sulphur Creek for breakfast in the morning.

11 planes at JC tonight. We are staying until tuesday. Fly Safe!

Tom

oh that sounds good

Man, that does sound great!

Tom, how cool is it getting at night? Fire restrictions?

Fly safe and have fun. I hope to be up there in a few weeks.

I camped in Island Park Friday night; woke up with frost on the tent. Looks like my trip is getting pushed to the very end of September.

Went flying last evening to Oshkosh NE about 45 minutes NE of SNY. The smoke made visibilty about 4 miles or so 2k AGL.
A little hard to tell from this picture because the sun had set but the smoke is blocking a view of the thunderhead to the east.

Another nice day in the backcountry today. Warm today. Probably 85 this afternoon, 44 for the low this morning. Yesterday it was 34, and saturday morning it was 24!! Hit Big Creek, Mile High, Sulphur Creek for breakfast, and then Indian Creek to watch the rafters for a while, then back to JC. Not much smoke today, but a little hazy in the Big Creek drainage. Just depends on which way the wind is blowing all night. Last night tonight. Back to Lava in the morning. It just always goes too fast!

Will be camping and hiking...

...with my wife in the Hells Canyon/7 Devils area the second week of Sept. Will be surface transport. Grand Cherokee and Kodiak camper. Anyone been in that area lately? Not too far from Melamoose(??) Doesn't look like any fires close by. Also want to camp in the forest near Stanley and Banks. That looks closer to some fires.

Any thoughts other than we should be in our Maule?

Bob

z3skybolt wrote:Will be camping and hiking...

...with my wife in the Hells Canyon/7 Devils area the second week of Sept. Will be surface transport. Grand Cherokee and Kodiak camper. Anyone been in that area lately? Not too far from Melamoose(??) Doesn't look like any fires close by. Also want to camp in the forest near Stanley and Banks. That looks closer to some fires.

Any thoughts other than we should be in our Maule?

Bob

Sorry to disappoint, but there's a huge fire in the canyon just north of Memaloose called the Cache Creek fire. It's really jumped in size, from 8000 acres last week now up to 63000 acres. They've got the north end of it under control, but the south end is in a roadless area, so they weren't fighting it there, and a wind from the north really expanded it.

There's a TFR in place that's about 30 miles wide and 50 miles long.

http://www.inciweb.org/incident/article/3202/16495/
http://tfr.faa.gov/save_pages/detail_2_2599.html

Also, a new fire TFR at Dixie.

http://tfr.faa.gov/save_pages/detail_2_4370.html

kevbert wrote:

z3skybolt wrote:Will be camping and hiking...

...with my wife in the Hells Canyon/7 Devils area the second week of Sept. Will be surface transport. Grand Cherokee and Kodiak camper. Anyone been in that area lately? Not too far from Melamoose(??) Doesn't look like any fires close by. Also want to camp in the forest near Stanley and Banks. That looks closer to some fires.

Any thoughts other than we should be in our Maule?

Bob

Sorry to disappoint, but there's a huge fire in the canyon just north of Memaloose called the Cache Creek fire. It's really jumped in size, from 8000 acres last week now up to 63000 acres. They've got the north end of it under control, but the south end is in a roadless area, so they weren't fighting it there, and a wind from the north really expanded it.

There's a TFR in place that's about 30 miles wide and 50 miles long.

http://www.inciweb.org/incident/article/3202/16495/
http://tfr.faa.gov/save_pages/detail_2_2599.html

Yep. Some friends rode the Harleys to Joseph a couple of weekends ago. Smoke through Hells Canyon was really bad. But, they said it was beautiful in Joseph.

Bob, I think you and your wife would really enjoy Joseph. You should consider making that one of your stops.

Thinking of a 4 day Idaho backcountry trip this weekend over labor day. Any updates on the fires and smoke?

Still big fires burning that will probly keep going till the snow flies. Smoke all depends on the wind, which ever direction is down wind is going to be bad. Talked to a guy that flew from Washington to IF couple days ago, it was bad enough he completely avoided central Idaho. I'm sure it is doable, I'd call on of the operators for a current update.

There is a large area closure for th Halstead fire that looks like it includes Upper Loon. All the info on the fires and closures is available here: http://inciweb.org/state/13/

Bringing this back to the top. Thinking of JC on Saturday night to camp out with the family if we don't go down to Reno for the races.

How are the smoke conditions? Still looks like TFR's around? Mccall seems to be reporting clear.......

Thanks