Just a heads up for anyone planning to head out into the district. There are new small fires reported on Fish Creek Divide and also down near Thunder Mountain (Blister Creek).
https://www.arcgis.com/apps/PublicInformation/index.html?appid=f8a0d8814a67445a9e6bf3485f4fd24f
Something to keep an eye on. I'm shocked at the Fish Creek Divide one - that area burned HOT - there really is not much to burn up there!
There is a third, more concerning one that just popped up - the Sandstone Incident which is closer to Thunder Mountain and shows a size of 100 acres already.... Or maybe I was just not zoomed in far enough - Blister and Sandstone are pretty close to each other, but the Sandstone one is WAY bigger.
The Sandstone fire is about 350 acres now and according to the Forest Service it is mostly burning in the footprint of the 2006 Blister fire. The most current fire perimeters confirms this - the good news (and hopefully it stays that way) is that it hasn't encroached on the trail as of yet:
The trail had really recovered well from the 2006 fire - I hope it stays off of it.
It does not sound like the other two spot fires have done much at this point. Hopefully they stay that way.
A couple of sites for fire info:
https://app.watchduty.org/i/29457
https://www.arcgis.com/apps/PublicInformation/index.html?appid=f8a0d8814a67445a9e6bf3485f4fd24f
The fire as of this afternoon is estimated at 500 acres and the Forest service has created a pretty large closure area, including The Skookum Lake and Thunder Mountain trails as well as Bagby Hot Springs, Kingfisher campground and Pegleg falls. There are also quite a few roads closed now - it is a pretty large closure area. It is kind of odd they closed the hot springs but not the trail, but road 70 appears to be closed so maybe you can't get there anyway?
FS Order here: https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/fseprd1198993.pdf
A late breaking report shows the infrared flight from last night put the fire at 121 acres, but the fire grew somewhat today. They are going to do another flight tomorrow to get a more accurate size of the fire. This is good news!
As of now, it does not appear to have burned the Thunder Mountain trail, but it is very close - hopefully things will improve.