Marble Mountains, McKinney Fire
Many backpacking trips are full of wonderful time spent in nature, away from stress and the world, and reconnecting with those less often reached parts of our world. There are stories of beautiful vistas, waterfalls, mountain tops, and pictures brought back to remember the serenity of the trip.
Others lead to more interesting stories…
This past weekend Andi, Even, dad, and I had planned for a few days in the Marble Mountain Wilderness in the Sky High Lakes area.
Day 1 was 7.5 miles trailhead to camp. We started at Lover’s Camp Trailhead and headed up Canyon Creek Trail. During the hot weekend this made a much nicer ascent in the trees and valley compared to the shorter, but more exposed, Red Rock Trail. As we ascended we continued to find increasingly gorgeous views of the surrounding mountainscape, wildflowers still in bloom, and decreasing temperatures from the 112 degrees we had left behind. It was a new trail for all of us bringing with it the excitement of, “what’s around the next bend!”
About 4 miles up we took a quick lunch at a waterfall crossing before branching south onto the Sky High Valley trail, and then 0.5 miles later branched west onto Little Marble Valley Trail. This area ended up being both the most wildflower-laden area of the trip and the most faint trail with a little bit of route-finding.
A little over half a mile later we intersected with the PCT and started south towards the Marble Rim intersection and onward to Shadow Lake. The Shadow Lake turnoff is different than every map out there (further west a little bit), so it will require some updating on the apps. .
As we were hiking down into the lake basin we passed a couple ladies hiking out. They were the only other campers and had left their packs to set up later. However, when we reached the lake we discovered there was only one area that was suitable for larger tents and despite there being a few possible spots, tents had not been set up and we had no idea where they planned to camp!
I made a decision, grabbed a bottle of water, and ran back down the trail (with climbing out of the lake basin). After catching Teri about a mile down the trail we chatted for a bit about possibilities before I headed back. After setting up camp we settled in to enjoy the view, swam in the lake, and generally enjoyed. resting from the hike.
When the two ladies made it back one of them was having odd symptoms and asked if any of us happened to be a doctor…in one of those I’m hopeful voices but I fully expect to hear no. We happen to have a DPT and an FNP, and medical gets shunted to the wifey. Jaw numbness, chest pain, left shoulder pain, a history of asthma: these are not the symptoms you want in the mountain. Cardiac signs are nothing to sneeze at and there was the immediate discussion of safety, symptom progression, possibility of SOS. She had been up to 11,000 feet recently and has some similar lung issues, was better with aspirin and her rescue inhaler and they decided to try to make it through the night and hike out in the morning.
Soon afterwards - cue the first sighting of a smoke column. We didn’t know it at the time, but this was the beginning of McKinney Fire. At that time on Friday it was a small 100 acre blaze and about 20 miles from us, from our satellite texting back and forth with one of our backpacking friends and one of my old high school buddies, Ryan who runs www.ryanweather.com (who is also on Facebook and puts out good, reliable information). Thank you both!
The passing thunderstorm into dusk
Then the thunderstorms and lightning started. It was short-lived after having everyone scramble for cover…and the sunset it brought was stunningly gorgeous.
The red glow of the horizon at night…was stunningly eerie.
Our second day continued the adventure as we began by assisting the ladies our of the lake valley and with directions on the shortest route back to the trailhead. Though we knew there was a fire nearby the last we had heard was that it was relatively small, so our morning began simply relaxing and enjoying the outdoors.
Shortly after the morning calm was broken by a fire helicopter flying over the ridge line. There was a smaller spot fire over a couple ridges that had started from the thunderstorms and Upper Sky High lake was the reservoir of choice.
Following the helicopter’s path we made our way to the ridge behind Shadow lake to watch them putting out the fire…and to take in both the beauty of the area and the destruction we could imagine from the clouds coming from McKinney. We had communicated back to civilization to find McKinney had exploded to over 40,000 acres with the wind, but was continuing to blow east. We were not yet affected, but keeping a close eye on everything with multiple available routes out.
As we relaxed through the afternoon we saw what looked like another large fire breaking out almost due north of us. We would find out later that it was another blowup of the McKinney fire as it blew west. As of yet we were not affected and after some debate decided to continue with our original plan to hike out Sunday morning. At this time we had continued confirmation of safety and wind patterns that were keeping our area completely clear of smoke. It was an odd feeling looking one way to crystal clear blue skies and then turning around to see a smoke & haze-filled horizon over the ridge lines.
During the late afternoon we started to notice a second fire smoke column appearing almost due north of us. At the time we thought it was a second fire. We later found out it was the advancing edge of the McKinney fire.
That night we had an interesting mix of red glow and starry night sky.
The next morning changed things. We woke to find a smoke-filled valley and some scratchiness in our throats. Winds had finally shifted to push up into the Sky High Lakes area. We knew the fire had not moved south, but the smoke obscured the nearby ridgeline and Marble Peak itself varied between visibility and obscurity. It was time to make a quick breakfast and head out.
Morning Valley Smokiness
We opted to hike out the Sky High Lakes trail as it would both allow us to explore new area and keep us more encased in the trees, with their appreciated natural filtering of the air. Before that was our 2 mile trek over the ridge with the eerie silence that comes with a smoked out valley.
The hike through the meadow was, as expected, beautiful but bug infested. Always, always, always travel with your head net! Despite the smoke the path and wildflowers were wonderful and this is an area we need to come explore again some time soon.
The rest of the trip out was smooth sailing to the parking lot where there was a single other car remaining. The couple who owned it showed up 15 minutes later, having been backpacking as well and hiking down from the summit camp.
As we drove out the smoke continued to thicken, the road closed signs grew in number, and it was apparent that fire season for 2022 has truly begun. While it wasn’t the weekend we were expecting it was one for the storybooks.
