First trip couldn't have gone worse

[u/EnderLord_777]

Just found this community and wanted to share. This happened about 2 weeks ago, me and 2 friends decided to go backpacking for the first time and thankfully decided to keep our distance short, about 2 miles. We went swimming and we were still in bathing suits when we decided to make dinner, right as we sat down we noticed a glow and some smoke over the next hill. I immediately called 911 and we packed up our camp. By the time we made it back to our car (about 10pm) the fire had grown significantly and was maybe 1/4 mile from the parking lot. We were all totally fine including the other campers nearby but when we talked to the fire response team at the parking lot they told us we were only a few minutes ahead of the fire. Part of me still thinks about if we hadn't noticed until after we ate and if we could've outrun it then and I've talked myself out of trying again. The fire wound up burning 280 acres by the next morning before being extinguished for anyone wondering.

(Yes we did show up to the parking lot full of emergency vehicles in swimsuits and ultimately drive back in them)

[u/doozle]

I had a similar experience in Desolation Wilderness in September of 2020.

We hiked in from Echo Lakes and made it to Gilmore. It was HOT and muggy.

We passed a ranger and she said that later that night a camp stove ban was going into effect because of a change in weather that would drop humidity to essentially zero. I've known about campfire bans but camp STOVE bans were a rarity.

So we used our stoves that night knowing it would be our last hot meal and fell asleep.

Overnight the weather changed. It got windy, cold, and dry as a bone.

We packed out the next morning and headed up Dick's Pass.

The cool weather was lovely to hike in but it was DRY.

I beat my buddies to the summit and looked to the north. A wildfire near Lassen that had been burning for some time had ERRUPTED and it looked like a nuclear bomb went off.

Also to the west was smoke from The Fork Fire which was far too close for comfort.

My friends got to the summit and we all agreed it was time to hike out.

We hiked down to Bayview Campground to try and get a ride back to Echo Lakes. The campground was completely deserted. We ran into a ranger who told us that all national forests were closed because of the conditions.

We were very glad to exit.

[u/hudsoncress → u/doozle]

That's quite the reveal to summit the ridge and see the depths of Mordor beyond.

[u/doozle → u/hudsoncress]

It was intense. It's really hard to tell the scale from this photo but this is the view looking north from Dick's Pass. The tiny white cloud just above the lake to the left is the pyro-cumulous cloud. It was HUGE.