I spent a little time in the wilderness recently — just a two-nighter to rest the mind and let the animal body do its thing. The pleasure of being on my own time and no one else’s washed over me as I adjusted to the freedom of the backcountry. There’d normally be very little water where I went, but California’s unusually wet winter — one atmospheric river after another — bestowed on our creeks and rivers more water than usual, and wildflower season was still in fine form.
You’d think a wet winter would mean a break from the threat of fire, but it can actually cut both ways: More rain brings more vegetation growth, which turns to tinder when the temperatures rise, as they have done and will continue to do. And when the Santa Ana winds kick up, there are no guarantees. The last time I took my son and his friends camping, I chose a place in the Southern Sierra with two exit routes: a road leading north and one leading south. (This was three years after the Camp Fire swept through Paradise.) We camped on the edge of a massive burn left by the Castle Fire of 2020, which torched 175,000 acres and killed an estimated 10% of the world’s sequoia trees. Groves I’d hoped to visit were inaccessible due to area closures, and some had been nearly obliterated. That was in August of 2021. Just two months later, the Windy Fire burned 97,000 acres of the remaining forest, including the famous Trail of 100 Giants.
Two summers earlier, when the Eastern Sierra was ablaze, we canceled a trip there and went to the coastal redwoods instead. But that area also caught fire the summer after our visit; 97% of Big Basin Redwoods State Park burned in 2020’s CZU Lightning Complex Fire. I have lain awake in my tent in the middle of the night, wondering if a fire is about to roar over the ridge and force me to flee. Perhaps you have, too. Longtime hikers Matt Bishop and Steve Cooper were both comfortable in and knowledgeable about the woods. Nevertheless, they ended up in fire’s way. Their harrowing story, told by Kylie Mohr in this issue of High Country News, is a warning: The rules of recreating in a warming and unpredictable climate have changed, and they will continue to change.
This is what hiking and camping look like in the age of fires too hot or massive to be controlled. Practice vigilance in the backcountry. Heed warnings. Stay safe out there!
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This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Practice vigilance.
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