On the day of our resupply, we woke up to hazy skies, the first sign of what was unfolding across California. It was mildly smoky, especially to the west, but we had no idea where it was coming from. I was somewhat concerned that a fire had ignited in Sequoia or southern Kings Canyon which would definitely spoil our trip if it grew too large. We hoped that we could get more information from folks starting their trip over Kearsarge Pass.

Smoky views of the Kearsarge Pinnacles. We could just make out the East Vidette ridge only a few miles away. We ran into a group on the climb who told us that the lightning storms over the past five days had ignited ten thousand fires.

Hazy University Peak from near Kearsarge Pass. We encountered more and more groups heading back and forth over the pass. Nobody entering knew where the smoke was coming from, some didn’t even realize that it was smoky.

On our way down Kearsarge Pass we found a spot where we had cell phone reception and were able to get a bit more information. The lightning storms of the past had ignited about <a href=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_2020_California_lightning_wildfires.jpg</img>650 fires</a.jpg</img> across the state, several of which had quickly grown to 100,000+ acre lightning complex fires.  But, most of these fires were several hundred miles away, in the Bay Area or even farther north. Only one, the Castle Fire (later renamed the SQF Complex Fire), was within 100 miles of us. We surmised that we weren’t in immediate danger from any of these fires, but would probably be impacted by smoke from these fires, depending on fire growth and winds. So, we decided to continue, with the knowledge that we could move quickly on the JMT/PCT if conditions deteriorated.

On our way back over Kearsarge Pass, the smoke had cleared a bit.

We didn’t have time to pack up and continue south, so we camped at Kearsarge Lakes again. The early evening light at Kearsarge Lakes was quite nice, even with a little bit of haze lingering.

After reading Dixon’s description of Junction and Shepherd Passes, combined with the smoke from this day, we decided to cross Forester Pass instead. The reward of Junction Pass just didn’t seem worth the effort in our assessment, and we wanted to make sure we could complete the southernmost cross country section of the route.