Idaho fires

I had actually looked into going to the Frank Church for deer this fall just to do it, but the area I wanted to head into is still burning. Sadly. Was hoping the weather we had last weekend would've helped, but a little to late I guess.
We need a steady rain or snow event to stop the fires now. I just looked on Onx and it's terrible what's happening to our beautiful state. My brother is coming up this fall to hunt birds and I've reduced our hunting options to Caribou-Targhee, the Owyhees and the Cuddy Mountain area, but now I see a fire burning along Hell's Canyon so chukars could be a wash unless the Owyhees come through. Hope we get a good snow or rain in the next week or two.
 
I’m not even sure where I can hunt safely if this continues as there seems to be fires popping up all around where I was looking at. The dry thunderstorms yesterday didn’t help at all.
 
Idaho fires and heavy smoke is nothing new and something you have to grind through often in September. In the 70s when I visited I remember our logger family talking about hoot owl and they shut the mountains down in the early afternoon. As to elk they adapt so much easier than us, as they have to. This bull was living on the right side of this fire and screaming away when I called him in. The pack out we were avoiding down trees and snapping embers from the ground. This second bull lived all September in a newly burned area with 35 cows and that September there were double digit fires across the river you can see the remaining plumes in October. I always hated chasing bulls in that heavy smoke but have some great memories. My brother was like a speed goat in it and would be smiling as I coughed away🤣
 

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I’m not even sure where I can hunt safely if this continues as there seems to be fires popping up all around where I was looking at. The dry thunderstorms yesterday didn’t help at all.
The NWS reported 5k cloud to ground strikes yesterday in Eastern Oregon and SW Idaho.
 
Idaho fires and heavy smoke is nothing new and something you have to grind through often in September. In the 70s when I visited I remember our logger family talking about hoot owl and they shut the mountains down in the early afternoon. As to elk they adapt so much easier than us, as they have to. This bull was living on the right side of this fire and screaming away when I called him in. The pack out we were avoiding down trees and snapping embers from the ground. This second bull lived all September in a newly burned area with 35 cows and that September there were double digit fires across the river you can see the remaining plumes in October. I always hated chasing bulls in that heavy smoke but have some great memories. My brother was like a speed goat in it and would be smiling as I coughed away🤣
I think more than anything, it's the hard closures that the FS has in place. The amount of ground they have closed down in the Sawtooth zone is huge.
 
Fire smoke still smells like money. Plenty of energetic young fire fighters are having the highpoint of their summer, daydreaming about new rifles, scopes and spotters - maybe even a new pack if the fire money holds up.
 
Fire smoke still smells like money. Plenty of energetic young fire fighters are having the highpoint of their summer, daydreaming about new rifles, scopes and spotters - maybe even a new pack if the fire money holds up.
Yeah but they will all be working these fires throughout all of hunting season.

The private contractors on those fires can easily buy all of what you said with a small part of one of their checks. If I chose to work the fire season on the line this year it would have been more like payoff the rest of the mortgage or buy a new truck in cash money.
 
Good heavens - we just had some intense wind blow through Ada County earlier this evening. No rain. Sadly, probably going to make the fire situation even worse than it is.

I wonder if that caused all the fires in the South portion of McCall to suddenly push a bunch of hotspots. I noticed on OnX there are a ton of new hotspots that weren't there last week
 
I wonder if that caused all the fires in the South portion of McCall to suddenly push a bunch of hotspots. I noticed on OnX there are a ton of new hotspots that weren't there last week
It certainly didn't help. That Boulder fire really blew up on Saturday and Sunday.
 
Definitely was big. Last trip thru a lot of mulies where feeding right off the interstate because everything else was burnt. I probably should of called Oregon department of transportation because of all the traffic on 84. Hopefully somebody did. Seen a few big dead bucks near Huntington


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Yup. We saw a lot of carcasses.
 
Fire smoke still smells like money. Plenty of energetic young fire fighters are having the highpoint of their summer, daydreaming about new rifles, scopes and spotters - maybe even a new pack if the fire money holds up.
Hence why a fire can be out for days, but not reported out. No wonder the cost of fire is so huge.
 
Been still wanting to go south for deer, but watching this fire season keep getting worse is making my decision to stay north. Sadly.
 
We need a steady rain or snow event to stop the fires now. I just looked on Onx and it's terrible what's happening to our beautiful state. My brother is coming up this fall to hunt birds and I've reduced our hunting options to Caribou-Targhee, the Owyhees and the Cuddy Mountain area, but now I see a fire burning along Hell's Canyon so chukars could be a wash unless the Owyhees come through. Hope we get a good snow or rain in the next week or two.

Looks like that fire is 95% contained.... whatever that means
 
Wapiti is 0 percent contained. It will burn until moisture puts it out. And that looks like it's gonna be awhile.

Randy
 
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