Eastern Sierra Air Quality September 27: Still Lousy from Forest Fires, but hope for a short reprieve tomorrow
Related: air quality, Eastern Sierra, forest fire, health, Mono Craters area, peak bagging, State of Nevada
re: Eastern Sierra Air Quality, September 25
A Sprinter van makes a great mobile workstations so I’ve published a fair amount of stuff last 4-5 days while hanging out in the western Nevada desert, waiting out the bad smoky air. But I was feeling burned-out yesterday (pun intended)—that’s as good as it goes and I’m tired of it.
2021-09-28 06:43
UPDATE, September 28: the front has pushed all the smoke away as seen at right.
UPDATE , October 1: after 3 gorgeous crystal clear days including the best conditions I have ever seen near Mt Dana in Glacier Canyon on September 30, the smoke pushed in to obnoxious levels by noon on Oct 1, and I drove home.
I need either clean air by tomorrow, or I’m heading home to crystal-clear ai. Yesterday’s AQI of 180 or so gave me light headaches and left me feeling tired—the the worst yet and unhealthy—but there was no escape short of a 300 mile drive.
Nothing to prove that other than the body has evolved to need nutrient to fend off disease and toxins, but, my feeling is that Vitamin C and Vitamin E as antioxidants along with magnesium supplementation and other nutritional support should help the body fight off ill effects of the nasty smoke.
I feel like I bought a used car: one repair turns into another repair and soon you wish you had just dumped it at the start of the fiasco! After 5 days of hoping for clean air, I wish I had just driven home 5 days ago.
As shown below, yesterday’s air was awful, with an AQI of 180 or so from the Yosemite/Lee Vining area all the way to Hawthorne NV, with me in the middle. But the air improved last night and is better today (2nd picture).
A mild NW-wind weather front tomorrow might clear all the smoke out of the Yosemite area. If it does I’ll attempt the hikes I’ve been wanting to do, and if not, I’m homeward-bound. As for hikes, the one long hike I did was encouraging: while I was very tired, it was a “good tired”—a feeling I’ve rarely had for 18 months now—hoping I can work my fitness back up and overweightness down—it’s like carrying a backpack being 20 pounds too body-fat-heavy.
iPhone 7 Plus + iPhone 7 Plus 4.0 mm f/2.8 @ 4mm
ENV: NV desert east of Mono Lake, altitude 7419 ft / 2261 m, 72°F / 22°C
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iPhone 7 Plus + iPhone 7 Plus 6.6 mm f/2.8 @ 6.6mm
ENV: NV desert east of Mono Lake, altitude 7437 ft / 2267 m, 65°F / 18°C
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iPhone 7 Plus + iPhone 7 Plus 4.0 mm f/2.8 @ 4mm
ENV: east of Mono Lake, altitude 6481 ft / 1975 m, 45°F / 7°C
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