Monday, October 5, 2026

The Dome Fire stayed inside its footprint on the south and west sides on Sunday, the incident's InciWeb update says, and crews there spent the day mopping up and improving lines. The work is now on the eastern flank, where pack mules are moving equipment to crews building line and helicopters are dropping water and shifting firefighters to the most active areas.

One of those areas is a slopover, fire that crossed the control line, at the Ostrander Trail. It happened Thursday and is being contained with helicopter support. Additional crews are still arriving.

The most recent park figure is Sunday morning's: 6,736 acres, 40 percent contained, 811 personnel. The federal incident report filed Saturday evening lists 6,670 acres and raises the estimated final cost of the fire to $40 million, up from $29 million on Thursday. The park had not posted a Monday update when this edition was prepared.

Smoke is easing as the fire slows. Yosemite Valley has had good to moderate air for two days and should through the week. Wawona and Yosemite West can expect moderate to unhealthy-for-sensitive-groups smoke in the mornings, clearing to good by late afternoon, and El Portal similar. Tuolumne Meadows should be mostly good. Winds turn westerly then northwest this afternoon at 5 to 10 mph, gusting to 15, and conditions stay warm and dry.

Closures are unchanged: Glacier Point Road; the Chilnualna Falls trail and the trails beyond it toward Buena Vista and Crescent Lakes; the Ostrander Lake Trail and everything south of it; and the Mono Meadow and Buena Vista trails. The Four Mile and Panorama trails to Glacier Point remain open.

Vermont Fish and Wildlife will stock more than 2,000 trophy-size brook and rainbow trout into four ponds and one stream in the south of the state starting in mid-October. It is the third year of the fall program. The fish are a year and a half old and average 13 to 14 inches.

The waters are Knapp Ponds No. 1 and No. 2 in Cavendish, Lake Paran and Lake Shaftsbury in Bennington County, and East Creek in Rutland. The fish come from the Bennington, Roxbury and Salisbury hatcheries.

Stocking begins in mid-October so anglers have some time to keep fish before these waters switch to catch and release only in November. Fishing then carries on through the winter, in waters where late-season trout fishing was not an option before the program started.

The department has not published exact stocking dates for each water. Check its stocking schedule before making the drive.

The 11th Rebelle Rally begins Wednesday. The women-only off-road navigation competition runs October 7 through 17 across California, Nevada and, for the first time, Utah, covering roughly 1,500 miles. There is no GPS and no phones; teams of two navigate by paper map and compass, and the rally is scored on finding checkpoints, not on speed.

Wednesday's welcome and technical inspection, at the Westin Lake Las Vegas in Henderson from 10 a.m., is open to the public and is the one chance to see the vehicles up close. The official start is Thursday morning on Pit Road at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, a first for the event, but that is limited to team guests, rally guests and invited media. After that the rally goes off grid, and the organizers post live tracking and updates from October 9 through 16 rather than offering spectator access.

Several manufacturers are fielding or backing teams. Jeep is back for an 11th straight year with Team 129, Rebelle champion Nena Barlow and newcomer Hannah Felton, in a factory-stock Gladiator Mojave entered in the Bone Stock category. Toyota is again running a team from its production engineering group.

The Bone Stock class, for vehicles as they leave the dealer, is the part of the results most useful to anyone weighing a truck for desert travel.

Starting today, the Bear Canyon Wildlife Management Area near Mimbres, New Mexico, is closed to all public access Monday through Thursday. It stays open Friday through Sunday for regular use. The New Mexico Department of Wildlife expects the weekday closures to last through the end of the year, with normal access back in January 2027.

The closures cover heavy-equipment work with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on a project that captures and holds sediment washing off the burned watershed. Hunters and anglers planning a midweek trip should move it to the weekend and watch for posted closure signs.

Spoilers follow for both seasons.

History's Alone season 13, billed as the first World Championship, ended September 9. Žiga Ogorelec, a 35-year-old biologist from Slovenia, won the $500,000 prize after 90 days in the Richardson Mountains of the Northwest Territories, near Aklavik. He made fire by friction all season, becoming the first winner in the show's history to finish without a ferro rod. Aaron Barnard finished second at 87 days and Nero Buys third at 85. The ten participants came from the United States, Canada, Wales, Australia, Slovenia, Portugal and New Zealand.

The same night in Australia, SBS closed Alone Australia season 4. Trent Fenton, a 40-year-old former Navy chef from Sandford, Tasmania, won the A$250,000 prize after 52 days in Sápmi, in Finland's Arctic. New Zealand farmer Clint Waghorn withdrew at 47 days after nearly seven weeks without protein, and Jasper Harvey was medically removed at 48 days with a spreading hand infection. SBS says the season reached 3.41 million viewers and calls the show the most successful original series in its history.

What comes next is less settled. History has not announced a premiere date or location for season 14. Casting for it opened in April, and the U.S. series has premiered in late May or June every year since 2017, but neither History nor the producers have confirmed 2027 timing. SBS has confirmed a fifth Alone Australia season for 2027, returning to the Arctic Circle, and is already casting season 6, with applications closing March 7, 2027.

Both seasons are streaming: the U.S. season on the History app and with TV providers, and Alone Australia free on SBS On Demand in Australia. We will update the Alone tracker when either network names a date.