Crews battling a wildfire raging southeast of Mount Adams today will face the same dry and windy conditions that saw the blaze more than double in size the previous day.

Blackening more than 8,000 acres near Trout Lake, the Cold Springs Fire is the largest the area has seen in more than a decade.

Today, crews will be beefed up to more than 300, but will face similar conditions that drove the blaze that had blackened about 3,000 acres by Monday morning and forced the closure of a main access point for climbers to Mount Adams.

The fire is burning in mostly bug-killed pine in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest and on the Yakama reservation.

The lightning-caused blaze was reported Saturday night, and is being fanned eastward by winds.

Camp Chaparral, a youth camp operated by the Yakama Nation, also was evacuated as a precaution. The camp is in heavy forest southwest of White Swan.

Earlier Monday, the last of roughly 200 hikers was evacuated from Mount Adams as forest roads 8040, 80 and 82 -- all that access trailheads -- temporarily were closed.

Temperatures are expected to be in the mid-80s today with winds up to 25 mph and gusts as high as 30 mph, according to the National Weather Service in Pendleton, Ore.

"Hot and dry with some winds will definitely be a challenge for firefighters," said Northwest Coordination Center spokesman Paul Ries. "Given the way it has been burning, the amount of acreage it has already burned and the heat that it's generated, it appears that this fire will be burning all week."

About 390 firefighters from the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, the state Department of Natural Resources and the Yakama Nation were battling the blaze late Monday, and more were expected to arrive sometime today, he said.

Crews may see a break in the weather Wednesday as temperatures are expected to dip into the low- to mid-80s in the higher elevations with winds dropping to about 10 to 15 mph, a weather forecaster said.

But after that, temperatures are expected to creep back into the lower 90s in the higher elevations by Thursday and continue through the weekend, the forecaster said.

Manpower from three other major blazes burning in the region -- Spokane Valley, Badger Mountain and the Cayuse Fire near Tonasket -- should be available to help with the Cold Springs Fire by the weekend as those fires have moved into containment status, he said.

In addition to manpower, 10 engines and six bulldozers are currently working on the fire, and officials said it's not clear when it will be contained.

The last significant fire in the region was in 1994, when two fires burned for more than two weeks and blackened more than 11,600 acres in this rugged mountainous landscape.

* Phil Ferolito can be reached at 577-7749 or pferolito@yakimaherald.com.