Oh gosh, it’s never ending. Scenes from a smoky week at home when I had planned to be camping next to a mountain lake. Many birds have left. The dogs seem to have a pretty good attitude but the smoke is bad for them too.
Fire season is hitting us hard this year. There are large fires in all directions around us. The Ptarmigan fire is threatening my favorite hiking spots to the north. The Sinlahekin is bearing down on my favorite hiking spots to the northeast. All the fires dump smoke high in the air and then it settles into the valleys as the wind dies down. Our air has been unhealthy for days. I had hoped to go camping this past week but the air was bad everywhere I looked. All over Washington and Oregon too. I want to see the Milky Way and meteor showers. Willow is bored and so am I. The forecast shows some relief coming but also increased fire activity. These fires will not stop til the snow falls.
Finding photo subjects is nearly impossible. The smoke colors the light in strange ways. I made some photos and tried to adjust the color to what I think it would be under ‘normal’ circumstances. Others, I left as is or made black and white. Summer in the west.
I spent a little time with two pikas last week. They were wary, watching me and also Willow on the trail below them. They are about the cutest little creatures around. Those ears! The whiskers and eyelashes!
Willow and I did a volunteer stint in the mountains last week. Our time there was cut short by evacuation orders concerning a fire in the wilderness to the north of there. The fire people are concerned that it will expand to the south and west, endangering hikers and others. It was hard to leave under those circumstances.
We did enjoy good weather, blue, smoke-free skies and wildflowers. We did not enjoy the flies and mosquitoes! Lots of interesting hikers came through and a French man doing the Fastest Known Time on the Pacific Crest Trail. It is over 2600 miles and he did it in 45 days! That’s 60 miles per day, on average, for 45 days. Can you even imagine? Search on FKT, Fastest Known Time, for more information. He had quite a support crew including a content creator and a French journalist.
But mostly it was quiet and beautiful. We did go up to Slate Peak to see the collapsed lookout. It was very sad. I found a Dark-eyed Junco nest within two inches of one of the trails.
Who knew Pileated Woodpeckers like blue elderberries?
My Everyday Photos 