Are You Hiking In The Smoke?

I had set aside last weekend to get out on a backpacking trip and as is the new norm, wildfire smoke covered pretty much all of Washington State except for the coast. I had planned for something closer to home so I went anyway, telling myself I would just come home if it was too bad. The air quality report put the area I wanted to be in at about 60 which is less than ideal (considered moderate) but thankfully not like 150 something in Wenatchee which was definitely unhealthy.

I could smell the smoke in the air as soon as I got out of the car at the trailhead and it wasn’t long up the trail before I could see the haze lingering on the ridge above me. The Red Mountain wildfire burned about 11 miles to the north and trails less than 5 miles away are closed.

It was hard to know if it was the heat or the smoke that made me feel sluggish as I ascended towards the pass.

I debated how long I wanted to go, Mountain-Forecast had said there would be some measure of precipitation overnight that might clear up the skies, albeit with the possibility of thunderstorms.

I opted to stop early of my destination in case that might be true. The sky glowed as I set up camp.

The next morning, I had ash on my tarp. Is this the new normal?

It was early, so I thought maybe the smoke had indeed cleared.

But continuing up the trail, it was clear that it had not.

I made it to one of my favorite places and as expected, the summits on the horizon were shrouded by smoke from not only the Red Mountain blaze but all the wildfires on the east side near Chelan and Wenatchee.

After a few hours some rain clouds did in fact roll through and I enjoyed the light sprinkles.

As I made my back down to camp, I was blessed with views of Columbia and Sloan that had been obscured on the way up.

It was hard to believe I was so close to a wildfire at this point.

The afternoon turned out to be quite nice, redeeming what had started as a rather lung-unfriendly adventure and I was smoke free for the rest of the trip. Sometimes, you just have to get out when things are less than ideal. Obviously if the smoke was much worse, I would have cancelled. But I think I would never get out if I waited for ideal situations.

How about you? Do you get when there is some smoke in the forecast or wait for clear skies? Or do you check out the wildfire map and figure out where to go that is as smoke-free as possible?