One of my favourite hikes this past summer was an overnight trek to Gwillim Lakes in BC’s Valhalla Provincial Park. This was the first overnight hike I ever did over a decade ago, so it was really nice getting back. It’s one of the prettiest hikes I know.
But it was also a terrible summer for forest fires — the air was thick with smoke, and we had a storm where rain fell black with ash. During the ascent the smoke lent a gauzy dreamlike quality to the landscape, but on the second day it was so thick that visibility was virtually nil. We woke up with red and stinging eyes in an ashen world, the mountains and views obliterated. Such a strange experience, to be alone in the remote alpine while the world burns below.
