As mentioned in the last post, it’s been a pretty smoky summer. Oregon and California have been on fire since June. Labor Day weekend took the smoke to a whole new level. Hazardous air quality with smoke so thick there were times we couldn’t see the shore while out fishing Odell.
Well, if you’ve been around these parts for a while you’ve seen previous Dog Days posts. We’ve now made it through those hot days of July and August when the constellation Sirius rises alongside the sun and happens to coincide with what has come to be my least favorite time of year. The extended days in the triple digits, the thick wildfire smoke, lack of water in streams and lakes and general drying up of the countryside might have something to do with that disdain. This year has been all time worsts for a lot of those things in my experience. We can’t plan a trip without checking to see if the destination is on fire, if we can possibly breathe the air, or if there is going to be any water to float the boat on.
We made a trip to Delintment Lake, high in the pines in eastern Oregon. There’s not much of a report. Casts were made, fish were caught, we sat back and enjoyed what we could see of the stars through the smoke. Mainly it was just good to get away. And in rejoicing about deciding to go, instead of to stay, I was reminded of a passage from John Muir.
