We’re caught downwind of forest fires in the Upper Midwest and Canada, and thus experiencing some of the worst air quality on earth (literally) here in Ann Arbor right now. The smoke is at ground level, where it shifts like fog. Everything smells like someone is BBQing over a dumpster fire, and the sun looks like a searing, distant bike-reflector at the back of a shed occupied by a chain-smoking blacksmith. Walking outside for more than 15 minutes, even in a respirator, gives you a headache and your eyes itch.
Last week I was kayaking around the Apostle Islands, which was dangerous and terrifying in its own special way, but way better than this. So I’m thinking about that. The above sketches are from that trip, as are the below pics.
FYI: in this last picture, that’s fog, not smoke—which was still terrifying, because we were in kayaks, and Lake Superior is the biggest lake in the world, and you can get hypothermia from falling in it in the summer, but still not so bad as this garbage air that has me and the dogs trapped indoors.
