Invisible Rain, #110

1.

Melissa and I left on our annual summer backpacking trip to the Eagle Cap Wilderness. We left the Palouse in a shroud of smoke under an orange sun with an AQI (Air Quality Index) of 157, in the unhealthy range. We were going to an area under red flag and flood warnings/watches with heavy rain and thunder in the forecast. It made us feel uneasy. Our plan was to forge ahead and get a feel for what it might be like at the trail head before deciding to backpack in. We arrived to a little thunder, the last we would hear the remainder of the trip, at Two Pan trail head an hour out of Lostine, Oregon. After a conversation over lunch we decided to camp at the trail head to see what the evening might bring. I woke up a few times in the night to heavy rain that lasted 12 hours.

In the morning, the heavy rains subsided becoming waves of heavy-light rain (smaller drops, but the air felt full of water). We were in good spirits and decided to begin our hike. We began walking, taking a right at the fork to follow the West Lostine River up to Minam Lake. It was wet and warm. It felt like we were in a tropical forest instead of a forest in the Pacific Northwest. As we walked my quick dry hiking shirt and shorts were soaked with rain, the humid air, and sweat. I wondered if this is what is is like to swim the mountains and walk the waters.

On the trail we came across a couple and later an individual; each saying how light the traffic and how heavy the rain was last night. They looked soaked as I imagined we did. We continued our walk in the rain. I wondered about the smoke we were driving in yesterday. Were the particles soaking me like the rain? An invisible rain that I couldn’t feel soaking my clothes, skin, and breath? I then wondered about the soaking of other invisible particles such as micro-plastics and green house gasses. I ask myself, how do I walk in this invisible rain?

2.

buzzz -a mosquito
at the end of my swiped hand
a lake trout jumping