Forest fires rage across Siberia; the smoke is sucked into the jet stream pulling it halfway around the world to bleach our atmosphere a pale white. We hiked along the Kitamaat Village trail today and it wasn't too bad at first, though even fairly local islands and mountains were obscured by smoke. By late afternoon the air in town was obviously murky and all colour in the sky paled to nothing.
We joined the Sunday excursion offered by MJ's gym yesterday traveling 55 km. east of Terrace to climb up to Watson Lakes which I'd never heard about before. It was interesting to hike a drier, rather different type of forest. Someone noted how much smaller the plants were and The Gumboot fairy commented on how much space there was between the undergrowth and the foliage on the trees. We are used to being enveloped by a jungle thick, impenetrable wall of green. The massive mountains along the Skeena were so hazy that I couldn't get very good photos and this bummed me mightily. Anytime we have a 'clear' day that isn't, I feel ripped off though the copper skies that resulted from dust storms in the Gobi desert were quite a novelty,10 or so years back.
This strange little thing is a type of saprophyte; these plants survive by drawing nutrients from decaying plant matter so can survive without chlorophyll. I've seen white but never pink and it's much fatter as well.
While passing through the old Haisla cemetery I noticed a monument I had never seen before, featuring a butterfly. This marked the passing of an 80 year old man in 1902 which was a refreshing change from most of the other grave sites there that commemorate the deaths of so many children and young adults.
It will probably always be the most special place on earth to me.
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