The past couple of days off...
Tuesday, Smoky, attempts to avoid the smoke, find clean air by a quick trip to Creston over the Kootenay Pass - Clearer, for sure, but - still the smoke.
Pictures below - from the restaurant, from the town:
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Patios closed due to air quality. And dining indoors everyone - staff - is wearing masks. The virus is here.
Wednesday the air clears - surprisingly, and so I make a quick trip to the Valley, drive some new roads to new summits, abundant pegmatites, black tourmaline, garnets, feldspar, quartz - dozens of them, the whole drive should be walked over a period of weeks. The jeep sputteringly obliges, takes me to the top:
Sprays of black tourmaline in feldspar...
larger garnets in Feldspar
Motor chariot gasping at the summit.
Abundant spurs to explored, this place itself warrants a thousand holes - "it's here" understates it, there's treasure here for sure, but to find it. And all the way up the same and same again...
Roll the car down, much to return for and too little time. This weekend is another summit - the August long - the air is clear, forecast to 38 degrees, the restaurant will be a complete and utter madhouse. I have no stomach for this, I've done my time, and the owners trying to nudge me to stay on over the winter - when I've already sacrificed in the entirety my summer - well....
It's one day at a time, and I take comfort in the uncertainty of the world...the whole area could burn down, the plague could reach the restaurant - where none of the cooks or other staff have been vaccinated, there's a thousand end-of-the world comforting scenarios that could free me up to my own devices....
But for now it's back to work.