Hiking in Smokey Air?

Justthisgirl1994

There's a couple of forest fires about 200 km away from where I live, so it's really smokey today. I was planning on going on a all day hike tomorrow up this mountain about 90 km away from the fire. The fire is pretty under control and everything, but I'm just wondering if it'd still be okay to go on the hike. I really want to especially since I'm assuming there won't be many other hikers.

mwyvr

This morning in Vancouver the smoke was there but did not affect my run, since then it has worsened considerably. I think I'd choose not to work out in this air. We'll see tomorrow I guess.

As for hiking 90km away from wild fire, beyond air quality, check with official sources for advisories about accessing areas. When wind picked up sometimes road access becomes tenuous in a hurry. Be safe, have fun!

Justthisgirl1994

Yeah it wasn't affecting my breathing earlier, but now all I'm doing is sitting inside and having a slightly harder time. I was planning on hiking up the Chief, so probs not the best plan. Guess tmr will be another gym day.

mwyvr

That area might be worse, might be better - check forecasts tomorrow. This evening they were showing a counter clockwise air flow that would be pulling smoke from the Elaho fire all the way down Howe Sound... right past the Chief.

Currently the forecast is for a bit of improvement but how reliable this is... don't know. Certainly the air quality in Vancouver continues to worsen this evening.

https://weather.gc.ca/airquality/pages/bcaq-020_e.html

Since you aren't heading deep into the backcountry my concern over road access goes away.

Justthisgirl1994

Thanks, I'll be checking that link a lot the next few days! I'll probably post pond the hike until the sky is blue again. Not being able to see anything at the view points would be disappointing.