#turns out haze is from canadian wildfires...

[driftlessdreams]

The sun the day before yesterday

[mariacallous]

When smoke from eastern Canadian wildfires smothered much of Canada and the American East Coast this summer, it resurfaced a distant memory for Gus Sentementes. The last time smoke descended on his home in Baltimore, Maryland, was in 2002, when fires in Quebec spread smoke more than 700 miles southward.

But this summer was different. The smoke lingered longer and spread farther. It also created quite a stir in areas that aren’t used to being that close to the effects of a cataclysmic wildfire. The world is warming, extreme heat is spawning hellish blazes, and even those not in the immediate vicinity are feeling their effects far downwind. Sentementes felt like this wasn’t just a fluke—something that affected his life every 20 years or so. This felt like something that would likely happen again, and soon.

Like anyone who breathes (i.e., everybody), air quality always felt somewhat important to Sentementes. He has three kids, one of whom has asthma. Sentementes himself uses a sleep apnea machine at night. When the sky turned orange and taking a breath felt like sucking in a campfire, Sentementes decided it was time to learn more about how his air quality was changing. He bought a PurpleAir sensor that lets him monitor the air quality outside his house in real time and share the data on the internet, where it gets pooled with other sensor readings from down the street, across town, and around the world.

“It’s been an eye-opening experience, the last several months, just coming to understand the basic, most fundamental importance of clean air,” Sentementes says. "We just really don’t appreciate it until you’re forced to breathe in a lot of terrible air.”

Wildfire smoke has long been a staple of the summer months along the West Coast of the US. Earlier this summer, when the wildfires in eastern Canada burned thousands of acres and covered the east coast in clouds of acrid haze, people who had never known life in wildfire country found themselves choking on wildfire smoke. As wildfires worsen and spread, people in communities that aren’t historically thought of as wildfire prone are starting to track the smoke in their air.

“With all that's going on with climate change and all the extremes that everybody's experiencing, sadly, I think this is going to become the new normal,” says James Knox, who lives near Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. “We're going to have to start living with this.”

Knox recently bought two PurpleAir sensors after this summer's wildfires. He placed one in his yard at his home and the other at a family cottage a few miles away. Knox has consulted for public health agencies about Covid-19 and other infectious diseases. Being forced indoors due to the Canadian wildfires evoked the lockdown days of the Covid pandemic, albeit with its own twists. Back then, the guidance for social distancing allowed for outdoor excursions, like going for a walk. For someone like Knox, it was a way to stave off cabin fever and get some fresh air. But when the smoke came, he felt pinned inside without respite.

“We've been kind of conditioned to going out in fresh air, but that's dangerous now,” Knox says. "It’s a weird feeling.”

It’s relatively easy to check your community’s air quality. At least, if you live in the US, and also in an urban area that’s mandated to report such data to the Environmental Protection Agency. The Air Quality Index, or AQI, is the measure of potentially harmful particulate matter in the air around us. That includes everything from floating particles smaller than 10 micrometers (PM10) like dust and wildfire smoke to particles 2.5 micrometers (PM2.5) or smaller, like gas fumes. Official sources like the World Health Organization and the US-focused AirNow track air quality, usually more rigorously in populated areas, and rank the ratings on a scale from Good to Hazardous.

AQI readings have traditionally been taken by big, pricey measuring instruments owned and operated by state or local governments. But over roughly the past half decade, small, low-cost devices have democratized air quality monitoring. Companies like Purple Air and IQ Air have built up reliable air quality tracking networks made up by citizen-owned monitors; PurpleAir says it has more than 25,000 units in its network worldwide. These monitors are cheap devices that hook up to your Wi-Fi network and are easy to install. The sensors take regular air quality readings and then upload the data to the broader networks, offering a crowdsourced snapshot of air quality information that spans the globe. The devices aren’t perfect—there’s a greater chance of human error when the monitors aren’t placed by someone who’s trained to collect air quality readings—but the sheer scale of the network means inaccurate outliers have a higher chance of being drowned out by the sea of other nearby devices.

A platform like PurpleAir also makes the data immediately accessible by visualizing the air quality readings on a map, using a color-coded scale from blue and green (OK) to red and purple (very bad). Even if you don’t fully grasp particulate matter ratings, seeing a big red blob on a map over your house is a pretty quick way to tell something is off.

“It’s a form of engaged learning,” says William Mills, an exposure assessment researcher at Northern Illinois University. “You can touch it, you can feel it, you can see it. It’s community sharing that’s just easy for people to opt in to. You can gain as much or as little information as you want. Can we use that to look at other forms of environmental quality? Can we use it to help change behaviors?”

Making the data more accessible can make people more interested in paying attention to it, especially when disaster strikes. Elizabeth Spike is an alternative school teacher and the education program manager at Clean Air Partners, an advocacy group for air quality awareness based in Washington, DC.

“Between the wildfires and Covid, I think more and more people want to know what they are breathing,” Spike says. “It's terrible that it takes these tragedies, these crises to make us realize we've been sleeping at the wheel. We have no choice but to breathe, and yet we really haven't made a big deal about what we are breathing.”

Ammar Rai is a software engineer in Maryland. He’s had asthma since childhood, which was only exacerbated by a bout of Covid two years ago. When the wildfire smoke descended this summer, he wore a painters mask with built-in ventilators when going outside. Rai says he often feels like people with conditions like his are treated as a burden, until something like the summer’s wildfires brings widespread attention to air quality.

“People like me are like the canaries in the coal mines,” Rai says. “The stuff that we’re oftentimes reacting to is bad for you anyways. Somebody who may be perfectly fine and not show any apparent symptoms, they're getting exposed to this stuff too. Then many years down the line, you find out they’re impacted by it, or it's in their bloodstream, or they have some kind of lung disease.”

Indoors, his home is a veritable air quality fortress. He has four air purifiers in the house. He has phones mounted to a wall in each room of his house that let him see air conditions at a glance. They’re always on, and their interfaces evoke the multicolored blinking lights of the inside of a Star Wars spaceship.

He’s made his software dashboard for mobile devices available on Github, along with self-made data visualizers others can use to make sense of their Purple Air readings. Rai has a PurpleAir monitor of his own that he says nearly 500 people on the platform have favored as a resource in the area.

“It feels good to be able to provide this data to the community in some way and raise awareness,” Rai says. “My standards are probably different than other people's, but if it helps someone have a good day outside, hey, that's great. Wonderful.”

James Knox, in Canada, also hopes sharing his data will help researchers and forecasters looking to predict unhealthy air events in the future.

“I feel fortunate I'm in a position to be able to do this,” Knox says. “I can provide that information, and people can make use of it to inform their lives. It gives them better situational awareness. People are nervous. People are worried. This helps.”

Gus Sentementes says there’s a sort of camaraderie to it too. It's a spirit, he says, that feels like it has been squeezed out of much of the wider internet by a handful of big social media companies intent on monetizing their platforms at all costs and erecting walled gardens around their services.

“One of the gee-whiz wonders of the internet of the early days was this feeling of being connected to other people,” Sentementes says. “It’s community driven, community sourcing. There’s this sense of a collective project you want to contribute to. You’re not just taking from it, you’re giving something back.”

[ghooostbaby]

I keep seeing (and have seen in previous years) this wringing of hands about  the forest fires as ~vaguely~ ohhh, climate change!! in this way that makes the fires so huge, complicated, and impenetrable that it’s just sort of out of our control, nothing we can do but continue on consuming, working, and living in the same ways, and push the stress of not being able to breathe properly to the back of our minds... BUT, something I have also seen repeatedly over the years of forestry experts saying that the cause is NOT primarily climate change, but forestry mismanagement.

every summer for the last 10 years in Canada the western parts of the country (as well at the U.S.) has had escalating severe wildfires, people from the west coast talk about how the summers have become months of constant haze and bad air quality from the smoke drifting over from the forest fires. For the first year its actually on the east coast, where I live, and I’m experiencing that haze for the first time. I’m not an expert, but honestly I’ve read so many times there are specific, evidence-based steps that can be taken to prevent wildfires.

from my bit of reading, many indigenous peoples in these areas had practices of controlled, low-intensity burns to manage build up of material that will catch fire quickly - the colonizing governments banned those practices. hmmm. then there’s also the way so much of canadian old growth forest is cut down for logging and then replanted - BUT the forests they replant are not the diverse ecosystem of old growth forest, its usually mostly monocultures of trees. one documentary i watched talked about how because different types of wood burn differently, natural forests with a lot of diversity are better at keeping fire spread down.

anyway it bothers me to see this vague climate change dread translate into inaction and apathy, and this blaming of some impenetrable thing outside of us, when it is literally capitalism and colonialism. the fault lying with “climate change” is like there’s nothing we can do until all the vast interlocking mechanism of climate change are fixed, and there’s no way we can even understand where to begin with that, so we can only turn away. but! there are clear and simple choices we could make to make things better and we just ... persist in not making them? and if i, someone with no special knowledge of anything forest-related can learn about this from publicly available articles and documentaries then what the fuck is the government doing?

https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/what-on-earth-indigenous-fire-forests-1.6194999

The paradox, said Prof. Lori Daniels, who specializes in wildfire and forest ecology at the University of British Columbia, is that we've been so good at putting out every fire possible that it has led to overly dense forests and a buildup of burnable material like branches and dry vegetation.

If sparked in the summer heat, these "ladder fuels" piggyback the flames up tree trunks and engulf the crown, resulting in high-intensity fires like those in Western Canada this year.

But overdrive isn't fire's only speed. In fact, when burning in a lower gear, the environmental benefits of fires in forested areas can be bountiful.

[phillipcole]

Post-AGT Appearance 1263 Randy KISV 94.1 fm July 28

Canadian Wildfires would still be below 100th in the US and with all profits going to charity useless for my companies.  My agent would have suggested an additional song for profit.  Within an hour I would have written most of the lyrics to another 70s hit tune.  It would take longer to find 2 living members (and a relative) of the Sanford-Townsend Band and fly them to my recording studio in Nevada and, along with Michael Martin Murphey record a song called Canadian fires to the tune of Smoke from a distant Fire.  I would join the band members and relative on backups while Murphey did the singing.  We would perform it on Thursday July 27 and start selling it on vinyl that night.  No disc jockeys would be eager to play it so the first would be Randy, a client of my agent who works at KISV fm 94.1 in California in an afternoon slot  He would play it in the middle of a music block and not talk about it that day.

Murphey: I love the sunrise; some pink, vermillion, even grays,

But lately it’s been corrupted by heavy haze.

So I turned on the news to find out what’s hap’nin’ these days,

And they said it’s the mist from the smoke of Canadian fires.

PBC and backups: They say it’s the mist of the smoke from Canadian fires.

Murphey: They started far out west.  Now they burn on the east coast too,

And they say that’s the reason our sky is never fully blue.

So we’re gasping for breath.

Some are getting near death,

And there’s not much that we can do.

PBC and backups: They say there’s not much we can do.

Not much we can do.

Murphey: Just try to survive the smoke from Canadian fires.

PBC and backups: Just try to survive the smoke from Canadian fires.

Murphey: The firemen try with their water, fire breaks and foam,

But though they do their best many can never go home.

Send your money and prayers to the cause that may never expire,

Cause we need to extinguish the smoke from Canadian fires.

PBC and backups: Cause we need to extinguish the smoke from Canadian fires.

Murphey: Yes we need to extinguish the smoke from Canadian fires.

All: Yes we need to extinguish the smoke from Canadian fires!

All: We need to extinguish the smoke from Canadian fires!

Murphey: Canadian fires! 

[salmonprince]

It’s the hottest summer in recorded history and the haze envelops America east of the Mississippi. Smoke from Canadian wildfires dip down and burrow in pockets of Pennsylvania, Michigan, New York. Dry heat and humid oppression give way to billowing fires budding out of rustic townhomes, tearing down the block like some sort of deranged, translucent, suffocating Pac-man, ingesting everything in its path. Don’t start your propane grill on the roof. The pools in Baltimore are closed for the summer.

Much like a well-placed score in a film by an auteur who grew up in Benedict Canyon to studio executive parents and came of age with David Lynch and Ridley Scott movies, this summer feels like The End. There’s sex trafficking fear-mongering that leads to innocent bystanders being shot and vigilante civilians losing their jobs, well-built and stilted North Carolina homes are drifting from the Outer Banks into the vast sea, billionaires are being crushed into the size of a soup can while attempting to live out their most voyeuristic maritime fantasy, the Grateful Dead stopped touring, and the fucking Orioles are the best team in baseball. The pools in Baltimore are closed for the summer.

Do you ever think about dying? I didn’t really, at least not until this summer. Is my mortality catching up with me since I turned a quarter-century old, or am I just re-hashing the existentialism from Margot Robbie in the Barbie movie trailer? The two biggest film releases of the year, and maybe the past decade, are a brand-laden marketing monolith about the country’s most emblematic All-American babe and a reckoning with the man who created the inevitable end of the world. I think Oppenheimer will be vindicated, though, because this world will probably end before anyone has a chance to press the Dr. Strangelove button. The pools in Baltimore are closed for the summer.

Ring doorbells are profiling minorities in gentrified neighborhoods, women with unchecked mental illnesses are going viral on the internet for a breakdown on a Southwest flight, our social communities are dying with no valid alternatives, and black kids are drawing the ire of neighborhood Karens and local news stations alike for breaking into barren community centers in the shadows of a path to sure environmental perdition. The pools in Baltimore are closed for the summer.

Have we no hope? Are we beyond reproach? Our planet healed during the darkest era for society in my lifetime. Once people— creatures whose sole purpose since their creation was to dominate the planet instead of share the planet, causing irreversible damage and imminent ecological implosion— went inside, the world recovered more than scientists previously thought possible. Then, the terror-inducing pandemic became but a distant memory, and in its dying embers humans went back to what they’ve always been doing: destroying their home. There was no hope, and then there was hope, and now we’re trapped in a freeze frame of heat, smoke, sickness, and hatred. And the pools in Baltimore are closed for the summer.

[yamimichi]

My husband took me out today. Weather app said it would be hazy but we didn't really see any. Although there was an air quality alert that we didn't know about until after we got home.

Turns out that the haze was smoke from the Canadian wildfires. All the way down through Indiana and into Kentucky.

When we got home we felt like we were dying.

[rosethornewrites]

We have smoke from the Canadian wildfires today, just a sort of haze. Nothing like New York had a few weeks back, but enough that I have a horrible sinus headache.

Despite that, we’re getting some cooking done with a 7lb package of ground beef from Costco. Burgers to be grilled tonight, sloppy joes, and a meatloaf.

We also have some chicken tender meat to deal with, so Mom is talking about making a big batch of chicken cacciatore, and it turns out our roommate owns a big deep fryer so we might try to do some gluten free breading.

Hoping to get some writing done but with my head throbbing it might be a asker said than done.

[garudabluffs]

 Climate change affects everyone through water — even in Massachusetts

"The Massachusetts Rivers Alliance, composed of 87 groups across the state protecting our rivers and streams, joins the United Nations in warning that “the global climate change crisis is inextricably linked to water.” We in Massachusetts are also now experiencing this crisis, and this week the state’s environmental secretary announced that parts of the state are now officially in drought."

READ MORE https://www.articles.gazettenet.com/my-turn-Blatt-June-is-national-Rivers-Month-51329209

A taste of pollution — Smoke & solidarity 6/15/2023

“Have you seen the Air Quality Index (AQI)?”

When I said I hadn’t, she said it was over 100 in the Northampton-Amherst area and suggested I stop working outside. When I looked up the AQI online, I learned that over 100 is considered “unhealthy for sensitive groups.” The next day it hit 163 in Northampton, which is in the “unhealthy” range for everyone. The average for this area is under 40.

"My biggest personal concern was for my grandchildren (ages 3 and 5) who live in Brooklyn. Apparently wildfire smoke can be particularly harmful to the lungs of young children. The Air Quality Index went over 200 (“very unhealthy”) one day and then over 450 the next. (Anything over 300 is “hazardous.”) They still went to preschool and kindergarten, but they wore masks outside, and at home the family kept the windows closed and ran an air purifier constantly.

The adults told me they could taste the smoke in the air. The photos of yellow-orange sky and heavy haze in New York were spooky. If you think about millions of people, including children and adults with respiratory issues, breathing that air, it’s frightening.

While our experience with this elevated air pollution was brief, I’ve read that we can expect more of it in the future."

"The World Health Organization estimates that nine out of 10 people in the world breathe air too polluted to meet international health standards_ _"

"Most of us don’t blame the Canadians, of course, for the smoke that polluted the air of the Northeast U.S. last week. But some of us could tell that it felt different to be impacted by something from another country that we had no control over. Perhaps this can help us imagine what it must feel like to live in a low-income country experiencing the effects of climate change — catastrophic floods, droughts, and heat waves — exacerbated daily by wealthy nations continuing to burn fossil fuels."

READ MORE https://www.articles.gazettenet.com/Columnist-Vernon-Jones-51323288

[newstfionline]

Friday, June 9, 2023

Smoky haze blanketing US, Canada could last for days (AP) On air quality maps, purple signifies the worst of it. In reality, it’s a thick, hazardous haze that’s disrupting daily life for millions of people across the U.S. and Canada, blotting out skylines and turning skies orange. And with weather systems expected to hardly budge, the smoky blanket billowing from wildfires in Quebec and Nova Scotia and sending plumes of fine particulate matter as far away as North Carolina should persist into Thursday and possibly the weekend. That means at least another day, or more, of a dystopian-style detour that’s chased players from ball fields, actors from Broadway stages, delayed thousands of flights and sparked a resurgence in mask wearing and remote work—all while raising concerns about the health effects of prolonged exposure to such bad air.

People who never had to think about wildfire before need to start (Washington Post) Right now, eastern North America sits under a blanket of choking smoke and an eerie orange haze more appropriate to the surface of Mars than the Great Lakes or Atlantic Seaboard. The cause: an unprecedented number of spring wildfires burning in the Canadian province of Quebec—164 of them as of Monday morning. This year, through Sunday, some 2,214 wildfires have burned through 3.3 million hectares of Canada’s forests, scrub and grasslands. The 10-year average for the same period is 1,624 fires and 254,429 hectares burned—about 13 times less. Clearly, many people in places that never had to think about wildfire before need to start doing so now. As well as drying things out, a warmer world leads to more of what fire scientists call “fire weather”—hot, dry, windy days that can turn a small, early-winter grass fire into a racing inferno.

US warns travelers to the Dominican Republic of violent crime, sexual assault (USA Today) Travelers heading to the Dominican Republic are exhorted to “exercise increased caution” by the State Department due to crime and a rise sexual assault incidents. The agency issued a level 2 travel advisory for the Caribbean country on Tuesday, stating “violent crime, including armed robbery, homicide and sexual assault is a concern throughout the Dominican Republic.” According to the State Department website, there have been recent reports of U.S. citizens being robbed by people they met off of dating apps in the Dominican Republic. Some of the incidents involved date rape drugs and occurred at major resorts and hotels. For the most part, resort areas are safer compared to metropolitan areas such as Santo Domingo since there is a tourist police corps. However, even around the resorts, travelers should avoid dark, secluded places, especially if they’re alone, and stay away from the beaches at night.

Most Europeans prefer to stay out of a US-China brawl (TIME) In recent months, the U.S. and the E.U. have sought to portray a mostly united front when it comes to China. Both Washington and Brussels have called out Beijing over its support for Russia amid its ongoing invasion of Ukraine, and both have firmly opposed any attempts to alter the status quo around Taiwan, the self-governed democracy to which Beijing lays claim. But as much as American and European leaders may appear to be in lockstep on China, the same cannot be said for their respective populations. According to new findings published by the European Council on Foreign Relations on Wednesday, a majority of Europeans see China as a “necessary partner” rather than as a rival or adversary, unlike most Americans. What’s more, in the event of a potential conflict between the U.S. and China over Taiwan, most Europeans would prefer to stay out of it. This position has been most prominently articulated by Macron, who following a visit to China in April warned that Europeans should avoid becoming “America’s followers” when it comes to Taiwan, noting that Europe should avoid the “trap” of getting involved in crises “that are not ours.”

EU makes fresh attempt to overcome yearslong crisis over migrants (AP) European Union interior ministers on Thursday made a fresh attempt to overcome one of the bloc’s most intractable political problems as they weighed new measures for sharing out responsibility for migrants entering Europe without authorization. Europe’s asylum system collapsed eight years ago after well over a million people entered—most of them fleeing conflict in Syria—and overwhelmed reception capacities in Greece and Italy, in the process sparking one of the EU’s biggest political crises. The 27 EU nations have bickered ever since over which countries should take responsibility for people arriving without authorization, and whether other members should be obliged to help them cope. Under the existing rules, countries where migrants first arrive must interview and screen them and process the applications of those who might want to apply for asylum. But Greece, Italy and Malta maintain that the burden of managing the numbers of people coming in is too onerous.

As flood engulfs Ukraine’s southern combat zone, battlefield is redrawn (Washington Post) Waters continued to rise in southern Ukraine on Wednesday after a catastrophic dam collapse, flooding war-torn neighborhoods and trapping thousands of residents—a humanitarian disaster that unfolded at a pivotal moment of fighting on the front lines of Russia’s 15-month war. Nearly 2,000 homes had flooded by Wednesday morning in Ukrainian-controlled parts of southern Kherson, the regional administration said, after the destruction of the Russian-controlled Kakhovka dam and hydroelectric power plant Tuesday sent water rushing over the banks of the Dnieper River. With the floodwaters not expected to peak until at least Wednesday night, the scale of the disaster was almost certain to increase. Whether the dam was attacked, or collapsed for some other reason, the vast flooding has redrawn the battlefield on the southern front. Some heavily fortified Russian positions were left underwater, but Ukraine’s chances of advancing into the affected region were also constrained. The Kakhovka dam was one of the last remaining passable crossings over the Dnieper River, which separates Ukrainian and Russian troops. The flooding thwarts the possibility of a Ukrainian push across the now-swollen region in the near future, but military analysts said it was unlikely to have a major impact on an overland push.

Flooding from dam break strands hundreds and leaves thousands with no drinking water in Ukraine (AP) Authorities rushed to rescue hundreds of people stranded on rooftops and supply drinking water to areas flooded by a collapsed dam in southern Ukraine on Wednesday, in a growing humanitarian and ecological disaster along a river that forms part of the front line in the 15-month war. The collapse of the Kakhovka hydroelectric dam and emptying of its reservoir on the Dnieper River added to the misery the region has suffered for more than a year from artillery and missile attacks. With humanitarian and ecological disasters still unfolding, it’s already clear that tens of thousands of people have been deprived of drinking water, many are homeless, crops are ruined, land mines have been displaced, and the stage is set for long-term electricity shortages. The high water could wash away this season’s crops, while the depleted Kakhovka reservoir would deny adequate irrigation for years.

They were flying to the U.S. Then they spent 40 hours stranded in Russia. (Washington Post) When Ashok Ramchandra, 51, boarded a flight from New Delhi to San Francisco on Tuesday, he was headed home in time to make his son’s fifth-grade graduation on Friday. Then, after about nine hours in the air, the captain of Air India Flight 173 announced there was an issue with the engine and that they needed to divert. So they veered south, toward Magadan, Russia, a small city thousands of miles east of Moscow with bitter winters, a history of gold mining, and the nearest airport that could accommodate the Boeing 777. Flight 173’s unplanned landing at Sokol Airport left 16 crew members and more than 200 passengers—including dozens of Americans—temporarily stranded in the Russian Far East. After some 40 hours in Magadan, the replacement aircraft finally arrived, and on Thursday morning in Russia, the passengers were bound for San Francisco yet again.

Hong Kong prisons work to compel loyalty to China among young activists (Washington Post) The day begins with goose-stepping. In the prison yards of juvenile facilities across Hong Kong, young men and women practice the form of marching used by the Chinese military, kicking their legs up high as guards yell out commands. In their mud-colored uniforms, the prisoners look almost indistinguishable from military recruits. But before they were detained, these inmates were foot soldiers in Hong Kong’s fight for greater democratic freedoms. Arrested for their involvement in the 2019 mass protests that saw almost a third of the population take to the streets, the detainees are now the latest subjects in China’s decades-long experiment in political control. The goal is to “deradicalize” them, echoing efforts honed by Beijing from the 1989 crackdown on Tiananmen Square protesters up to the forced detention and reeducation of Uyghur Muslims, though the Hong Kong version is not on the industrial scale of the repression in Xinjiang. The deradicalization program includes pro-China propaganda lectures and psychological counseling that leads to detainees confessing to holding extreme views, and it is accompanied by a system of close monitoring and punishment, including solitary confinement, inside the juvenile facilities, former prisoners and guards said. As of April 30, 871 juvenile inmates had participated in the program, the Hong Kong Correctional Services Department said, about 70 percent of them charged in connection with the 2019 protests. Some are as young as 14.

Divide between religious and secular Jews heats up under Netanyahu’s rule (AP) The sound of children and music echoed down a narrow basement hallway in Israel as they scrambled in a pool of balls, climbed on a jungle gym, munched popcorn and laughed. The atmosphere changed suddenly on that Saturday last month, as at least a dozen religious men appeared and blocked the entrance, accusing the indoor playground of desecrating the Jewish sabbath by opening for business. Angry parents confronted them, scuffles broke out and in an instant, the center in this mixed city had become a flashpoint symbol of a larger battle between secular and religious Jews in Israel. “I think it represents what’s going on in the country,” said Tzipi Brayer Sharabi, a 38-year-old mother who says she was attacked and thrown to the ground during the May 20 incident. “I want my kids to live how they choose to live. I don’t want somebody to tell them how they should eat, how they should dress, what they should do on Shabbat.” Similar incidents have long upset the tenuous balance between the communities. But with ultra-Orthodox parties now wielding unprecedented power in Israel’s new government—and playing a key role in a contentious plan to overhaul the legal system—they are aggravating concerns among secular Israelis that the character and future of their country is under threat.

[xtruss]

Hey, I’m breathing here! Photo: Gary Hershorn/Getty Images

Just Asking Questions: When Is the Smoke Apocalypse in New York Going to End?

— By Matt Stieb | June 6th, 2023 | Intelligencer

The air in New York City sucks right now, thanks to wildfire smoke from Ontario and Quebec that’s been trapped at near-ground level throughout the Northeast United States. Air quality has also plummeted to hazardous levels in western New York, and upstate looks like Mars.

With the sky turning an ominous sepia again on Wednesday afternoon, there was one question on our mind: When is this going to end? Bill Evans, the former meteorologist at WABC-TV in New York and the current owner and meteorologist at WLNG radio in Sag Harbor, explained why a rare combination of pressure systems has allowed smoke to hang over the Northeast — and why relief may arrive in a matter of days.

Why is this smoke lasting?
There’s a huge batch of smoke coming down right now from Canada that is coming out of Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. It’s swinging around a rather large cutoff low-pressure system, which is moving counterclockwise. A lot of things have to come into play to create this kind of situation, where the smoke is continually coming down from Canada.

What we have going on right now is called an Omega block. That is, you have a low that is in the Gulf of Maine to Nova Scotia, you have a big high-pressure ridge over Canada, southward across the central U.S., and you have a low-pressure system that is just off the coast of California west of Los Angeles. So the jet stream wraps around that — it comes around the base of the low out west, comes up northward into Canada around the big high-pressure ridge, then comes back around the bottom of the low that is in the Gulf of Maine. The jet stream looks like a giant Omega symbol: thus the Omega block.

And the key word is block. It blocks everything, this kind of setup. You have high pressure well out into the Atlantic that blocks the low from leaving and sort of backs it in a little bit toward the U.S. coast. So this low that is sitting there, it spins counterclockwise. The prevailing winds are out of the north and northwest. And the fires are up in central Ontario and Quebec and around Nova Scotia and so that low, the winds around that pull the smoke farther south.

How and when is it going to end?
What gets this to stop is the low-pressure system dissipating, weakening, and then the winds stop or change direction to push the smoke out into the Atlantic. And that’s what we’re expecting to happen as we go into Thursday and Friday. We’ll have more of a wind out of the north, and the low will be weakening and backing into Maine. Eventually, the system will go north into Canada on Thursday night and Friday. Saturday it will finally get out of here and take the smoke with it.

So we’re ultimately waiting on this low-pressure system to move out rather than waiting for the fires to be extinguished?
That’s right, it’s all dependent on this low that’s stuck there. Had it not been, you would have had high pressure coming in that would have pushed the smoke out into the Atlantic. But this pattern has everything kind of stuck in place.

It looks like there’s a break in the smoke coming behind this next batch coming in tonight. And it looks like we get a little break tomorrow, a northerly wind, but it’s a very light wind. And also, we’ve got a front coming down that might mean showers in parts of the Northeast, which would help knock some of the smoke particles down as well.

The Downtown Manhattan skyline stands shrouded in a reddish haze as a result of Canadian wildfires on June 6, 2023.

So the low-pressure system is also creating the conditions that allow the smoke to reach ground or near-ground levels? In recent years, when there have been fires in the west, we’ll get a hazy day, but it doesn’t feel like this.
That’s correct. Low pressure and high pressure, if you look at it dimensionally — the low is a valley and the high is a mountain. And the lower-pressure area is allowing the smoke to come down through the troposphere. Once it gets down to the surface, the surface winds take hold, and there’s been that wind consistently out of the north and northwest spinning around the low.

Livestream of lower Manhattan/NYC from the top of the St. George Tower in Brooklyn, New York.

Why does it seem to be worse in the afternoon and early evening?
The heating of the sun fires up these particles and traps them at the surface. Fortunately, we haven’t had extremely hot air. If we had 90-to-100-degree temperatures, that’s the only thing that could have made this worse.

Photo: Alex Kent/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Is this what it was like in the ’60s smog era?
Back then, the pollution was from automobile emissions, industry, stuff like that, where you had cleaners, dry cleaners emitting into the atmosphere wildly without a lot of regulation. That would get heated up by the sun — you could actually see the dome over New York City. But now that the air quality has gotten better and there are more restrictions on pollutants going into the atmosphere, that’s gotten a lot better.

[meret118]

Here's what we're following:

Health risks: With this much smoke, experts say your indoor spaces, pets and health can all be at risk.

Canada's wildfires: The country is battling over 400 blazes, with more than half still categorized as out of control.

When will it end?: This round of haze is likely at its peak, but, thanks to climate change, you can expect more massive wildfires this summer.

-----

Lots of good info at the link!

[sending-the-message]

Whatever You do, do Not Breathe in The Fog... by SwornToSilence

A thick smoke rolled in from south-western Canada that caused the sun to glow blood orange as it set over the horizon. A prompt on my phone warned the citizens of my town to stay indoors due to the high level of smoke that contaminated the air. The border is easily a two hour drive but the Canadian wildfire burned so furiously that a blanket of thick fog had made its way over a hundred miles south of its origin.

Almost annually does eastern Washington experience these types of conditions but over here, on the coast, we haven't personally witnessed it other than what we see from news reports. The whole situation is foreign to me.

I woke up the next morning to a loud knock on my door. I crawled out of bed and stumbled over toward the door. Neglecting the peep-hole, I undid the lock and had started to turn the knob. Before I could even open the door, it was kicked in and I flew back onto the hard linoleum floor of my kitchen.

Two men in hazmat suits came barging in, armed with rifles, pointing them straight at me.

"Don't move" one of them said as he reached into his tote bag and withdrew a syringe.

That wasn't much of a problem since I was so caught off-guard that I was nearly paralyzed in shock. I flinched as he jabbed the sharp steel into my arm. The other man kept his rifle pointed dead between my eyes as the other struggled to collect a sample.

Once they finished, the man who collected the sample dropped a few bits of liquid into the vial of blood and swirled it around.

"He’s clean." He said to his partner without even giving me another glance. I noticed he had a sort of South-American accent.

“Stay here, do not leave your home. Close your windows and vents. Do not go outside!” The man added.

They retreated from my home without a parting word. I sat there for a few minutes in confusion. It felt like a nightmare but only I hadn't woken up yet. Rubbing the bruised spot on my arm, I rose from the floor and picked up my phone to dial 911. There was no response. No operator. Nothing.

Visions of countless horror film plots ran through my head. There was no warning, no breaking news, not even sirens wailing off in the distance. Peering out my window, I could only see clouds of thick white smoke. Something was dreadfully wrong.

I grabbed a t-shirt and wrapped it around my face. It wasn't much but it should've at least helped a little bit. I stepped through my now broken front door and traversed into the smoke that had now consumed my street. It was so thick I could've cut it with a knife. My visual range steeped down to a short ten feet. I was blindly walking in what may have been a death trap, but my home wasn't much safer. I was willing to take the risk.

After stepping out into the middle of the road I could see two bright yellow headlights just a couple hundred feet out were approaching. The haze was so thick that it would barely allow sunlight to pass, making it seem as if it were turning to dusk.

The memory of those two masked men entering my home passed through my mind and I quickly hid behind my neighbor's hedges to remain out of sight. My heart pounded as the roaring engine of the vehicle came closer. I could see that it had a spotlight which it was using to scope the area out. Whoever they were, they were looking for something.

What I could now make out was that it was a large armored vehicle. Its spotlight flashed over my hiding place as it passed by and my heart nearly stopped. Fortunately, they didn't see me and I started to breathe again as I watched the red glowing lights disappear into the smoky fog.

Once they were completely out of view I bolted up the steps to my neighbor's house. His name was Gregory. Gregory was a nice guy, loved guns and loved his country. I don't think I've ever met someone as patriotic as he was.

Approaching his door, I noticed that his silver Suburban still sat in the driveway. I found this odd because Greg worked for the city, and no matter what the conditions were, he would be required to work on weekdays under any circumstance. To see that he was still home on a Thursday morning troubled me. What the hell was going on?

I pounded on his door but yielded no response. After trying to turn the knob, I realized that the frame surrounding the strike-plate was busted out and was an obvious sign of forced entry.

"Greg! Dude! Are you home?!" I shouted anxiously, looking for any signs of presence.

My attempts to reach Gregory were fruitless. But I noticed his living room was in complete disarray. The table had been flipped over, the couch as well. Pictures of his family and friends had fallen from their places on the wall and had been lying on the floor. I knew something was wrong.

I bolted down the hall towards Greg's room where I found his body, lifeless, sitting in a pool of blood on his bedroom floor. His legs were swollen and heavily bruised. At first glance, it looked like they'd been broken, but I couldn't see any bones poking through the skin. Greg's legs were bent and twisted. I let out a loud gasp as I noticed the two bullet sized wounds in the back of his head. Greg's hand was gripped around the handle of his revolver.

My body shut down and I fell to my knees. I prayed to whatever god there might be that I'd wake up from this terrible nightmare. But no one was listening.

Why did they kill Greg and spare me? Why the fuck didn't they end my misery right then and there? Lastly, why did they take my blood? Those were questions that went without answers, but then again, I don't think I'd want to know.

After recovering from my hysteria, I pried the revolver from Greg's cold, dead hand. Shoving it in my belt-line, I made my way out the door and back across the street to my car. Firing up the engine, I cautiously pulled out of my driveway and set off towards downtown.

I hadn't a clue to why I was headed towards civilization. There were no signs of life on my street, nor did I see any as I slowly crept towards the edge of my neighborhood. I guess that my hope was to find someone, anyone, who may have any clue to what's going on.

I made sure to keep my headlights off. If I had encountered those men again, I could only imagine what they'd do to me. And that's where I'd have liked it to stay. In my imagination.

The fog only grew thicker as I approached the city limits. If it hadn't been for the dim glow of the streetlights above, I would've driven straight off the road.

Pulling over on First and Pine, I noticed that it was completely silent. The world felt still as I slammed the door of my car and stepped out onto the barren street. The usual motion of the city was completely absent, the sounds were muted. Navigating through the fog I didn't see any signs of life as I had hoped for.

I looked down towards my feet since I couldn't see anything ahead and was shocked to see that I had been standing in a smeared trail of blood. My heart raced as I followed it around the corner and arrived at the source. It was one of the men in hazmat suits.

The front of his attire was unzipped and his hand was tucked underneath. I pulled at the man's arm to reveal I gaping hole in his stomach. Something did this. Something inhuman.

I started to feel nauseous. My throat tightened and my mouth began to salivate as I forced the bile back down into my stomach. I then stripped the man of his suit and shook out as much blood as I could. The universal sizing of the suit made it a comfortable fit as I squeezed inside.

I rummaged through the man's pockets and found a flip-style cell phone. Twelve missed calls, all from "HQ". Whatever happened, it was obviously an unexpected tragedy. I felt no pity for the man after what they did to Gregory. I started going through the phone, hoping to find any information about what was going on until I saw them.

2 faded gray silhouettes stood out in the distance. They were facing to the side, but after calling out to them, I could see them turn towards me. I started walking in their direction. I could tell they weren't the same people I've been hiding from because their outline hadn't resembled the suits they wore.

My walk turned into a light jog, when I was about five feet away I noticed that they hadn't even voiced themselves back to me. It was a one-sided conversation between them and myself. It hit me like a ton of bricks when they came into view. A young couple, man and woman, stood side by side. They had blank expressions on their faces but their appearance horrified me.

The man's face was smothered in dried blood, a piece of his ear lobe appeared to have been ripped off. His face and neck would twitch and crack as he clicked his tongue with each tick, almost as if he had been programmed and there was an error in the coding.

The woman's mouth was clean...but her eyes, her eyes were lidless. Two bored-open sockets that held glossy white and brown marbles. It was so horrifying, I knew that there was something menacing about them, but I didn't stick around to find out.

I bolted back down pine toward my car where I was cut off by a congregation of these monsters. They each stood there, taking purposefully short-paced steps as each individual twitched and tweaked in a sinister way. I felt a warm liquid trail down my leg as I realized that my bladder had released itself in fear.

I tore down an alleyway. Jumping on top of a dumpster, I lunged and grabbed the bottom bar to an apartment's fire escape ladder. It took all of my might to pull my body high enough to get a foot on the step. After making my way up the ladder and to the stairs, I looked down...

Approximately twenty to thirty robotic human-like monsters crowded around the dumpster. I didn't hesitate to climb higher. My heart pounded and my lungs forced air in and out of them as I ascended the fire escape stairs. Just when my legs were ready to give way, I saw an open window.

Not a thought passed through my mind as I crawled through the opening belly first. Somersaulting onto the living room floor of a small apartment, I realized I had jumped right into the hornet's nest.

A mother and two little children sat at the dinner table. Each of their arms and legs twitched and snapped in unnatural ways. One of the little girl's head turned towards me. She smiled.

Before I could even get another glimpse, I bolted out the front door and was greeted by even more of the humanoid demons. The hallway to my right was clear so I followed that path, hoping there was a way out.

Luck had been in my favor because I found the entrance to the indoor emergency stairwell. I leapt down each flight until I made it to the ground floor. The door swung open hard by the brute force of my shoulder and I was greeted by the same vehicle I had hid from earlier.

I was getting ready to flee when it lightly honked at me.

"Get in, come on!" A voice shouted at me.

I had almost forgotten that I was wearing the suit. That easily helped me decide on which option I should take. The armored van revved its engine and I ran over to the door that was open, waiting for me.

The door slammed shut behind me and we sped off into the fog.

"Where is your unit?!" Said the man inside the van with me.

I didn't reply out of fear they wouldn't recognize my voice. I only shrugged.

"HQ, we found #27. Returning to base." The driver said over a radio attached to the dash.

"Hey, you know you should be lucky we found you. Your unit has been missing since you left this morning for collection rounds." The passenger said, turning around in his seat.

"Ya, it's a three hour drive back to the barracks. It sucks that you've only just got here and you've already lost your entire unit. I'm sorry, man." Added the driver.

The remainder of the drive was made in silence. I didn't have much to say otherwise. If these guys find out that I'm not one of them, what will happen to me? They did say I just got here, maybe they don't know me yet and I was easily outnumbered three to one.

We reached what looked oddly similar to a military camp but a lot more rundown. We pulled up to the entrance of a large tent and I followed the two men inside.

We were inside an infirmary. The two men let me be and a nurse came from behind a nurse wearing a respirator mask entered through a dividing curtain.

"Alright, let me check you out." She said colorlessly.

She withdrew a pen-sized flashlight and examined the exterior of my protective suit.

"Ok, our suit was not comprised. How do you feel?" she added.

“I don’t know, I have a slight headache but nothing unusual. I think it’s just stress.” I replied.

After assuring her I was OK she told me to return to the barracks. Leaving the infirmary, I made my way along the backside of the tent and explored the camp.

There were dozens of suited soldiers. Some were armed, others had different colored suits, very few had badges pinned to their torso. It must've been some sort of military team, maybe an outbreak prevention squad. I'm not sure what to think other than I felt a bit safer among them, even if I was impersonating one.

I entered another tent only a hundred or so feet away from the last. The exterior was white and head a single red stripe that stretched across the entrance. After passing through the folds I could see why it stood out from all the others.

There were several beds lined in an orderly fashion, strapped to them were people, just like the ones I had seen in the city. Each of them had IVs and heart monitors hooked attached to their bodies. I stood in horror as I watched the captives twitch and squirm in an inhuman way as they pulled against their bindings. They were being tested on.

A man in a lab coat and a respirator entered the tent from behind me.

"Excuse me, do you have clearance to be here?" He asked with an authoritative tone.

"Uhh. No, I'm looking for the barracks. I just transferred here." I stuttered in response.

"I see. Well, you need to leave IMMEDIATELY. This area is off limits."

I retreated from the tent and eventually made my way to the barracks. These residential tents were air sealed so I was able to take off my suit. It was easy enough to find my bunk since each of them had a number label. #27 managed to unpack his belongings before his untimely death. Among those things was his laptop.

I had done a load of research and I couldn’t find a thing about what's going on. The only relevant news report is only notifying that my area has been evacuated and access to the city and surrounding area is restricted. I know this is false. My phone told me otherwise earlier that morning. Whatever was going on, it's being covered up.

The next morning, we were called to a mission briefing. I was grouped with two other guys, #5 and #23. Later I learned their names were Harold and Armando.

"Hey, you look familiar." Said Armando.

I recognized his accent. It was one of the two men who broke into my home that morning.

"Uh, ya. I'm not sure where. Maybe it'll come to us later?" I replied nervously, placing my fingers against my temples in attempt to relieve some of the pressure of my pounding headache.

Armando gave me a puzzling look then nodded his head as our alleged commander entered the room. I could feel the suspicion radiating from his demeanor.

"I have a special task for the three of you. Search and rescue. #27, your comrades #82 and #117 are still missing. We need you to retrieve them. Dead or alive, your mission is to bring them back to HQ. You three are our most experienced when it comes to these things and I do not want to send our men out there not knowing what to expect. It is important not to share any details of your mission with anyone else. Is that clear?"

We all confirmed.

"Good. You will be leaving at 0900 hours. You have thirty minutes to gear up and be on your way. That is all."

I followed Armando and Harold to the armory and we grabbed an arsenal of weapons and other necessities and soon enough we were on our way back to the city.

We returned to the cross streets where I found the body of #27. What I found unsettling is that when I led them to the area in which I found him, his body was gone, leaving only a pool of blood in its place.

Of course, they had no clue that he was here and were puzzled on what the scene was from. My head pounded even harder as the two men interrogated me.

"#27, is this familiar to you? Where were you separated from your unit? Would you think this is one of theirs?"

I shrugged my shoulders in uncertainty.

"Take us to where you last saw them." Said Harold.

I didn't really know what to tell them, I was impersonating one of their comrades, I only knew of where I found his corpse. I was preparing a story until we heard something that made all of us jump out of our skin.

It was a collection of growls, a sinister symphony, all howling in a harmonic key that would disturb even the most immune to such horrors. We raised our firearms and spun around, trying to identify the noise. The growl rose again, this time closer.

Finally, it came into view. The sight of this abomination will forever be burned into my memory and haunt me for the rest of my days.

Five bodies, twitching and squirming, but all conjoined like some sort of sick science experiment. The first was on all fours but twisted backwards into a crab-like walk. A body, severed at the waist, was perched on top of the other's torso, like a centaur. The other four were morphed into the mass, taking in the form of what I could only compare to the likeness of a giant humanoid spider.

Its stride was unnatural. It stepped towards us, letting out growls and groans, as it's limbs twitched and contorted in this disgusting motion. With each step you could hear bones snapping and breaking as it edged closer.

Harold began to open fire upon the abomination. It only lightly flinched as each bullet penetrated its skin. Every mouth of the creature opened up and sprayed a foul smelling black and purple substance, showering over Harold. He dropped to the ground, screaming in pain, as the liquid began to melt his suit. You could hear the sound of his skin sizzling underneath his agonizing screams.

Armando leaped to aid his comrade, as I had been frozen in disbelief. Suddenly, a surge of pain shot through my skull, forcing me to my knees. I grabbed both sides of my head as my vision started to blur and a high pitched ‘ringing' filled my ears.

“27, what the fuck are you doing?!” Shouted Armando.

The pain that once consumed me was replaced with a sense of animosity that I had never felt before. Something took over my body as I reached for my firearm and pointed it at Armando. A look of fear combined with confusion spread across his face. My finger hovered over the trigger. Armando was just seconds from reaching for his own until one of those creatures snuck up on him from his side.

Its jaw unhinged and it dove straight into Armando’s neck. Blood sprayed in every direction as Armando screamed in sheer pain and within moments, Armando was surrounded by the infected, piling on top of him and feasted upon the man’s body.

I was invisible to them. My headache had distracted me from the fact that they waltzed right by, only focused on Armando. I stepped a few feet away from the malicious feast and leaned against the side of a building. Black and purple slime poured from my nose, my head throbbed even harder, and a strange feeling of anger consumed me. It was a sensation of malice and hatred.

Something clicked inside my brain, and I knew that it was time to get the hell out of there, so I did. I pushed straight through the crowd of hungry, deformed people and made my way back to the van. I locked the door from the inside and grabbed Armando’s phone, which was sitting in the passenger’s seat.

My head started to throb again. I pushed my thumbs into the sides of my head, and watched the army of infected twitch and bend as they swarmed Armando’s corpse, in order to get a piece for themselves.

I’ve tried getting this message out to others on social media, but my accounts have all been locked. I'm leaving this warning here for you all in hopes that if you see the fog, run. The headaches won’t go away. This foreign slime has been leaking out of nearly every orifice of my body. I don’t think I have much time until I become one of them. These hateful thoughts have been taking over my mind. A voice in my head has been antagonizing, this voice isn’t my own, it’s something I can’t identify. I wish you all the best.

Relative

[wayneooverton]

12 hikes in the Canadian Rockies to fulfill your wanderlust

Hi guys, this is Marta, the voice behind the stunning site In A Faraway Land.

A travel website dedicated to providing information on outdoor activities and photography tips via my Canada, Iceland and New Zealand Travel Guide. Over a year ago I moved to Canada on a Working Holiday Visa with one purpose: to hike and capture the beauty of the Canadian Rocky Mountains through my camera. Luckily hiking and photography go hand in hand here. In just one year I have managed to walk hundreds, if not thousands of kilometers of trails and I’ve narrowed them down in this post to some of my favorite hikes in the Canadian Rockies. Enjoy!

I’ve also still got spots left on my autumn photography tour next year in New Zealand. Use code “youngadventuress” to save 5% on your booking.

20 photos that made me love Alberta

1. Berg Lake Trail 

One of the first multi-day hikes I completed here in the Rockies was the Berg Lake Trail. It finishes at an icy blue glacial lake at the foot of the highest mountain in the Canadian Rockies – Mount Robson.

Just under 4000 meters, the summit slopes are home to many glaciers, the most prominent being the Berg Glacier. When camping at the nearby Marmot campsite, at night, all you can hear is the sound of your own breath against your sleeping bag and the vibration of your heart beating until suddenly a loud ear-shattering crack, then a deep thunder like rumble, a splash and then several echoes later again complete silence, the unmistakable sound of a glacier carving into a lake. This is the experience camping on the Berg lake trail summed up in one sentence.

Certainly enough to make you sit up alert in your tent. I spent 3 days on the Berg Lake Trail listening to this each night. You can read more about it in my hiking guide to the Berg lake trail, completed with hints and tips about tackling one of the best multiday hikes in the Canadian Rockies.

2. Larch Tree Valley 

I’ve heard that 95% of people who visit the iconic Moraine lake make it only as far as the famous rock pile at the southern tip of the lake, without realizing how much they are missing out on! The car park of the Moraine lake is where a myriad of hiking trails veer off into the backcountry.

One of the hikes is the Larch Tree Valley. During early fall, usually around mid September, when the larches’ needles turn from green to yellow, many hikes become absolutely breathtaking.

Larch trees are the only conifers that loose its needles for the winter. The Larch Tree Valley Hike, as the name suggest is full of them and will guarantee a few hours of pure amazement.

3. Lakes Agnes/Beehive/Mount Saint Piran 

There’s several great hikes around Lake Louise but these 3 are some of my favorites!

A 3 in 1 mega deal of the Canadian Rockies! That is if you are an early bird! You can start with hiking to Lake Agnes, then continue to Little Beehive and if you still have energy in you, you can even tick off the nearby summit of Mount St Piran from where you can stare at the mind-blogging turquoise color of Lake Louise, and the peaks that tower over it. On the way back down you can stop again at Lake Agnes for afternoon tea and biscuits at the famous teahouse!

All together it shouldn’t take you longer than 5-6 hours return. Make sure to leave early. Because of the relatively easy access and minimal views to effort ratio both Lake Agnes and Little Beehive can attract quite the crowd. However only a small fraction of the hikers continues up mount St Piran, so if you are after solitude make sure to complete all 3!

4. Mount Assiniboine Provincial Park 

Mount Assiniboine is without a shadow of a doubt my favorite multi-day hike in the Canadian Rockies and one I will be returning to very soon! There are three paths, all similar in length (around 30 km) to get to Lake Magog and the domineering Mount Assiniboine, the main attractions of the park.

The most popular route is from Sunshine Village over the Citadel Pass, the second one is from Mt Shark Trailhead via the Wonder Pass and the third one via the Assiniboine Pass. If you plan a visit to Mt Assiniboine, make sure to spend at least 4 days in the park to fully enjoy the stunning views it offers.

I’ve created a hiking and photography guide to Mount Assiniboine Provincial Park including information about the area and how to book a helicopter to fly you in if you can’t make the walk.

5. Tonquin Valley 

The first time I did the Tonquin Valley trail was during some pretty bad wildfires happening on the other side of the Ramparts – a mountain range in the Tonquin Valley which divides the provinces of British Columbia and Alberta. The wind, which was blowing to the east, took the smoke into the nearby valleys, where the 44km long trail ambles through. A thick haze blanketed the mountains. When the sun was high in the sky, the light pierced through clouds striking the haze and creating these incredible sun rays.

I didn’t come out with the photos that I’d hoped for but I came out with something even better. A story and some unique pictures. As soon as I emerged from the backcountry I headed straight to the nearest café and booked another 4 nights on the trail in September.

With so many amazing hikes here in Jasper National Park and with my time in the Rockies running out, to do a trail twice, must mean it’s a special one! The Tonquin Valley certainly is. Just make sure to plan it correctly.

Tonquin Valley is notorious for mosquitos in July when the trail finally becomes open to hikers. If you want to get the best experience, wait until later in the summer or early autumn. Otherwise prepare for a mosquito battle of biblical scale!

6. Edith Cavell meadows 

The Edith Cavell meadows hike offers an incredible view to effort ratio. Because of the collapse of the Ghost Glacier in 2015 that flooded and destroyed the adjacent parking lot, there is currently restricted access to the area.

The visitor center in Jasper gives out 180 permits a day to visitors at varying time slots. On the positive side, it means the trail isn’t overcrowded.

In the height of summer, the adjacent meadows turn into a beautiful symphony of colorful blooming wildflowers. It’s also a perfect place for spotting the cute pikas and marmots!

7. Pocaterra Ridge 

Kananaskis country near Canmore, where I spent most of my time when working on my guide to Canada, is an area often omitted by international tourists. The locals however know it very well! It also happens to be a perfect playground for hiking enthusiasts like me!

Everything you need to know about visiting Canmore, Canada

Pocaterra Ridge is an undulating ridgeline filled with jaw dropping views in every direction! It’s an unofficial hike that starts 80km south of Canmore near the Highwood Pass. Considered by many locals to be one of the best hikes in Kananaskis Country. I’ve done this hike in June, when I saw a 24-hour clear weather window in forecast. Unfortunately, the colloquially known June Monsoon didn’t agree with my plans and I had a real eventful, and at times scary, realization how treacherous the mountains can be.

I came away with so many beautiful photos though, that I felt compelled to share them in a photo essay along with the full story of my experience on Pocaterra Ridge.

8. Ha ling Peak 

The most popular hike in Canmore and certainly one of the best day trips in this area. The views from Ha Ling peak are spectacular, but the hike can get busy. If you’re brave, and maybe a little bit crazy, then consider doing it through the night, arriving at the Ha Ling summit for sunrise. If you do, chances are you’ll be all alone on the trail. It’s never easy to wake up early, but you’ll come away with photographs, and more importantly an experience, that you’ll be telling all your friends and family for years to come.

9. Indian Ridge 

A lesser known hike in Jasper National Park, Indian Ridge starts at the top of Jasper SkyTram. Majority of visitors take the Gondola and hike up the the nearby Whistlers summit.

If you are looking for solitude in the mountains you should break away from the crowds and continue toward the Indian Ridge. I can appreciate views much better when there’s less people around me. Less noise, less chaos, less garbage, all in all a much more relaxing. It’s not an easy hike though.

A little scrambling is involved and the hike should take around 5/6 hours in total. 

10. Parker Ridge 

One of the my favorite spots on the Icefields Parkway, the famous stretch of road that connects Jasper with Lake Louise. The short hike takes you away from the road along a very well-maintained trail to a ridgeline, where the Saskatchewan Glacial Tongue can be seen protruding out of the Columbia Icefield.

It’s a popular spot to view wildflowers in the summer and should take around 3 hours to complete. The hike is awesome for beginners, who want to experience Canada’s rugged landscape. It will give you an opportunity to see a glacier that sadly might not exist in a few decades. 

11. Lake O’hara Alpine Circuit 

Lake O’hara alpine region might be the most sought after backcountry experience in the Canadian Rockies! What’s the fuss you may wonder? Every square kilometer of this place is filled with the most awe inspiring views.

The added bonus is the shuttle bus that will transport any keen hikers into this alpine paradise. There is a catch though! The bus only runs few times a day, spaces are very limited and prior reservations are mandatory. Only those with perseverance and patience of a saint will succeed in securing a spot. Your efforts however will be rewarded!

Lake O’hara is a place that will always be dear to my heart as that’s where I got engaged!

12. Rawson lake/Sarrail Ridge 

A favorite hike for instagrammers and another trip in the Kananaskis region that you shouldn’t miss. The hike starts along the shoreline of Upper Kananaskis lake.

After a mere 20 minutes, it starts gently climbing up to Rawson lake. A site to behold in its own terms. Those who like me, just can’t get enough of beautiful views should keep going. After circling around to the other end of the lake you will start a relentless ascent to the ridgeline. It may seem close, but mountains always like to play visual tricks on you. It’s definitely harder and longer than it seems! After another hour you will be compensated for your efforts with some of the best views in the Rockies! 

I hope this has filled your mind with possibilities, if you’re looking for more advice on hiking check out my Canada Travel Guide. Hiking is something very close to my heart and I’ve noticed a huge shift towards the outdoors in recent years. Whether it’s modern society being influenced by all the Instagrammers posting photos of the mountains or whether it’s a profound realization that we are part of something bigger, some kind of unified underlying global rising consciousness that we are one with nature. One thing is certain, the more people start to appreciate our beautiful Mother Earth the better, for her, and for us! So if you are planning a road-trip around the Canadian Rockies, make sure to squeeze a hike or two!

Have you been hiking in Canada and the Rockies? What’s your favorite? Share in the comments

The post 12 hikes in the Canadian Rockies to fulfill your wanderlust appeared first on Young Adventuress.

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