On the flight in from Seattle I was surprised to see what looked like a low-lying cloud above the mountains but was, in fact, a forest fire engulfing thousands of acres. In Missoula it took on the appearance of a light fog, but as we drove north to Em's summerhouse the smoke on the mountains got thicker. At Flathead Lake it was sunny and clear when we arrived, although by the next morning the winds had changed and the opposite shore was no longer visible.
After a stressful summer of web design classes and a part time job at Nissan Pavilion, the clean air and water was just what I needed. The water was warm and the shore consisted of smooth, glacially carved rocks. For the rest of the day I alternated between floating aimlessly on a raft and collecting a selection of rocks from the beach.
