Smell of wild fire smoke

The Northwoods are in a drought.  Unseasonal warm winds blow.  A large high pressure system has dominated the upper North American continent for weeks now.

Because of this dry hot weather the surrounding forests are burning.  Several significant wildfires are burning to the west inside the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.  For the most part the fires have been able to burn out their course.

Wildfires are an important function of a healthy conifer forest.  Some species of trees like the Jack Pine only open their cones in fires.  Although the fires will burn a kill many of the large trees, it is the only way that the seeds of the pines are able to spread, germinate and survive.

Winds from the west are blowing blankets of smoke towards Lake Superior.  When the walls of smoke dance over the hills of the Gunflint territory sun pierces light rays through them and projects the beams of light down to the forest floor.

The smoke is soon pushed down into the cold, dense air of the Lake Superior basin.  Along the vast coast of Superior the smoke's eastern journey creeps to a halt before slowly dispersing itself over the largest freshwater lake in the world.

The clouds of wild fire smoke smell like nothing else.  The odor is a combination of thick wood smoke and a faint twist of garbage.  Banks of smoke randomly jet from over the hill and saturate the air.  Yesterday morning I awoke to this smell.  The sun was just waking world.  I was reminder of the constant energy of the many natural forces of the earth.  These forces dominate the end of another summer in the Northwoods:  Wildfire smoke in the air, Aurora Borealis in the full moon sky, golden yellow ferns, cluster flies and black bears.