We had an uneventful drive to the TH under clear skys. As we hiked it warmed up a bit from the mid-70s in the morning to the mid-80s in the afternoon.

Although we weren't the first wildcrafters, there were still plenty of huckleberries and a few thimbleberrys as we made our way along the trail from Huckleberry Gap. The trail is more overgrown than the last time we did it with 3 or 4 large dead-fall now partially blocking the trail in places.

At lunch near the old fire tower we had a 360o view of smoke and saw a heavy fire fighting air tanker flying over in a NE direction. As we were driving back we saw two of these smaller Canadair CL-215 (Scooper) planes circling Lost Creek Lake preparing to pick up water.  Pretty cool.

We stopped at the Rogue River Lodge for refreshment on the way home.  Although the temperature by then was in the mid-90s it was quite pleasant siting by the river and enjoying our drinks and fried and salty food.

As we came back through Shady Cove heading towards Medford and Ashland the smoke situation continued to worsen. By the time we got back to Safeway the valley was quite full of smoke.  Below is the NOAA smoke map as of 5:00 PM showing the extensive smoke coverage.