Cherry Point in Fire Season

For the past few weeks wild fires have been burning in Lower BC, and near Hwy. 20 in the North Cascades, close to Diablo Dam, the hydroelectric project that supplies electricity for this region, including even northern California. The dam isn't threatened now, but the air has been hazy and smokey down here at sea level all week. Today the weather is turning, and I'm waiting for rain to start this afternoon. Rain is good.
I've mostly been staying indoors - it almost seems like the pandemic shutdown days sometimes - unless I get up early enough to go for a bike ride before the air gets too hot, muggy and smelly. Last week I tried the Mountain View hillclimb out of town, and rode out to the beach at Cherry Point, but I forgot to "resume" MapMyRide after I stopped to take pictures and didn't get good data or a route map, so I rode again on the weekend. City crews had been out repainting the lane markings on my first ride. They kindly swept up all the loose gravel and debris, as well, so I got brave enough to get aero on the downhill, and got my speed up as high as 28mph. The climb felt easier than before, and the hill even looks smaller than I remembered. Maybe an optical effect of the smoke? The grey looks like typical Pacific Northwest clouds and fog, but it's hot and makes the eyes burn.

Bike at the beach

Cherry Point, by the way, is a disused oil tanker unloading port for the former BP Refinery, where the road washes out every year in winter storms. Now it's a public beach and an undeveloped park. The beach is rocky, but it looks like a good place to put out kayaks or other small boats. If I was into that.