Just 24 hours earlier, it was smoke-free. It was the third trip for me this summer, the smoke cleared a week earlier, we had our boat tickets reserved, everything was going according to plan, until the day before we were suppose to be there. A weather system near the coast was forecasted to push heavy smoke in overnight. Fearing our boat tour was going to be cancelled again, we decided to shoot Milky Way into the night so we didn’t go home with nothing. I was restless the entire night, not knowing the fate of the next day, and contemplating backup plans. When dawn arose, it was as I expected, a bland white sky with the smell of smoke in the air, I was certain we were going to have to cut our trip short. Arriving at the rim of the lake, the smoke did not seem as dense as the previous month; there was a small slither of hope. We were lucky to have gotten on the last boat tour to Wizard Island before the head park ranger ordered all boats to be off the water. Even with the encompassing smoke getting thicker and thicker, the color of the water was still amazing. We spent over two hours of our three on the island pursuing an emerald pool on the western edge, painstakingly making our way through rocky volcanic geology and a seemingly infinite amount of ridge lines. As I made the long drive home, I could only think about when I was going to go back or if I will ever get to experience it on a sunny day.