Wildfire

Earlier this year we made a plan to visit our friends in Portland, Oregon and do a camping trip at Crater Lake National Park. For months our family had been looking forward to it, especially my oldest son who is obsessed with volcanoes. This past weekend the day finally arrived. We crammed everything into the cars and started the long five hour drive to the park. In the last hour, as the road began to climb into the park, we started to notice a whole lot of haze in the sky. The smell revealed the culprit: smoke. Since there was no cell service we had no idea if this was a wildfire, a controlled burn, or any other details that would have informed us of what we were coming into. We pressed on and ascended the rim of Crater Lake and took in an astounding view. Driving a bit further we got to the campgrounds and set everything up. I got to use my new ham radio (listening only, license a work in progress) and listened to the closest weather station. We got the update that there was a…