Yellow Aster Butte — Saturday, Oct. 15, 2022

Details specific to our day hike on 10/15:
1. we knew there were fires and smoke to deal with, but kept checking airnow.gov and various wildfire and smoke maps, which indicated that yellow aster butte was in a smoke free pocket with much better air quality despite nearby fires.
2. Got to the trailhead around 11:30 in hopes that the earl birds would be heading out by then. Luckily, parking wasn't really an issue, and we found a spot right near the trailhead.
3. While it was much better air quality here compared to further east and Bellingham, there was still a haze and the smell of smoke, and I could feel my throat kind of tickle from the smoke during the tougher inclines when I was breathing heavily. Once we got to the top, I could see thick smoke to the east due to the Silesia fire (I think) and also saw billowing smoke to the southeast (definitely appeared to be rising up from a fire directly below versus being blown in by the wind). It appeared that the Silesia fire was spreading further north up the valley to the east of the pass. This smoke appeared in a matter of just an hour or two as far as we could tell, and definitely freaked us out to be able to see an active fire that close. After watching the video of the Teo guys trapped by the Bolt Fire a few weeks ago, we decided that was too close for our comfort and did not dawdle on our descent. We ran into a couple that were hiking out after staying the night before (14-15) and they mentioned that the smoke was so bad that the AQI was near 400 and they had even considered calling a helicopter for evacuation. Unfortunately, the smoke is very difficult to see from the trail until you get towards the top, so we let people hiking in know that was some newer smoke that was getting closer, but most people seemed unphased. once we got back to cell service, I checked the maps again and it looks like the Silesia fire had grown over 433 acres in the past 24 hours, extending almost a mile further north in the valley, so felt a little justified in my freaking out, but it probably was an over reaction. The people backpacking were probably not in immediate danger of the fire spreading, but I am hoping they did not have a super smokey night last night!
4. Fall colors were gorgeous but definitely peaked and on the decline as many of the blueberries towards the top have withered and dried out and are turning from purple to brown.

General info:

The worst part of the forest road is the inital entrance which looks like it could be a dirtbike track with all the divets and mounds. once youre past that, the road was in pretty decent shape. In order to get past that, you do probably need a higher clearance vehicle simply because of how large the bumps are. there were a few other large bumps on the road, but generally they can be avoided or taken slowly.

Immediately the trail begins with some pretty tough elevation, which had some gorgeous colors, but is in direct sun at first, so it was very toasty. The trail consists of mostly moderate incline that had us huffing and puffing for a good portion of the hike. The fall colors made it worth it for sure though. Due to smoke, the views were a little hazy, but mountains and peaks were still visible.

I ended my hike at the "false summit" which I think is where WTA ends the trail. However, AllTrails will direct you to the "true summit", which involves crossing the saddle between the false summit and the true summit via an unmaintained trail and some large boulders and scree. I did not really see anyone heading that way while I was out there, and I was too tired and not comfortable enough with that level of technicality to try to get to the true summit, so I ended where the maintained trail ends.