We had a whole plan. Alien Tower was on the calendar, boots were laced, and then the sky had other ideas.
Wildfire smoke settled into the valley yesterday afternoon, and if you were anywhere in the Salt Lake basin you felt it… that hazy, heavy air that makes even a short walk feel like a chore. So we did what any good crew does when the trail throws you a curveball: we adjusted. Instead of pushing into the smoke, we chased cleaner, cooler air and pointed the caravan up Big Cottonwood to Silver Lake at Brighton.
It turned out to be exactly the right call. At elevation the temperature dropped, the air cleared, and the whole evening exhaled. Silver Lake’s boardwalk loop is one of those rare trails that welcomes everyone- flat, easy, and wrapped in wildflowers and alpine views, with the water sitting quiet under the peaks. You don’t have to earn the scenery here. You just get to be in it.
Our group was smaller than usual last night, and that became the gift of the evening. Fewer of us meant a slower pace, no one rushing to keep up, and conversations that had room to stretch out. We talked about everything and nothing, the kind of easy, unhurried talk that only happens when you’re moving side by side through somewhere beautiful. Nobody was performing. Everybody was present. That’s the whole point of a Basecamp Happy Hour, and last night it landed.
There’s something worth remembering in an evening like this: the plan is never really the point. The people are. A canceled summit and a smoked-out valley couldn’t touch what we actually came for, a few hours outside, in good company, finding our people.
We closed the night the way every good adventure should end: around a table. Dinner at Hog Wallow Pub was the perfect wind-down. A little food, a lot of laughter, and that satisfied kind of tired you only get after a day well spent outdoors.
To the women who showed up despite the smoke, the change of plans, and the last-minute detour: thank you. You reminded us that adventure isn’t about the mountain you set out to climb. It’s about who’s standing next to you when the map changes.
