I woke up hot this morning and had to take some layers off. It actually felt warm getting ready but the sun was hidden behind a veil of smoke. It could have been fog but we think it was smoke from forest fires in Quebec. The sky was an even vanilla color like parchment paper. The sun barely shone through as a small pink disc. For our first 10 km we paddled alongside a flat plain with steep mountains rising behind . We spotted several small caribou, their white winter coats, giving them away now that the snow has mostly disappeared. We paddled under the sun’s reflection through small waves flecked with shiny copper. Visability grew gradually worse. We had to make a 5 km crossing from Murray head. We could barely see the mountains we were aiming for a small band of gray appeared on the horizon, followed by the dull gray shape of the Headland. 15 minutes later, a few snow patches appeared. It wasn’t until we were right under the cliffs that we could make out vertical bands of rock and grassy slopes scattered with scree. I’m sure other beautiful mountains lay beyond hidden to us by the heavy air. It was warmer today despite the haze limiting the suns affect. I didn’t put on my storm cag at lunchtime. The wind blew up in our faces around the headlands, but gently without malice we were able to make good progress to a small bay we’d identified on the chart. Our total distance over 13 days is about 430 km so far. tomorrow we pass the highest mountains in the park. I really hope the smoke clears so we can enjoy that majesty.