It was hazy in the Wallowa Valley today—air stagnation warning, blue woodsmoke, lingering fog over the river—and so, for our weekly Sunday Outing, my husband and I decided to head north, out to The Nature Conservancy’s Zumwalt Prairie Preserve, to hike Harsin Butte for fresh air and a view. We knew there’d be sun out there. We crossed our fingers that the road would be navigable. It was, more or less. We had to break out the tire chains, which were caked with mud and rust fro