This trip started as a backpacking trip to Dollar Lake, were my buddy and I would set up camp, refill water, and then hike to the summit. We made it to Dollar lake and did just that. However, about two miles into our summit push we began to get our first views of smoke from the Apple Fire. In talking with multiple hikers we were assured that the fire was far away and was not a danger. As we got closer to the summit we could see that this was an accurate assessment as not only where there several ridges and valleys between us and the fire, it appeared to be burning away from us. By the time we reached the summit there was tall, thick clouds of smoke billowing overhead, giving us some quite ominous views. As we descended we could see that the flames had reached one of the ridges. Logically we felt that we could camp the night and would be perfectly safe, and we would have been. However, we decided it wasn't worth the risk and decided to pack up and head out that night, turning a two day backpacking trip into one epic adventurous day hike.