Hi folks...a few questions about backpacking next week in White Cloud Wilderness. (Two experienced backpackers but not climbers nor anglers. Happy to average five to seven miles a day depending on terrain and what there is to see. Love alpine lakes.)

* Does it look like smoke from Idaho City or North Fork fires makes it a bad idea to go to White Cloud area next week? Hard to get a read on that from rural Oregon where I live.
* Anyone have opinions about or recent experience comparing Boulder Chain Lakes to Windy Devil Pass vs. Big Boulder Lakes to Sapphire, Cover, and Cirque Lakes area?
* So this will be the first week of August. Have mosquitoes died down? Guesses or recent experience on deer flies or horse flies on either of those routes?
* Any comment on how heavily used these are likely to be during the week?
* Is there some other route we should be considering instead?

THANKS so MUCH!