OH NO - MORE FIRE ON HWY 16 BRITISH COLUMBIA

We just can't believe it. Here we go again

As we approached Houston BC, where we had planned to spend the night, we saw smoke ahead of us. Sure enough. Another forest fire. We fueled up smelling the horrible air and decided to try our luck elsewhere. 

went on down the road, Burns Lake, full of smoke

on down the road, Fraser Lake, full of smoke

on down the road, Vanderhoof, full of smoke

on down the road, Prince George, smokey but not quite a bad.

We talked with a wonderful old gentleman, Patty Young, at the visitors center in Frazer Lake who told us this fire as seen across the way just started a an hour or so ago and the one we just drove through (west of them) was a day old. This was an eerie site to see the sky RED bright and dark all at the same time.

The winds are high, about 20mph+ so it is not a good thing. This photo shows clear skies on right with wind pushing smoke cloud and fire into it. We had intended to ask him about campgrounds in the area, but his advise was to " keep moving and stay close to a lake". Hummmm

We have now traveled some 425 miles today and been on the road for 9 hours, Enough already. Time for a drink, stiff one at that, and some food. Pulled into a campground south of Prince George on hwy 97. We smell smoke and see smoke but we are tired. We will just keep the windows shut and hope we don't get evacuated. It seems all of British Columbia is on fire. Wonder what tomorrow will bring?

Whew - made it through the Cassiar Hwy fire Aug 15, 2010

This is just a short update to let you all know we made it through the Cassiar Highway fire yesterday.  

We have known about the fire for over a week and have checked daily updates to see if the road was still open. We got in line at 8:30 am and finally got the okay to head out at 11:20.

We had a pilot car leading a caravan of over 50 vehicles (rvs, motorcycles, pickups, cars, etc.).

As we were driving through with almost zero visibility at times and seeing some active flames we wondered if we should have come this route. Over 3 hours of smoke and slow slow going.

At one time we noticed our temperature gauge in the truck was registering way way too hot. Hopefully it is just malfunctioning from the smoke and not really that hot outside. We are not about to open the windows to check.

Finally we are able to see the sky

It was a wonderful relief to get to this great Provincial campground on Kinaskan Lake. Petro even decided to take a much needed swim to get all the smoke and dust off.

More postings on our trip through the, putting it nicely, horrendous roads from Tok east and south. We did see some great scenery but thank goodness for books on tape as it has been very slow going

We made it to Stewart BC today, getting ready to go the 6 miles into Hyder Alaska shortly to see the bears fishing in the river.