Heading East?

Yes, today we flew about 70 miles in an easterly direction after turning back to Fort Nelson on our way from there to Watson Lake. We had flown under a low overcast over some fairly high terrain to get to the Liard River and follow it and the Alaska Highway into Watson Lake. Unfortunately the overcast got lower and eventually the valley we wanted to follow became obscured by rain. Not wanting to mess with mountains either side in poor visibility, we took the wise and prudent choice and headed back to Fort Nelson.

There we met a father and son from Arizona who are also headed to Alaska and were stopped by weather. We spent some time chatting with them and some more time on the phone with Nav Canada weather briefers (who do an awesome job). After they told us of impending thunderstorms, unstable air, and the chance of worsening conditions, we decided to stay in Fort Nelson for the night.

Fort Nelson has four hotels and the Shell guy at the airport called around for us (after he had loaned us his truck to drive into town for lunch). Only one had rooms at a pretty high price. Why? Well Fort Nelson is booming. Oil and gas drilling as well as a lot of new construction. They are adding 80 rooms at the hotel we are staying at. There are also a lot of "fire bombers" stationed here and we saw some in action today at the airport. We also flew by two forest fires that were burning this morning but by days end after several "runs" by the fire bombers, they were out. One airplane used was an old four engined Electra.

Earlier in the day we enjoyed some great scenery in northern Alberta and British Columbia. Moving into BC today we gained another hour and have now gone through three time zones. The photo here is of the Peace River Valley which we crossed a few times and were amazed at the beauty of the river and the deep gorges it carves into the landscape.