Had a pretty good day today. Left Smithers (which is actually a pretty interesting, clean little town) and headed east on Hwy 16 toward Prince George, BC, about 250 miles away. The terrain is a little boring...rolling, lots of farms, looks a lot like the Midwest farm belt:
Lots of small towns, the road was mostly 2 lanes but well-maintained, and a pleasant ride all day.
I stopped at a rest area about 75 miles east of Smithers and saw this little lake...Lake Tintangle:
I didn't get to spend any time in Prince George as it was getting late and I needed to get to Williams Lake for the night. The further south I got on Hwy 97 out of Prince George, the more I thought I saw rain clouds in the distance. Then I realized I was smelling wood smoke. The further south I got, the denser and stronger the wood smoke became. By the time I got to Williams Lake, visibility was (and is) down to about 1/4 mile or so. Turns out they have a large number of forest fires raging in the area because of dry weather conditions they've had this summer. (Obviously, it hasn't been dry all over British Columbia, but apparently it has down here.) I haven't seen any firefighting equipment to speak of, but apparently the first only started a couple days ago and maybe they haven't gotten the resources in place to fight them yet. Or...maybe they let them burn?
Tomorrow it's down Hwy 97 to Hwy 1 (the Trans-Canadian Highway) to Chilliwack, BC, just this side of the US border. I'll be crossing back into the good ol' US of A on Saturday and heading down south of Seattle for the night. Miles today: 407. Total: 7,782.
