Driving into the Fire.

Hello Everyone,
We did it! We are on the Cassiar Highway!!  We are back on our planned track.

We did travel the Robert Campbell Highway through Faro and Ross River.  Both towns are in the middle on nowhere, actually The Yukon and are former mining towns trying to survive on tourism, or just plain survive.  The road for the first 100 miles was paved/seal coated, then gravel with a chemical to make it firm. Then the last almost 200 miles it was gravel and very dusty, with construction where it was muddy.  We camped at two beautiful lakes along the way. A new road for us.  The Campbell meets the Alaska Highway at Watson Lake.

At Watson Lake we checked on the fire and highway conditions for the Cassiar Highway that goes south into British Columbia, south of the 60th Parallel. The fire is getting bigger and going right down the highway corridor, and the road is closed. They may open it twice daily with a pilot car. Maybe if the smoke is not thick.  So, we stocked up and got a camp site by the intersection of the two highways.  We washed the van there as it was really dirty from the last few days.  Campers and trucks were lining up for the wait for the opening of the road.  The line was over a mile long, It did open once on Tuesday, we hoped to go on Wednesday.  We joined the line Wed. morning, with the hope of a 9AM or so trip through the fire area, about a 50 mile escort.  The opening came at 1PM.  Helicopters were overhead checking the route etc.  Quite the excitement!  The smoke at the intersection was thick and we wondered how it would be on the drive through.  I'll try to explain via pictures.  Take care Carol and Ned

Pictures won't send AGAIN!!!  So will do it later.