Day 6, June 30, Ft. Nelson, BC to Dawson City, Yukon

Today we decided to fly to Watson Lake and then on to Dawson City.  From there we could fly IFR to Anchorage, since Fairbanks was still closed.

The weather was nice in Ft. Nelson:



And we're starting to see some hills, which is nice.


Now we're flying over smoke, as foretold by flight service, based on pilot reports.  But Watson Lake was in the clear, as expected.  Oh, and my picture snapping technique appears to have changed.  From here on out, there will be a lot of thumbs in the pictures.


We landed in Watson Lake, fueled up, got a weather briefing and filed a flight plan for Dawson City.  The route was expected to be marginal VFR.  We planned to fly high enough to clear all the mountains, just in case the visibilities were very low.  Our route followed the highway to Faro and the river to Dawson City, with the help of the GPS and the ADF (a radio beacon finder).  See the map from Day 4 for reference.

Now we're starting to see some bigger mountains which is fun:


Unfortunately, most of the time, the visibilities were lower than this.  It was very marginal VFR.   But it was clear, if hazy, in Dawson City, as foretold by the weather briefers.   It's interesting flying into Dawson City.  We followed a river valley from the east, and the airport is blocked from your line of sight by some hills that jut out, so you don't see the runway until pretty late in the approach.  But you just have to trust your charts and all works out.

The Dawson runway is a gravel strip but it's quite large.  This plane is, you guessed it, a fire-fighting plane.  The sky had an orangish tint to it, looking towards the sun.


Hanging out, waiting for a ride to the hotel.  Some bicyclists rode by.


This was our farthest point north, at latitude 64 degrees.   And given that it was June 30, the days were very long.