BC Interior Trek  by Harry Winterhalder

Another outing with the airplanes was discussed and plans were made to leave on the 12^th of September.  The day arrived bright and sunny with myself, Harry Winterhalder in my Rans S7, Eric MacDonald in his Chinnook Plus 2 and Allen Langworth in his Tri-Pacer were ready to take flight.

Leaving Salmon Arm around 1000 hrs, we flew on to Revelstoke where we landed and talked to some flyers there.  The next leg was to Golden and the Rogers Pass.  This is always a very scenic flight through the Rogers, and we arrived in Golden around noon. 

We gassed up the planes, had lunch and were off again to our next scheduled stop, Invermere.  We could see as we approached Invermere that there was a fire just out of town and upon landing we were asked to wait about an hour as bombers were working the fire.

Leaving Invermere, we skirted around Cranbrook airspace followed the powerline and had to turn off at Moyie Lake but Eric’s voice kept getting weaker and weaker on the radio.  It turned out that Eric was lost so Al said he would chase him down and I should keep going on to Creston.  Al must have been successful as it wasn’t long after landing in Creston that Al and Eric showed up.  We fueled up and talked to one of the locals who again was wondering where we came from.  It was soon time to go as we wanted to get to our next stop and flying down Kootney Lake was very scenic as we soon arrived in Nelson and tied down.  We hitched a ride up town and found a hotel

for the night.  The next morning, it looked like we might be in for a rough flight as a storm had come through during the night and it was rough.

Skirting around Castlegar airspace and down the lower Arrow lake we landed at Grand Forks and went in to Western Aviation and talked with them for a while.  They had a Rans S6 in the final stages of completion and it was really looking good.  They were also working on a Maule with new fabric and a bright red paint job.   Hopefully we will get a chance to see it after it's done.

After leaving Grand Forks, things started to get a little wild and even Al’s Tri-Pacer was getting thrown around.  The plan was to proceed to Osoyoos which Al did and after landing in high winds suggested that it wasn’t such a good idea and that we should all go to Oliver instead.  We landed in Oliver and got the planes tied down and the wind was really blowing hard so I said to Al and Eric that I think we are going to be here for the day.  A local club member came by and said we could spend the night in the club house, which we did.  We proceeded to move in as the wind continued to blow hard all day.  That evening Eric did the cooking (spaghetti and meatballs) and it turned out that he was not that bad of a cook.  (For me to say that, I guess we were really hungry.)  The next morning (0600 hrs) we were up and ready to go on to our next stop, Cache Creek.  The weather was fantastic that time of the morning as we flew on with Princeton in the distance, on over near Merritt, over Logen Lake then on to Cache Creek.  We re-fueled there and then were off to 108 Mile House for breakfast.  They serve a nice breakfast at the Golf Club which is about a quarter mile walk up the road from the airport.  

Next we were off to Quesnel.  It was still a nice day when we reached Williams Lake so we dropped down to the Fraser River and followed it for a ways, then over McLeese Lake and finally Quesnel.  Here we fueled up and from there proceeded north then east to Valemount.  This has to be the most scenic part of the country from Prince George to the YellowHead highway and on past Purdon Lake.  We decided to land at McBride and this was a treat for the one local guy who happened to be there when we landed as they don’t see many planes come through there.  (Nice airstrip)  Another 20 minutes and we were in Valemount.  Here we fueled up, tied down the planes and settled down for the night.  We moved into the club house and ordered Chinese food together with a six-pack which was delivered by a local taxi. 

The next morning it froze pretty good so we had to wait until the frost thawed off the planes and around 0930 we were off.  The next stop was Blue River and after landing, and stretching our legs a bit, we took off again and Al asked if he could fly on ahead as it seems he was getting homesick (for his truck I think). 

We headed for Avola, which is about 15 miles out of Blue River and climbed to 6000 feet then crossed over the mountains and picked up the Adams River.  (Boy this is nice country) 

Eric has flown in this part of Adams River before so we just followed him.  When we hit Adams Lake and flew down it for a ways we saw two lakes on our left.  Momich and Humamilt.  We flew down these two until we came into Seymore Arm.  This was my first time flying over Seymore Arm and again it was a nice day.  There were still some house boats on the lake. 

It wasn’t long until we had Copper Island in sight to our right and the narrows dead ahead.  From there it was on to the Larch Hills and we heard Al on the radio who was just landing at Salmon Arm.  We said our goodbyes over the radio and my final thought was that these are real good fellows to fly with and I wouldn't hesitate to do it again.