Just outside Fort Smith is Wood Buffalo National Park, summer home of the endangered Whooping Cranes.
In the 1940's, the wild breeding flock was down to just 15 birds. Through captive breeding and reintroduction programs, they now number about 800. Roughly 500 are in the wild migratory flock that make the 2500 mile journey between Wood Buffalo and Aransas (Texas) each year.
While I wasn't likely to actually see one (I didn't), it was a good excuse to check out the area. Several of their much more common relative the Sandhill Crane were about.
| Not the cranes I was looking for | Another pair of Adirondack chairs | White pelican rookery |
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Prior to leaving Fort Smith, I took a scenic flight over Wood Buffalo NP and the Slave River. I hoped to spot some Whooping Cranes from the air, but all I found were pelicans.
I started south out of Fort Smith hoping to get to Jasper-Hinton in the Alberta Rockies. The prospects weren't great given the weather outlook, but I had a few alternatives lined up nearby. The first leg was supposed to be straightforward - ceilings were reported and forecast in the 3-5000' range. Of course, it was a 450nm leg and reporting stations were few and far between. Two hours into the flight, ceilings and rain conspired against me, and drove me to use low Class G minimums (and I daresay a bit of uncontrolled IFR), for which, incidentally, the rules are a little different in Canada:
This became untenable as I approached higher terrain south of Peace River, and I eventually elected to land at Donnelly, a small ag strip, to wait out the weather. In a bit of get-there-itis, I wanted to press on when the weather improved, but I needed to top off on fuel first. Donnelly did not have fuel, but High Prairie, further along in the direction I was heading, did. Except... the runway was NOTAMd closed. As a result, I backtracked to Peace River for fuel.
I realized I dodged an awkward and potentially dangerous situation - You know how you're always supposed to check NOTAMs before flight? I did so for my intended flight from Fort Smith to Jasper-Hinton, including possible alternates nearby like Edson and Whitecourt. There had been no reason to look at High Prairie. When I decided I needed to make my weather stop, my in-flight options were Donnelly and High Prairie. I chose Donnelly despite the fact it didn't have fuel because it was a short backtrack towards better weather. I possibly could have pressed on to High Prairie... and gotten a nasty surprise there, low on fuel in marginal weather. I don't have a good answer for the situation, as it doesn't seem practical to review NOTAMs for every airport within divert range along a 500nm route.
After fueling at Peace River I made another try for Jasper-Hinton. The weather cam there still showed overcast, but Edson 50nm down the road showed the clouds breaking up. Sadly, the higher terrain south of Donnelly proved impassable again, and I wound up returning to Peace River. All in all, the end result of a challenging flight day was no worse than forfeited car and hotel reservation deposits at Jasper.
| Muskeg habitat of the Whooping Crane | Very MVFR |
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| A nicely decorated outhouse | The start of the Mackenzie Highway |
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As enjoyable as these flying adventures are, my internal clock seems to go off after a couple weeks on the road, and I decide it's time to head home. Jasper was the last planned stop on the trip, and having cancelled the rest of my reservations there, I figured I'd save it for a better time.
I filed my eAPIS manifest and called ahead to Customs at Great Falls, then filed IFR for my first leg to Lethbridge. There were still clouds floating around between me and Calgary, and while the ceilings were much higher than the past couple days, I had little desire to get wedged in the higher terrain down south a third time. Because the forecast at Lethbridge was VFR, I didn't plan an alternate, but here I learned another of the differences between US and Canada flight rules - an IFR alternate is always required in Canada, regardless of the arrival forecast.
After fueling at Lethbridge, I filed a VFR flight plan for the border crossing flight. I was given a squawk code departing Lethbridge, but was advised to check with US Flight Service approaching the border. Sure enough, when I did, I was told to fly a delay vector along the border before crossing, and after a few minutes given a different code to use.
Customs at Great Falls went quickly. I spent the rest of the afternoon at Benton Lakes NWR just outside the city.
| Passing Calgary | Border crossing over Sweetgrass MT | Blue-winged Teal |
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This was my longest flying day ever, in both time and distance. After another visit to Benton Lakes NWR in the morning, I got going out of Great Falls around 2P MDT. I dawdled overflying Yellowstone hoping to see Old Faithful erupt, but no luck. Winds were unfavorable at my intended fuel stop at Nephi, so I went to Manti-Ephraim instead. It was only 27nm away in the next valley over, but it made a big difference: 120 @ 12 gusting to 32(!) for Rwy 17 at Nephi, vs 200 @ 6 for Rwy 21 at Manti-Ephraim. From there, it was a 4 hour non-stop back home to MYF, where I landed around 10:30P PDT.
| Eared Grebe with hatchling | Old Faithful |
Hurricane Cliffs Zion National Park |
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I did finally catch up to some Whooping Cranes later in the year at their winter home in the Aransas NWR.
| Whooping Crane at Aransas |
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