Leaving Golden, British Columbia and traveling west on Trans-Canada Highway 1 to Salmon Arm and stopped for gas. When I was ready to leave and head south I realized that my phone was off and I couldn't restart it - no matter what. The first thought was to go to a T-Mobile store to get it fixed. The second thought was that it was Sunday and the stores were closed (wasn't sure that there even was a T-Mobile store in Salmon Arm). The third thought was that I couldn't remember one phone number (there was no need for that, they were all stored in the phone). I had planned to see Tara and Bill, but there was no way to contact them. Well I decided to just go ahead and worry about it later. I headed south from Salmon Arm first on highway 97B and then on 97. It was sunny, warm and it was getting warmer. Just outside of Osoyoos, British Columbia, just north of the US/Canadian border I saw this wildfire, the first of many to come. This region is ideal for orchards and vineyards, and many small stores sold fresh fruit and vegetables. This fire burned by the roadside, in the foreground is a small orchard with the residence next to it. It was sunny, hot and windy and the winds carried ambers away to start other spot fires some distance away. Hard to fight these fires. I had planned to go to Omak, Washington and then head west on highway 20 across the Northern Cascades Mountains. This area is sparsely populated range land with scattered forests in the higher elevations and a couple of small towns along highway 20, like Twisp and Winthrop and very few tourists, In May 2009 when I drove to Seattle to catch an Alaskan Cruise. Tara had suggested that I stop by and see her. We went across the Cascades on highway 20 to Winthrop and were stopped on the way back by an avalanche that had come down in the mountains while we were near Winthrop. A couple of days after I came through here this time around 6 firefighters got caught in one of the many fires and three died. I made it to Western Washington and stayed in Sedro Woolley and managed to get the phone boosted up and called it a day. This picture was taken on 16 August 2015, Sig...