journal 218. J. Groth 1987 Eastern Trip - British Columbia July 31 mud was very slippery, so finally (cont'd) I let air out of the tires and barely made it out, gunning the engine to the extreme in low range 4WD. I drove a few miles further up the river and camped where a dirt road went past a shale/mudstone outcropping just above the Pine River. Aug 1 The morning was dark clouds and rain. I picked a few cones off of a tilted young white spruce for the decoys. I then drove S along Hwy 97 in the direction of Prince George, B.C. The weather made the exploring difficult, as it was a nearly-constant rain. Here the conifers were mixed with aspen, and all of the forest trees were very tall. Many spruce had cones, but I was not stuck by the cone crop here. I heard a white-winged crossbill when I stopped along the Pamish River. I again got stuck in some slippery mud in my search for crossbills, and stopped several times as I slowly went S to Prince George. The forests had more