Our boy Ted Waltman had a pretty dreamy summer in Alaska flying for Wrangell Mountain Air. He wrote a great trip report about life in McCarthy and being a professional flightseeing guide (among other duties.)

https://backcountrypilot.org/features/c ... -in-alaska

Very nice report on your summer's adventures. I've always said that to me, the Wrangells and the Alaska Peninsula are some of the top destinations for spectacular scenery and wildlife.

Glad you were able to partake in this adventure!

MTV

Wow fantastic adventure and narrative, wish I had your penmanship skills sir. thank you

Great story! Thanks so much for taking the time to do this. BCP really has some great content these days!

Ted
Thanks for the great write up! Also neat to see people living the dream. You sure picked the summer to fly up here. Unmatched in my memory. We live in Valdez and have a cabin at Silver Lake up the McCarthy road. This may a friend and I took his 185 on round trip of the Wrangels. Just stunning. As great as your pictures are (and they are!) they don't give the scale and what DON'T you take a picture of right? You should move up here and visit Colorado.
Thanks again and say hello if you find yourself in Valdez.
Joe

I'm thankful and frankly humbled by everyone's kind words. Regarding writing prowess, while I wrote the article, the vastly more articulate and skilled Zane did the final editing and polishing which made the average truly great--Thank you Zane!

I find SE Alaska to be absolutely stunning. We don't have to travel around the world when Shangri-La is in our own country.

Last summer saw exceptionally perfect weather--almost too dry of course as those of you in the Kenai and points North experienced with the fires.

I wish I could personally share the visually awe inspiring scenery with each and every pilot on Backcountry Pilot.

Thank each of you yet again for your comments and for reading the article.

Congrats on winning the RAF photo contest Ted! Beautiful photography all the way through.

Ted, words are inadequate to describe how informative and rewarding I found your article!
What a blessing to have the opportunity to do it. As has been sed, Ya done a good job transferring your experience into the write up. I do want to ask, How many hours did ya log on an average day and how much of that was in your plane as compared to theirs?

Great photos! Were you at La Perouse around the end of June? I saw a plane there so landed a couple of miles west and later saw that distinct yellow/orange cub do a fly by as we gorged on beach strawberries. The kids and I loved the low and slow flyby and wing wag!

Wonderful report, Ted, and great photos!
You might just have spawned a new dream: visiting Alaska in my 170

AKclimber wrote:Great photos! Were you at La Perouse around the end of June? I saw a plane there so landed a couple of miles west and later saw that distinct yellow/orange cub do a fly by as we gorged on beach strawberries. The kids and I loved the low and slow flyby and wing wag!

Yes, that was us.

You in the Cessna of some sort down on the beach with the family in tow?? Looked like a great time down there!

These photos were from the foot of La Perouse:

Panos:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/sTk7LrRB9WbBonFDA

https://photos.app.goo.gl/9U8zjEmaQ6F6d8t69

Glacier: https://photos.app.goo.gl/ctphDWq6TWhEjHcd8

Bear prints on the beach: https://photos.app.goo.gl/AMFhSjHGKJmekEtt7

(edit: let me know if these images show up. I can't embed direclty from Google photos without permission silliness, so hopefully these links work)

motosix wrote:These photos were from the foot of La Perouse:

Panos:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/sTk7LrRB9WbBonFDA

https://photos.app.goo.gl/9U8zjEmaQ6F6d8t69

Glacier: https://photos.app.goo.gl/ctphDWq6TWhEjHcd8

Bear prints on the beach: https://photos.app.goo.gl/AMFhSjHGKJmekEtt7

(edit: let me know if these images show up. I can't embed direclty from Google photos without permission silliness, so hopefully these links work)

They make it so contrived that you have to use a third party to derive the direct file URL.

Zzz wrote:They make it so contrived that you have to use a third party to derive the direct file URL.

I had no idea that existed. Thanks for the heads up!

A riddle of epic proportions was solved for me on that very day on that very beach:



I will let you figure it out.

For all these years I only thought bear did their business "in the woods"

motosix wrote:

AKclimber wrote:Great photos! Were you at La Perouse around the end of June? I saw a plane there so landed a couple of miles west and later saw that distinct yellow/orange cub do a fly by as we gorged on beach strawberries. The kids and I loved the low and slow flyby and wing wag!

Yes, that was us.

You in the Cessna of some sort down on the beach with the family in tow?? Looked like a great time down there!

Is that 34Delta?
There's a nice articleabout that airplane in the Oct 98 issue of Private Pilot magazine.
I can scan it & send it to you-- PM me if you don't already have it.

hotrod180 wrote:Is that 34Delta?
There's a nice articleabout that airplane in the Oct 98 issue of Private Pilot magazine.
I can scan it & send it to you-- PM me if you don't already have it.

Yes it is!
PM sent!