This is a bit late since the trip took place in July of 2016, but better late than never. I was approached toward the beginning of the year by a couple of friends with an opportunity to fly to Alaska (Kenia) to do some fishing and be flying tourists and couldn't pass up the chance! There was suppose to be two airplanes, my flying partner and I in a C180 and our friend and his grandson in a CC. Unfortunately our friend and his grandson had to cancel at the last minute and we made the trip without them. In hindsight it would have been very difficult to fly "together" with two very different airplanes. So, this will be a down and dirty trip report. I took lots of pictures (mostly with my iPhone and some with a Gopro) and singled a few out for the report.

I started in February with preparation and planning. It took some time to receive all of the stickers and get registered with the US and Canada and figure out the process that would be needed to make each leg of the trip. Not too terribly complicated but it does require some specific steps and for my personality learning that on the fly is not the way to go. AOPA was a great resource for me to use as a checklist and to find phone numbers etc.

We left early July with good weather and filed our first leg as the border crossing from Central Oregon to Penticton. Filing was easy and we even declared a "survival" firearm at the last minute over the phone without any hassle.

It was nice and sunny as we left and rainy on approach into Penticton:


Clearing customs was an easy phone call and writing down a number to put on the dash. No people, no inspection, no hassle. Canada was really nice and the people were great!

Isolated Tstorms were predicted for the afternoons of our trip up. We made it to Kamloops and got a hotel as the weather moved in:


Our next leg was to Mackenzie for fuel and an ice cream cone!


The trench had Tstorms moving in so we followed some local knowledge and went west/northwest to a place called Dease Lake. It was beautiful and we saw moose and bear during the trip. It was in the middle of nowhere and fuel was really expensive, but it kept our forward progress.


From there it was off to Whitehorse to stay the night.


The next morning, and after a dumping of rain from the local Tstorms, it was off to Northway to clear customs back into the US. We saw some more black bears and beautiful country on that part of the trip too and we met up with the Alcan Highway:





The customs agent had to travel an hour from the highway border crossing to clear us. We may arrange this a little differently next time but it wasn't too bad. The first thing he did was inspect us and our entire operation with a Geiger Counter!

It was off to see TOK after that:


This cool Chinook on ski's came in while we were there:


And of course Fast Eddy's for lunch:


To be continued...

Awesome! Cant wait to hear the rest of it and see the pics.

How did you get by with the little N#'s???? EVERYONE ON THE INTERNET SAYS BIG NUMBERS ARE A MUST THO!!!!!

Haha. Keep em coming.

From Tok we continued on toward Soldotna via Valdez! It was an amazing day as far as the weather goes and the glacial mountains and coastline were incredible!











Valdez:



I thought I had a couple more pictures of the coastline loaded but I guess you'll have to take my word for it...it was beautiful!

After arriving in Soldotna we spent a couple days fishing the Kenai:



That was one of several Sockeye's and Kings that were caught! A success!

The Kenai River at the Cook Inlet:


We based out of Soldotna at some friends house and visited Homer via car. I flew my partner in crime into Merrill Field one night so he could take the train down to Seward the next morning. The plan was for me to drive and pick him up the next day depending on the weather. Fortunately it was another beautiful day so I flew instead!

This is the view from Seward that day after touring the aquarium and walking the town:




Stay tuned for a trip to Heaven...

Ya Don't need no stinking big numbers for Canada
DENNY

This next part was by far a highlight of the trip for me. There's something magical about Denali that still gives me goose pimples to even think about it. We crossed the Cook Inlet and flew the deck up to Talkeetna looking for bears and other wildlife (for those of you that are wondering, there are no brown bears or grizzly's in Alaska. Just ask me, I know ). We did see some moose and miles and miles of the most amazing and picturesque landscape imaginable.







After arriving in Talkeetna we decided to walk to town and have some lunch. It was tourist season so busy but not bad. After that, we knew we wanted to fly the mountain ourselves so we taxied over for fuel and intel. As it was, Don Sheldon's daughter (although I didn't know it at the time) came out and eyeballed the airplane as it was the same model and year her father flew for many years. I had a feeling that I can't quite explain so I asked if she was related to Don (having only known about him through the books written about him). She was gracious enough to sign a couple of books to give to our hosts in Soldotna then she spent another half hour hand writing on a map the route we should take up to the mountain and all of the check points we needed to call along the way. This made for a successful trip for us and help us blend in with the many tours flying the mountain on that very clear day. Off we went!

Toe of the Ruth:










Zoom in to see all of the Otter's and Beavers parked on the glacier:
















I believe she called this "Star Wars". Picture's don't do it justice:








It was a spiritual experience that I'll never forget! Go see the mountain if you head to Alaska, you won't regret it!

Next, the return trip...

Crzyivan13 wrote:Awesome! Cant wait to hear the rest of it and see the pics.

How did you get by with the little N#'s???? EVERYONE ON THE INTERNET SAYS BIG NUMBERS ARE A MUST THO!!!!!

Haha. Keep em coming.

Thanks for the "like".

I pretty sure I asked the question prior to the trip as we had no interest in "getting away" with anything and it was a non issue. If I recall correctly (don't quote me on this) the large numbers were only necessary if you were crossing the ADIZ and we weren't?

CW

Alaska is beautiful. And wild. And remote. And big! I would love to go back someday! I'll add that I don't think I'll ever get tired of seeing, looking at and taking pictures of glaciers! They really are spectacular. Even the definition of a glacier alone is pretty mind blowing!

For the return we flew cross country from Soldotna to Gulkana (not much there by the way) where we filed our exit from the US into Canada at Whitehorse for an overnight stay. Then onto Ft. Nelson for fuel and down the trench.





































Like I said, I never get tired of it! The rest of the story next...

Great post making me homesick........hope u were smart enough to stay

Pure awesome. Thanks for the report.

-asa

You went down the Trench from Fort Nelson??? Maybe Watson Lake?

Nice report, in any case.

MTV

I meant to say we went to Watson Lake after Whitehorse, and then down the trench...not Ft. Nelson. Here are some pictures of that leg:









The final push home was a bit of an adventure. We made it down the trench to McKenzie for more ice cream and fuel just fine. Then past more of Canada without any issues. Saw a big quarry of some kind that was digging out a mountain causing it to almost disappear from the inside out! And finally to the Frasier river where things got a little cloudy. Tried up and over but no dice. Then tried down the canyon but that was sketchy at best. We just kept it slow and well positioned for a turn around which we eventually did and wound up stuck in a place called Lillooet. Had we been equipped with some local knowledge and/or experience we likely could have followed the water west in the direction of Whistler and then down and made it to Chilliwack without problems, but we got a ride to town and stayed in a cheap hotel instead.





Lillooet when we landed (or the next day, I don't remember):



And the next morning from the hotel



We departed mid day westward (we were passed in this canyon by a hot rod RV looking plane!):



Landed in Chilliwack to file our crossing and then jumped over to Bellingham to clear customs (which was another non-event), and then the final push home to Central Oregon!

Back to the metropolis!



Oregon is beautiful too though:









For me, this was a trip of a lifetime. Maybe one I'll get to repeat someday, maybe not. It was a perfect coming together of my flying aspirations, camaraderie with one of my best friends and flying partner and a chance to see beauty that can only be experienced and not explained.

Home!



cw

And lastly, I made a video. I made the video as a keep sake for my friend and I that went on the trip. And my family. We like it! And we like the music. You may not, or maybe you will. It doesn't really bother me either way. It's long (about 15 minutes) and has a lot of the same pics from this trip report along with many others and some video footage too!

The only thing I ask is that if you don't like it, instead of telling everyone here how much you don't like it plan a trip of your own to Alaska and make your own video to share! You'll love the experience and most likely I'll enjoy your video!



Thanks for reading and watching!

CW

DonC wrote:Great post making me homesick........hope u were smart enough to stay

I'm there most nights as I dream myself to sleep! You guys that made a living up there were fortunate despite all the hard work it entailed!

mtv wrote:You went down the Trench from Fort Nelson??? Maybe Watson Lake?

Nice report, in any case.

MTV

You caught me before I had a chance to correct myself . I was just making sure you were paying attention!

Great post making me homesick........hope u were smart enough to stay

Not just the AK pics, and those are great.

Tons of great memories of the BC and Yukon stuff too.

We just sold our place on the Dean Channel in BC. Countless flights back and forth from the 30 years we owned it. Good to see pics of that spectacular country too.

Gump

Beautifuly done. thanks

Very nice trip report and pictures.! Thanks for sharing. I also enjoyed the video very much including the music. For sure a priceless trip and memories. Hope to make it to Alaska myself someday, nothing like experiencing something firsthand.

Loved your TR, CW! Thanks for putting that together and sharing with us!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

Thank you for the excellent pictures and trip report!

Great video. Thanks for posting the TR.

Rich

Great TR. Thanks for sharing with us.