Hello Backcountry Pilots,
Had a great trip to Alaska and have attached some pictures.

James

Nice!

Thanks for the pictures. It is great up there isn't it??

Awesome! Could you tell us more about your trip? I keep buying more maps of Alaska for when I get a chance to do a trip like that. My plane was based at KOTZ before I bought it and I'm wanting to get up the rivers from there and look around. Totally jealous....

Nice!!! Awesome photos. I have been up there twice so far and hoping to get up that way again in the nest year or two. Doubt it will be a hunting trip since the spousal unit will be along wanting to see all the sites.
Have a buddy up ther right now and am patiently waiting for his pictures and trip report. Eric, where the heck are you at?
Keith

Wonderful pictures! Now we need the story to go along with it.

Super-Maule wrote:Hello Backcountry Pilots,
Had a great trip to Alaska and have attached some pictures.

James

Isn't that a bit too much rifle for silvers?

Anyway looks like a blast. I waved as you flew over

Excellent work Super-Maule!

Looking forward to the story as well.

My turn one of these years.

Hello Backcountry Pilots,
Great trip! However both US & Canadian Customs dba:(ass-holes) are the biggest problem with the trip. There are miles and miles of skud running in unfamiliar territory if you want to get anywhere. Thats to be expected. Jeff aka; Maule CFI in Soldotna took me salmon fishing, nice guy! Some people price gouge for 100LL, but all and all a great trip. Don't park/camp in the Indians drinking spot at the end of the airstrip at Ft. Ware, BC. This adventure will be hard to top. Back home to work on my airstrip.

James

Hi James, glad you had a great trip and I am sorry we did not get together for coffee or lunch. I hope the weather has great for you. I just got 2.5 acres on a landing strip not to far from the house and will build next year if all gos well. I am sure your hunt was a successful one. Your right one can not beat the scenery around here..
Take care my friend and glad you made it back safe....

Ken in Alaska

Was that silver fishing over on the Kustatan? The back ground looks pretty familiar.

Nice photos and looks like you had a great trip!

Jim
How about some more pics and the rest of the story? looks like you had a great time!!
Thanks Doug

Just some more pics.
Ft. Ware Indian Res in the trench

Alaska weather

James - where did you do customs?

Last year we did a grass strip going up into Canada at Port Hill Idaho. As we were touching down, a US customs woman screamed over the radio to us "that will be a $5,000 fine for each of our two airplanes"! Holy crap what a "B". When she found out that we were north bound and had not yet crossed a border, we were ok. But the Canada side was closing for the day, so we had to wait the night to cross. The next morning, Canada had our possible fines up to $15,000. After 45 minutes of BS we were all friendly and it was free.

We entered Alaska at Northway. We arrived in our time slot and there were already two Australians in a Cherokee who had been waiting 45 minutes. No custom agents were there yet. We waited 30-45 more minutes (and so far no one had dared to set their feet on the ground, and all had to pee) and finally one showed up. As the agent walked by the Australians we over heard him say, "you just got a $5,000 fine", but he came to us first. He remembered us from a previous trip and was super friendly. I guess the Cherokee guys had not called, but they did file a mandatory asswipe form on their computer. The system really sucks.

On our return, we went from Chicken Alaska into Canada customs at Dawson (A super nice experience) and into the US at a grass strip in Montana ( forget the name) but also a great friendly time. And going back I had a guy from Norway with me who could have set off red flags, but didn't. John

James, no Alaska photo series is complete without the pictures of dead shit section...and you only get 1/2 credit for fish.

Let's see 'em!

gb

Nice pics. Some things haven't changed at all in Customs bureaucracy, though. I've met similar personality-disorders-with-a-uniform in the past. I don't know where they find 'em. Glad it turned out uneventfully.

Hello Backcountry Pilots,

The whole eapis, canpass thing is ridiculous. My wing-man got a $1000 fine by the Canadians for "failure to declare" a firearm that he had attempted to pay for the night before with a credit card by phone. He did not try to withhold anything. They just robbed him at the border. At Beaver Creek, YT they went through everything I had in the pouring rain while the vehicles lined up on the highway. It took me about an hour and a half to clear there. After picking my gear up out of the mud.

Making the crossings with their bankers hours with a two or four hour lead time with the Customs is hard to do. After skud running for 6 hours with no cell phone or internet to make the crossings is very difficult. Don't get me wrong it was a great trip, but the bureaucracyof the US & Canadian Customs was the most difficult part of the journey. They don't mess with people in vehicles like they do small aircraft. Both the US & Canadian Customs people were wearing bullet-proof vest at all the crossings. I'm just tired of the "SWAT Mentality". After 911 we have become our own worst enemies.

James

Super-Maule wrote:Hello Backcountry Pilots,

The whole eapis, canpass thing is ridiculous. My wing-man got a $1000 fine by the Canadians for "failure to declare" a firearm that he had attempted to pay for the night before with a credit card by phone. He did not try to withhold anything. They just robbed him at the border. At Beaver Creek, YT they went through everything I had in the pouring rain while the vehicles lined up on the highway. It took me about an hour and a half to clear there. After picking my gear up out of the mud.

Making the crossings with their bankers hours with a two or four hour lead time with the Customs is hard to do. After skud running for 6 hours with no cell phone or internet to make the crossings is very difficult. Don't get me wrong it was a great trip, but the bureaucracyof the US & Canadian Customs was the most difficult part of the journey. They don't mess with people in vehicles like they do small aircraft. Both the US & Canadian Customs people were wearing bullet-proof vest at all the crossings. I'm just tired of the "SWAT Mentality". After 911 we have become our own worst enemies.

James

They sure have a way of draining the fun out of it.

gb

James,
If you could have made it to Scoop lake an hour north of Fort Ware, would have been great, bed, hot food, showers, good people. I hope you slept with your rifle cocked that night. They are pretty hard on over nighters, I would pick the beach down the lake a bit, or one of the abandoned strips!!
Hope yo had a grand time!, The crossings can get to be a bit ridiculous!!
I stopped at Kamloops on my way up and went through the, we have a new guy routine: Unloaded the whole plane looked though every thing, let me repack. and never looked in the seat pouches or under the seats, and never even opened the cowl, or the little door into the battery hole??
I never have had a hard time at Northway, though there was an immigration Ass at Avey field that I reported about 5 times before he was transferred ( I was not the only one who bitched)
Talk to you in December when I get back.

GT