James, nice shots! I just harvested my stone sheep after a 4 day sheep hunting trip from hell...snow and rain for the whole time... When should I expect you in CYXY? Got to meet Abe last week, great fella. Talk to you soon, cheers, J-M

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

Yep, kinda like dealing with FAA Inspectors at your local FSDO, eh?

MTV

Hello Back-country Pilots,

J-M. my caribou hunt got caught short when my friend came down with pretty severe case of disentary. He had it comming out both ends and then got the shakes pretty bad too. We had taken his underpowered jetboat up the Sag river then up another tributary to get well beyond the 5 mile limit from the Alaska oil pipeline. According to the Fish & Game pilot the caribou were held up on the coast and had not started thier migration south yet. We did see some caribou within the 5 mile cooridor near Toolik Lake. Archery guys were sticking arrows in some nice bulls there. Oh well I guess I'll have to try and get another elk here in Idaho to fill the freezer.


Geroge, there was no way we could have made it to Scoop lake that day Bill and I flew the trench. It was cloud to ground fog right there at Ft. Ware and not much better behind us.

Idaho has a real interesting wolf season this year to include trapping and $31 non-residnet tags too. This should be a hoot. We close on our Idaho property on September 2nd and should begin construction on our 1,200 foot airstrip shortly thereafter. I have to get a powline relocated or burried $$$$. An excellent Alaska trip this year, but am darn excited about buying this additonal Idaho property too. The "Super-Maule" ran great to and from Alaska.

James

Good Morning,
It takes a few days to come off the high from doing what James and I did...what a trip!!! James is a great fellow to travel and camp with, except that he won't wake you up when company drives up for a friendly visit at 11 PM at Fort Ware, seeing that I'm the one with the12-ga with 00 buck next to me.

Customs, well let's just say they need to work on their common sense skills...just cross your T's and dot your i's when you cross the border. What a fellow to welcome you to the north country, J-M is first class, and his Tundra is one fine airplane, you'll have to see it to appreciate the workmanship that went into that plane...whoow...Again, J-M thanks for your hospitality!! I just hope I treat fellow pilots as well when they come this way. Glad to hear you got your Stone Sheep too!!

With family in the Gulkana and Valdez area James and split up at Tok and I went south into the rain and James went north into the rain. Got down to the McCarthy area and met a couple of nice fellows from the Anchorage area in their Cubs at May Creek (what a neat public use cabin there). The folks at 40-mile Air in Tok were sure friendly and great to do business with also. Met one of their pilots getting ready to do a mail run and come to find out that his wife is related to a good friend of mine here in Wallowa County...small world...

James and I did a little more direct route from Watson Lake to Whitehorse and flew north of the hiway towards Dawson...that has to be some of the prettiest country that I laid eyes on during this trip...next time I may explore that area a bit more and with bigger tires too.

Gotta make a plug for the fuel bags I got from AB. Took 3- of them and they worked great, easy to use and stored so well in the plane, full and empty. And Scoop Lake looked like a great place, next time I'll definitely stop there. So much to do and so little time. I have 90-days to appeal my $1000 welcome to Canada ticket and I'll let you all know how it goes.

All in all a great trip and with great company!! And you just can't let those little things like welcome tickets spoil your trip...because you get to meet folks like J-M and others along the way and fly over and into some of the most beautiful country anywhere.

Sorry to hear about your ticket Bill, but I'm glad you and James had a epic trip and a lasting memory! This is high on my bucket list.

Abe wrote:I have 90-days to appeal my $1000 welcome to Canada ticket and I'll let you all know how it goes.

Hey Bill there is something funny about a retire LEO getting a ticket. I hope you get it reduced. I guess thats what you get for hanging out with that outlaw James. LOL Wish I had been with you guys.

Cheers...Rob

James,

With regard to the new strip and burying the power lines, I have a friend who extended his grass strip and was prepared to pay the big buck for it too a few years back. The Ni-Mo supervisor was out at the property flagging things and they got talking and hit it off. In the end the whole job got charged to "operator training". You never know what common ground/interests you might have with someone. Either way I hope they are easier to deal with than the customs officials were.

Al

P.S. Thanks for sharing the pics and details of your trip.

Here there is a "farm safety" program were you can get a government grant to bury the lines if you are puting grain bins there , you should check if Idaho has a similar program. Hey its not your fault if you change your mind and decide not to put the bins there after all.