Memaloose....
....was muddy with some ice and snow still on the runway when my son and I were up there on June 9th.
We flew into McCall on the 9th; off loaded some gear....intending to head over to Johnson Creek. Low clouds in the mountains kept us from going east so we headed to Memaloose. Overflew the runway due to conditions and ended up camping down by Cascade in a grass strip by the park. Got to Johnson Creek the next day.
Got snowed in at Johnson for an extra day. Burned a lot of firewood and did a 12 mile hike....saw a brown bear, momma moose and her calf....cougar or wolf tracks. Couldn't decide which.
Had a boost pump seal leaking...spent two days at McCall getting a new pump and having it installed. Spent a day/night at Moose Creek and then on to Meadow Creek in Montana for a day/night. Then over to Glacier Park for a day and night.
Spent a great day/night at Cow Creek in the Missouri Breaks coming up from Missouri. Had to leave Cow Creek a day early due to rain and the strip getting muddy. Camped at Ainsworth, Neb. Richie, Mt. and Winified, Mt. coming up. Flew 1,715 miles going home on June 17th. Glacier Park, Sturgis, S.D., Centerville, Iowa, Evansville, Ind. and back to Washington, Missouri. 12:55 minutes of stick time. 30,000+ flight hours in the old log book and that 12:55 was the longest single day of my career. Terrible weather the first 5 days and the mechanical cost us about 4 days of flying....so we didn't get a lot of backcounty time in....but enjoyed every moment.
This was my first trip into the backcountry. My Maule M5-210-C did well even heavily loaded. Of course we chose the easier airstrips and it was cool.
12 days, 11 nights, 40 hours and nearly 5,000 miles of flying. Can't wait to come back.
Bob