I flew to Oshkosh from Washington State this year. Most of that trip involved paved runways in populated areas, but I was pleasantly surprised by how many airports across the plains had a grass strip available. It seems many of those grass runways were put in for Ag spraying operators at the field.

I'm positing in BCP because the first leg of my trip took a pretty significant detour so I could spend a night at Ryan Field. That place is a real backcountry gem! I managed to reserve one of the cabins there for the night, and that let me get away earlier in the morning because I didn't have to break down and repack a tent. The other fabulous benefit of Ryan is the hot, outdoor shower! They have a small, spiral box structure for privacy with a propane bottle and a battery operated on-demand hot water heater. I'm old and have a stiff back in the morning, so having a hot shower before climbing back into the plane was a real blessing. If I stick around and wait for my solar hot-water shower to heat up, the DA has increased to the point where I'm stuck on the ground before I can leave. Anyway, here's some pictures of my route and of Ryan field.

Here's my route from Port Townsend to KOSH. You can see how much of a diversion Ryan Field was:


Here's the approach. Ryan is just outside the western gate to Glacier National Park, so the scenery is spectacular!


Tied down at Ryan:


My cabin at Ryan:


Inside the cabin:


The outdoor hot shower:



The "community center" at Ryan offers lots of chopped firewood, a wood burning oven/stove and lots of counterspace for group cooking/eating out of the rain:


Departing Ryan:


The "Chinese Wall" forms part of the Continental Divide in the Bob Marshall wilderness:


Devil's Tower in Wyoming as I head over the plains:


The rest of my trip is about as far from backcountry as you can get, but if you're at all interested, here's my full video of the adventure: https://youtu.be/-ZEhEXUojKc

It was a grand trip with just over 38 hours of flying. I changed my oil right after I got home. The thunderstorm with 54 knot winds on Saturday night buggered my flap ratchet and my flaps wouldn't stay in their steepest setting (48 degrees) on the trip home. With no more backcountry stops, or really tight landings on my return trip, that wasn't a problem. The fix is easy and will be made this week. Overall, it was a fabulous 10 days with my plane!

Those cabins have proven to be pretty popular. So much so that two more are under construction right now. The walls went up on the first one yesterday. We will have folks there all this week putting them up.

Growing up in the Midwest with numerous 2,000' grass small town airports used by large and small, I have a hard time accepting that long runways make the incredibly fast approach airspeed used today safe. Wait! It is not safe.