Left W Colorado last Friday on the way to SE Alaska. Spent a night at Johnson Creek—wonderful with only 6 planes there (it seems everyone was at Oshkosh).

Cleared Canadian customs at Porthill, Idaho (Eckharts Intl). Process covered in my website http://fly2ak.com. Easy, pleasant, 10 minutes tops. No issues.

Joined a local Super Cub pilot and had the opportunity th fly around the Bugaboos https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bugaboos. A “Must See” area! Enjoy the pictures!

From Inveremere North into Valemount is the Kinbasket Lake (really a reservoir) section. About 122 miles with world-class mountain scenery. No where to land in an emergency, but the engine doesn’t know what you don’t tell it.

I truly love wilderness and especially glaciated peaks. Truly yet another “Must visit” area!

















A “classic” U-shaped glacial valley!

Beautiful pictures. Looks like a great trip so far. I'm hoping to fly through the Kootenays in late August on my way to Saskatchewan. It's a beautiful part of BC.

That is just amazing terrain. Thanks for the pics Ted.

Killer stuff, Ted! Great work... I must have just missed you somewhere in the millions of acres out there. lol.

BTW: What camera/setup are you using to take those? Are your windows super clean, or do you have an open window?

That's the stuff dreams are made out of! Great shots!

Flew “The Trench” from Mackenzie to Watson Lake, on Thursday. Weather was initially ugly in Mackenzie, but great in Watson Lake. About a 400 mile leg.

We knew the choke point would be Sifton Pass, which is approximately half way. Sifton Pass is more of a “rise” than a pass, but clouds do stack up there. There is a cam at Ft Ware, about 41 miles S. The cam updates once per hour.

We took off, figuring we could always land at Ft Ware (or one of a few other closer strips) if we had to wait out weather.

I should note I have two main and two aux tanks for a total of 68g. Buddy in 2nd Super Cup only has 24 total, but he was carrying 4 fuel bladders with 20 more g. He landed at Ft Ware and added fuel. A black bear walked by his plane as he was fueling! I was burning between 6.1 at LOP to 9 gph at higher power settings.

Projected winds in ForeFlight were light to none at 4,500’. Actual winds were 14 to 23 on the nose. Ground speeds were 50 to 71 depending of course on winds. Total flight time ended up at 6.1 hours.

Pictures are taken with iPhone 11. I turn/bank the plane to minimize glare and take several photos, piking the best one.

Both planes are on 35” Bushwheels.

Enjoy! Stick now at Carcross with high winds and low ceilings ahead. As George said, “real Alaskan weather” ahead!





















Glacial Kettles

Gorgeous!

Very nice Ted! Thanks for sharing. Fly Safe

Flew from Watson Lake to Carcross (direct up at about 7,000’) late last Thursday. Beautiful evening! The flat lands around Watson Lake change to wonderful mountain scenery after maybe a half hour or so.

We got weathered in for several days. We had fun, as we befriended a local family who lent us their ATV for an afternoon. We drove up to tree line and went for a moderate (very windy) hike up Montana Mtn. Saw a Dall sheep (with binoculars) and 5 caribou.

One afternoon we mowed the 1942 hangar apron area for the local caretaker. Great fun!

Getting to Skagway, a relatively short distance, was a real challenge this year. Clouds stacked up on both Chilkoot and White Pass.

Had to wait a day for White Pass to clear up. Even so, had to circle high, on the deck and again high to finally find the one hole to get thru. I was a half hour late for customs, but the Officer was both understanding and gracious.

Challenging winds (right down the runway) were 25 gust 35+. Taxing was “fun.”

At a private strip 24 miles outside of Haines.

Headed (hopefully) tomorrow 8/11/22 to McCarthy or Gulkana.

Great pictures. Thanks for the ride.

Hey Ted et al,
I just made a run to Anchorage in a 180. Cleared customs at Ross/Coutts. No issues but the grass is maybe a foot tall and I spent 30 minutes on hold before getting cleared via phone. Then spent a couple nights in Calgary, flew through Banff, and continued via Smithers, Dease Lake, Whitehorse, Haines Junction, and Beaver Creek. Had a bit of a run-around with Northway customs (short staffing they said) and wound up clearing in Anchorage.

I will shoot you an email when I get a chance, but in the meantime I want to say thank you for your extremely helpful website. We are lucky you don’t charge a consulting fee for all the information!

In the meantime, if anybody has any specific questions about that route please let me know. I’m headed back the week before Labor Day, hopefully via the Trench but we’ll see what the weather says.

Joe

Excellent ongoing TR! Thanks for sharing. Getting weathered in is sometimes the best part of a trip!

Interesting flight today in widely varied weather.

Left private strip outside of Haines, Alaska. Flew up the Kelsall, then the Tatshenshini River valleys.

Up to 6500’ initially thru a small hole in the cloud layers. Then down to 4000’ between layers. Then really dicey at pass by Haines Junction. Then beautiful along Kluane Lake.

Down to the deck turned around at Skolai Pass (trying to get into the Nizina valley and McCarthy). Went to Chisana—beautiful. Met super folks trying to preserve turn of the century mining cabins. Great folks. Good weather but cloudy then to Gulkana.

Some tailwinds for a while. Some headwinds to 10 mph. Saw a wind out of one valley up to 45!

Looks like an awesome trip so far Ted! I went to Haines for the first time a couple of years ago, I loved it there. Would love to have the opportunity to fly there. Jealous! Keep it up!

Fly safe, Ted! Thanks for the trip report!

Killer Pics! Thanks for sharing...

On the way to Gulkana, flew into Chisana, CZN. Landed at the main strip first. Talked to a few sheep hunters and the regional wildlife trooper who flew in (3rd time that day!) to check sheep tags.

Then I flew across the creek to the village strip. Met several locals, including Vern and Joe. Super friendly. The locals have a long term project to “rescue” old mining cabins from the 1930’s gold rush days. Trying to “prevent them from disappearing into the dirt” in Vern’s words. Very interesting Eve and hand hewn roof beam construction. Those old miners were tough!

Great pictures. What’s the story on the skyvan?