Well, after lots of churn and several tales of "You are definitely going to _____"", we are starting our family's move to Tampa, FL. Good thing I got the plane configured perfect for gravel.

My wife's gonna help me stay on track with the trip log this time. Pretty sure I lost credibility when I didn't finish my report for the summer '13 trip up. Will post entries here and on a blog journal at http://family-pcs-journal.blogspot.com/. We'll display our SPOT location at the following address: https://spotwalla.com/tripViewer.php?id ... 30db215948

Hope to depart this morning for Tok (Fast Freddie's)' Whitehorse, and camping at Watson Lake.

First entry:

The goal for this year's family move journal is simple, finish. The summer 2013 journal detailing our family's adventure moving from Fort Leavenworth to Fairbanks, AK was progressing nicely before it abruptly stopped in Dawson City. I attribute two root causes for the failure.

First, I simply ran out of steam and time. It wasn't possible to continue updating while still traveling and enjoying some of the activities along the way. Additionally, my priority was getting to our destination quickly to start work right away, which I did. By the time I got settled into work and thought about finishing, it was eight months later. I could still complete the log now with a majority of details, but the moment has passed.

The second and more important reason for the halt is that I felt my writing abilities weren't sufficient to capture the experience. I couldn't accurately capture the mesmerizingly deep blue waters of Teslin Lake in the Yukon Territory. I'm certainly not good enough to lead a reader through the incredible experience our team had interacting with each other and those we met along the way.

I've now gone back and reread my entire blog from start to the abruptly failed finish. It was immediately apparent that the problem was neither of the above. It was my failure to establish the correct purpose. Rereading the journal became a several hour exercise of map exploration and photo mining. The purpose of the original trip report shouldn't have centered on others, but on us. It's merely a sketched out map of our exploration so we can relive the adventure anytime we wish.

So, that becomes the purpose of our family's trip report from Fairbanks, AK to MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, FL. We'll still be operating our family's 1979 Cessna 206. This year our family will travel together as opposed to splitting up to fly the airplane and drive one car. It was the chance of a lifetime to experience the trip up with my dad, Uncle Norris, and Brayden, but this time it's about our family adventuring whimsically together on a much less constrained timeline.

The weeks leading up to the move have been interesting with us attending the Hudson Memorial Fly-In at Talkeetna, closing out my duties at work, taking a 2100 mile family vacation around the state, and completing an extremely stressful week of closing out our affairs. We had hoped to attend the Skwentna Fly-In on 6 June, but it was adding too much stress to get everything done by early Saturday morning. Thus, our expected departure date is Sunday, the seventh of June.

We've shipped both vehicles and all of our belongings. The plan and packing list differ from 2013 as we plan on camping along the way for a bit of a different experience. Mind you, we're not talking backcountry camping fighting off bears and scavenging for food. We're thinking more along the lines of stopping at some established strips along such as Watson lake with some facilities. We'll also be stopping in some of the more well travelled spots for gas and essentials such as lunch, shower, wifi, and a geocache or two. I understand these are first world needs, but we're in it for the enjoyment of the trip as opposed to cost savings or an off the grid experience.

I completed an instrument proficiency check on Friday night, 5 June, along with an oil change. We're rechecking our packing list today, 6 June, and loading the airplane, a friend very generously loaned us their minivan the past week to complete preparation for the move. We'll also mail a couple packages to our destination and do some flight planning to figure out where to go along the way. In general, we'll playing the route by ear and weather.

The plan as it sits now is to depart Sunday morning with the goal of making Watson Lake for the evening. We'll do lunch in Tok and customs in Whitehorse. That has great possibility of changing as the day matures and I continue to research possibilities. The kids start to get antsy by 2.5 hours into a leg and hit a daily limit at about five hours. Thus, we'll keep legs shorter and won't push too hard at the start. That said, the first day plans out to five hours.

The secret to writing a story: Don't get caught up in sentences and paragraphs at first; just make an outline of the events you want to share and points you want to make. It's too much work and too easy to get lost in details if you just start typing, at least for me.

While you're in the heat of the moment, just take notes. When you're ready to write, scrawl it down start to finish as an outline with bullet points and a hierarchy. You can then just fill in details and pics and *voila* you have a story.

That sounds like a GREAT trip, and an excellent plan. As you've already figured out, planning a trip of this length is great....till the trip starts. Then, weather intervenes, and if as you say, you've got some time for this trip, there are lots of things to see/places to visit along the "track". A lot of those you don't want to miss.

Enjoy the trip, take advantage of the time and opportunity to explore this continent......you'll go about as far in a straight line as is possible.....and take lots of pictures.

If the crew gets tired, take a break and explore....almost everywhere has interesting stuff to explore, if you look.

Most of all, have fun.

We'll look forward to your trip log.....and don't sweat your writing style, it's fine, and this is about the trip, not the syntax...

MTV

Dang, Brett, I'm sorry we didn't get to fly the 170, or get you to Denali. Have a great trip, and all the best with the relocation.
-DP

+1 on the go slow, have fun.

Having made that run so many times for work, always in shit wx and in a hurry, it's an absolute joy to make it a wander instead.

Gump

It sounds like a great plan, I'm excited to follow along here!

I didn't realize/remember you we're leaving this early, looks like your Canada supplement won't get to you on time, sorry I dropped the ball on that.

Day 1, Sunday, we were only able to make Tok due to a late start and afternoon heating unhappiness. Day 2, Monday, we were only able to make Whitehorse due to a late start and afternoon heating unhappiness. Anyone see a trend? We have an alarm set and plan for an earlier departure tomorrow. With luck we'll make Watson Lake, either Fort Nelson or McKenzie, and Grand Prairie.

Day 1 (Sunday, 7 Jun): Fairbanks to Tok. Posting a day behind.

Well, we got a slow start this morning finishing the last couple necessary items to prepare for the trip and close out our affairs in Fairbanks. We also had to taxi to the pumps and get gas prior to departure. We finally said goodbye to Fairbanks at 1210.

Making it to Tok was a bit of a challenge. There was a lot of build up, virga, and several rain showers. I tried to get on top and was successful at 9,500 through just North of Delta. At that point we descended and battled the dynamic air and showers all the way to Tok.

Additionally, all three children had to visit the Gatorade bottle lavatory and one graced his pull-up with a #2. The Stationaire has a great deal of space, but nothing has enough space for all that.

There was a shower over the approach end of 25 at Tok with a bit of a down draft. That and a poor approach yielded a positive arrival, noteworthy bounce, and a butter smooth second landing. Nailed it!

The self-serve pump is next to 40-Mile Air on the Notheast corner of the ramp. Transient parking is located on the south side ramp marked by green/yellow cones. There are about 5-6 spots. Only one other spot was taken. Fast Eddies is across the highway North of the field with a restaurant and Young's Motel.

After the hustle of the morning, getting jolted around below the scattered to broken layer, and battling with the kids' personal needs, we were exhausted. We elected to stay the night in a cabin and charge ahead earlier tomorrow morning. The decision allowed us a solid nap and some relax time with no work to weigh us down. Ahhhh.

The 40-Mile 206s and 207 looked great on the ramp. They really highlighted the value of having a smaller nose wheel with 8.50s or 26s on the mains. They're all sitting nice and level while mine is almost a taildragger. Getting the nose strut services last week really put me nose up and the load of stuff exacerbates the issue. Now that the Airglas STC has been modified, I'll have to go to an 8.00 or even 7.00 on the nose.

All in all, we made some headway and shook out some bugs. I don't often have a 3,400 lb load in the airplane and need to acknowledge that when I'm setting up the approach and landing. We'll also get an earlier start to hopefully take advantage of some morning stable air. The wifi is out at the lodge, so I'll worry about weather later. The plan before checking is Whitehorse, Watson Lake, and either McKenzie or ???.

Ahhhhh, an inauspicious beginning. Nevertheless, it's a start, which is good. I imagine things will smooth out as the trip progresses.

Fly safe, keep the family happy, and it'll go well.

MTV

Brett. When do you plan to be in Grande Prairie?

A1, thought about you, but we ended up in peace river instead. Showers with TCU were reported over Grand Prairie and Peace River got us started East. Regretting it already. We haven't been treated all that well so far at the Peace River airport. Oh well. Thinking North Battleford and Yorktown Municipal tomorrow. We'll see after dinner and a weather check.

Day 2 (Monday, 8 June): Tok to Whitehorse. Still reporting one day behind our actual progress..

The plan was to relax and get a start when we felt like it. Still no rush to get any distance down the trail. We got the crew ready, got cinnamon rolls from Fast Eddie's for the road, and trekked to the South ramp to load up. I couldn't take how excessively the aircraft was sitting on the tail, so I went over to 40-Mile to seek some assistance. Clay, the director of maintenance, was extremely helpful and we were loaded by 0920 for a 0930 departure. It's possible that the extreme weight in the back of the aircraft was caused by the monstrous cinnamon rolls. I've never seen cinnamon rolls that big and will likely never again. Either way, Clay got us straightened out.

The weather brief was a bit of a challenge as neither Fairbanks nor Northway were receiving weather for Canada. We had to go off of my googled reporting of the METAR and TAF. I should also note that Northway FSS opens at 0915 for briefs. I might have missed it, but I hadn't seen that published anywhere.

We started out cruising at 3,500 to enjoy the scenery, but climbed to 7,500 around the Sanpete Hill to get out of the rough air down low. It was too late. Both Brayden and Carly lost it. Carly usually takes some motion sickness medication before we fly, but we had forgotten to give it to her until just prior to departure.

As always in this area, the terrain is strikingly beautiful. We just did catch a glimpse of the Donjek and Kaskawulsh Glaciers. I'm always impressed with the number of higher altitude lakes between the border and getting out of the mountains West of Fort Nelson.

The approach and landing was much better executed than the previous day's. We turned right onto the Apron and requested progressive taxi for customs. It is located just NorthWest of the terminal and has a small shack from which you can call CANPASS. I called from the plane and got our clearance number. Amazing how easy it is.

The fuel pumps are on the far Northwestern edge of the ramp and there is transient parking there. There is also transient parking at the base of the tower, but we elected to park by the pumps to avoid another hot start challenge. The walking gate is right next to the fire station behind the customs shed. Follow the outside of the fence to stairs leading to the terminal. We had lunch in the restaurant in the upstairs area of the terminal.

After lunch we checked weather and determined that too much of the day had slipped by for us to continue to Watson Lake. The afternoon building clouds were developing and thunderstorms were decorating the whole route. We decided to rent a car and head downtown for a hotel.

In our adventures the last few weeks, we've followed a general plan to explore an area. We geocache. Now, I've made fun of my parents for years as declared geocache nerds. They might not have official geocache pocket protectors, but they literally have hats. We picked it up and are now card carrying dorks ourselves. Our method is to simply pick a couple caches in an area and by getting those, we almost always visit the best areas of a location. For example, caches took us to gold dredges, beautiful views, whale skulls, and a herd of musk ox in our Barrow and Nome visits a week ago.

In Whitehorse, we used the playgrounds on the visitor's center map and a couple caches to experience the town. The kids got to play, we got some terrific photos from a perch above town, and visited the start of this year's Yukon Quest, which we had watched the end of from the Chena behind our house.

It is noteworthy that we ate at the Klondike Ribs and Salmon restaurant for dinner. There is usually a line early in the evening as all the tour bus and camper folks push their way into the early bird. We waited 20 minutes, and it was absolutely worth it. The food was terrific and the staff was very friendly. Tammy had a 5-minute conversation with our 3-year old about our trip. If you haven't been around our 3 year old, 5 minutes can be a long time! Highly recommend it and recommend you go a bit later in the evening.

We checked the all important hours at Tim Hortons and got the kids off to bed. The plan is to get up at 5 a.m. for a 7 departure to Watson Lake.

Just a precursor for our five hours of progress on Tuesday. The Tim Hortons was a success.

UH-60andC-180 wrote:A1, thought about you, but we ended up in peace river instead. Showers with TCU were reported over Grand Prairie and Peace River got us started East. Regretting it already. We haven't been treated all that well so far at the Peace River airport. Oh well. Thinking North Battleford and Yorktown Municipal tomorrow. We'll see after dinner and a weather check.

That sucks Brett. Man I'm almost straight south of peace river, between the peace and smoky rivers. Another 10 minutes and you'd have been here. PR really isn't a very nice town.
North battleford is nice and has a nice pay at the pump. Yorkton has the most expensive gas I've ever paid for, except for maybe PR. Nice place, but the gas from the flight school ain't cheap.
Great trip report. Glad to see you guys are being safe!

David

Sorry we missed you David. That seems to be one of the problems with playing things by ear. We departed this morning for Watson lake and didn't want to give up the 15 knot tailwind. We bypassed that and continued straight to Fort Nelson. We had intended to take the trench to McKenzie, but the family didn't have that kind of leg in them. Peace River was about as far as we were willing to go for the day, though if we knew we'd make it that far, we'd have definitely looked you up.

It was getting pretty rough below the 8K scattered buildup and the winds at PR were swirling a bit. I got sandwiched between larger commercial traffic then had difficulty getting instructions to transient parking. Oh well.

I think I've seen pics of your young daughter recently. I'm sure the kids would have enjoyed playing. (Just looked and saw your daughter is 7-months. My 3-year old would have run around for hours saying, "look at the baby!"

Brett

North Ballteford and RON at Yorkton tonight. Another 5-hour day to get down the road. Looking at customs options for the first leg tomorrow. Thinking grand fork because it allows us a longer first leg in the morning.

Brett,
It wouldn't be an adventure if it all went according to plan, right? Sounds like you're rolling with the unforeseen parts pretty well. You might look at Pembina as an airport of entry along that route. I used it several years ago. Small spray-plane field, with some cool stuff on the ramp and in the hangar (like a restored AN-2). Friendly owner when I was there. I checked and AirNav still lists it as an airport of entry. I think the customs guy had to drive over from the nearest town. No real services except it has fuel, and the owner let three of us sleep in the hangar. Low key and no hassles.
Just don't get stuck in Brandon for three days, like I always seem to do.
Happy trails.
https://www.airnav.com/airport/KPMB

DP, thanks. I'll look it up. I might have a day or two to research it. Im not feeling well enough to fly. We'll take a day or two or whatever here before I'll feel comfortable flying again. Sinuses are not to be trifled with. Oh well. It's about the adventure.

Piney creek is also a great place to cross Brett. But maybe it's farther east then you want to be.
Glad the trip is going well!

David, thanks for the recommendation. I imagine you're talking about Piney Pinecreek. Took me a couple minutes of reading to figure out we weren't talking about Piney Creek in TN, which also looks nice.