I skipped the Airmen show this year because, for the first time, I wanted to visit Alaska in summer. Not the yellow and brown Alaska you see in early May when plenty of snow and ice still litter the landscape, but the vibrant green of true summer we all see in magazine photos.
I also wanted to bring my childhood best friend Royce with me. We've known each since second grade, lived together in college, and have taken countless adventures together....until we left college, got careers, started families, and fell into the groove that most all adults with a life do. After all these years, it was time to take a pure bro adventure. So we did. It was also a good opportunity to show off all the great friends I've made in Alaska via BCP.
We travel well together, especially because we embrace spontaneity. Whereas everything with my wife requires planning and a sure thing for where we'll sleep that night, traveling with Royce is akin to what it was like in college...flying by the seat of our pants. We rented a Subaru Crosstrek, loaded it with camping and photo gear, and set out.
We did have a mission: To ferry an Oregon friend's Super Cub back to Portland from Palmer. It developed some engine issues that we couldn't wait out for the fix, so we pivoted mid trip and did something else.
Phase 1: The Peninsula
First order of business after deplaning in Anchorage was to get the car, and indoctrinate Royce on Lake Hood. We visited the fixture red Bushmaster/Producer/whatever it is for the compulsory photo.
After a stop at REI we hit the highway south headed for Soldotna and akgreg. The weather was glorious. These fires we'd heard about from the pervious month must have died down...what fortune!
Driving down the ramp at PASX and spotted this...Widgeon? Been obsessed with them so I took a shot with the fisheye.
akgreg's hangar was a flurry of activity on a nice day. We were particularly enamored with the fresh skylight installation.
2nd day in AK and we were aching to do some flying. Squash graciously offered to take us on a tour of the Kenai Fjords area. Royce came close to finishing his PPL years ago, and he's got about as much 185 time as I do, so he took right seat while I taxed the FA Dodge jump seat with my ample man hams in the back.
Kenai Fjords is insane. It's a emotional rollercoaster ride of awe and anxiety as we flew out over the sound and circled some of the bays. It's a toss up which is more amazing though – the fjords or the Harding ice field.
Squash in his natural environment.
Site sponsor Flight Resource/MT representing.
We returned to Greg's house which is basically across the street from the Kenai river, and went out for the final evening of no-bait fishing, which yielded this single Silver...
...unlike this day in Kachemak Bay which yielded zero. Well, it yielded one. But I broke it off like an idiot.
Neighborhood meese.
Phase 2: Talkeetna
I had a date in Talkeetna with Don Lee, so we busted out early in the morning for the long drive north. We awoke to some seriously active wind. Little did we know this was the start of some bad fire action. We saw the wisps of smoking starting to rise as smoldering fires from weeks prior reignited and continued growing. Bad deal.
After running the gauntlet through Coopers Landing, we were nearly caught again as we passed through Willow. Their fire problems were just getting started, and we barely made it before, unbeknownst to us, the road closed behind.
Arrival at Christensen Lake and Don Lee's float training compound, complete with potbelly pigs and vivacious young flight instructors. Unfortunately, flying was not happening because of the wind. 22G33 does not make for a great intro experience. Obviously these people had not heard of my Pacer skills.
So, time to explore Talkeetna and dodge the thousands of tourists who enjoy this 3 blocks of tiny mountain town main street during the summer months. It seriously is the coolest little place.
We hit this ice cream stand pretty much every day when we felt our dad 2.0 bodies starting to wither.
Scenes from the lake.
Don's mechanic's Bushmaster.
N8347D...many of you may have trained in this very airplane. Interesting rigging with it's extra AOI to the floats compared to their other birds.
More wind...off to find other entertainment in Talkeetna. We bummed around the airport and bothered Tradecraft and his TAT coworkers. I was immediately drawn to this spectacle on the ramp. WTF is it? It says L-13 Dragonfly on the cowling but...it's experimental. Six seats. Lots of glass.
Had to go back for more ice cream...
...before we set out on a 3-river journey with Mahay's jet boat tours, which is really just the Susitna and Chulitna and they point out the mouth of the Talkeetna as you cruise by.
The rivers fluctuate heavily during the summer. As temps go up, glacial melt increases, which drives up flow. It all looks like raging chocolate milk, as you can see from his shot of the Chulitna near Trapper Creek. Jamming up these rivers in a triple diesel/twin pump jet boat was awesome.
Finally, a calm morning. I was on the docks at sunup shooting some footage before I finally got to do some flying with Sarah around 9am.
It was good. Worth the premium to be put through this training with the Great One in the distance.
A few days later, learning beaching with a different instructor named Lisle, who is really awesome and fun. We poached an abandoned poly drum for dock repair and she stuffed it in the rear sear of the Pacer. Then we rescued a marooned sailboat at the other end of the lake. The girl always had a mission, it was great.
Yours truly in action, on step!
At this point though the smoke from fires had completely overrun Talkeetna, and flying was shut down. I had flown 3.5 hours dual in a single day to knock out the training, and squeaked in a short checkride with Don as Talkeetna briefly reported 3 sm.
Zeroing in on a solid land reference prior to leveling out while practicing glassy water landings:
With certificate in hand, it was time to think about picking up the Super Cub in Palmer and getting out of town for Whitehorse. That's when the phone rang with the bad news. 2 cracked cylinders. Time for a new plan.
Phase 3: The Denali Road
I put in a call to Denalipilot, one of our 170-flying brethren here on BCP. He runs a lodge inside Denali National Park, and was able to temporarily "hire" me to bring him a BCP sticker. We packed up the Subie, bid Don and company farewell, and got back on the parks highway headed north.
Somewhere near Summit airport:
Temporarily working for DP's lodge came with certain privileges, one of which is a permit to drive the road, which is closed to private vehicles. We immediately got in trouble with some construction vehicles and bus drivers, who attempt to educate oncoming drivers who don't pull over to a stop and turn on their hazards by simply playing chicken then yelling at you when you decide to not completely drive into the ditch to avoid them. As a kid who grew up driving single lane logging roads on equally treacherous cliffs, this seemed a little sensitive but I also didn't want to get DP in trouble for our actions. After we learned the unwritten rules, our drive out was much more peaceful.
Denalipilot treated us to a great flight in his beautiful 170B, fully outfitted with 195hp IO-360 and MTV-15.
We visited some local hilltops, shot some video, and ate a few varieties of bear food that was in dense coverage on the ground– blueberries, lingonberries, crowberries.
I thought we were deep in there, but looking on the map, we were still just scratching surface. Alaska is HUGE. This was technically my first time north of the Alaska range (at Rohn we were kinda in it, maybe a little west.) 92 miles of gravel roads is actually pretty fun, especially in a rental car.
I discovered this amazing treasure at DP's place – a copy of Glacier Pilot signed by Bob Reeve himself.
With nothing better to do, we borrowed some of the lodge canoes and went for a paddle. This is one of my favorite pastimes with my daughters back home, but it was fun to actually enjoy a paddle in silence without screaming kids.
The views are amazing, even with Denali obscured.
I could have stayed for weeks mooching off DP and his hospitality, but they had actual paying guests and he had work to do, so we hit the road and pointed it back at civilization. And by civilization, I mean Eddie Trimmer.
Had to stop and say hi to the Pacer guru himself. Fun chat – he'll talk your ear off. Buy some of his STCs.
Thank you to user Skylarkin who put us up in his guest cabin at his airstrip property on our drive south, with zero notice. Great guy and a nice family. It was great to sleep in a cabin instead of a crappy campground off the highway.
Final night in AK, we treated ourselves to a hotel and meandered around Lake Hood one last time. Took Royce to the aviation museum before our flight, and had to capture these amazing poster designs from Wien Air Alaska. Not sure what year they ran these but the aesthetic is just beyond cool. I'm glad they're preserved in the museum.
All in all, a great trip with one of my oldest friends. It was the kind of trip that was just easy, relaxed, and mellow, though we missed our kids and talked a lot about how it would be even more fun in some ways with the additional burden of the family. Perhaps next year.
To those who I communicated with but didn't get to actually visit: Hope to see you next time!
