Those who followed our inReach tracking devices know our route and can still review it here. (Just ignore the few flights or treks since then.) But there is much more to our trip than our track and the places we visited. It seems that to finish this blog about our trip there needs to be a summary of sorts. In contemplating a summary I don't think I can do much better than the one I wrote the week we arrived home. So I'll borrow heavily from that.
Aside from a few ball caps and t-shirts, we all brought back thousands of internal images and memories of what we saw and experienced. In collecting my thoughts and meditating on them a bit, it occurred to me that we flew the same number of miles as if we'd flown to Frankfurt Germany, then flew back to Boston MA! :) I knew it was far, but that puts a different perspective on the magnitude of the journey we dreamed of and completed August 14th, 2017.
As I sorted through the many photo and video images I collected during the journey I continued to blog the experience with some reflections and links to the best images for my pilot friends and any of you who expressed interest. :)
One summary of our epic journey might read like this. Our inReach tracking device sent it's first position from the ramp in front of our hangars in Fort Smith (35.33N 94.36W) July 23rd at 6:05 A.M.. The last position was sent from the same location upon our arrival August 14th at 4:41 P.M..
So our journey encompassed 23 days, 22 nights, 8205 miles, 83 hours in the air, and 646 gallons of fuel for each of our two aircraft and crews. That's one summary. :)
Another summary might go like this:
Great Weather
Great Fellowship
Great Flying
Great Adventure
Great New Friends
A spiritual experience, really, on many levels...
Great Worship
Great Peace
All this seems to cry out for a response...? But the only appropriate response seems to be...
Deep inner gratitude and silence...
...Worship and Thanksgiving to Him Who made all we've seen and extended the invitation to us to come experience it. :):):):)
“He lays the beams of His upper chambers in the waters; He makes the clouds His chariot; He walks upon the wings of the wind;” (Psalm 104:3)
“He who made the Pleiades and Orion And changes deep darkness into morning, Who also darkens day into night, Who calls for the waters of the sea And pours them out on the surface of the earth, The Lord is His name.” (Amos 5:8)
Thursday, October 26, 2017
Alaska Day 19-23
Day 19 we began our trek and our back-track down the ALCAN through the Yukon and British Columbia. Our route was Beaver Creek*, White Horse, Watson Lake*, Fort Nelson, Grand Prairie*, Red Deer, and Lethbridge, crossing into the USA at Great Falls*, Montana, where we cleared customs and spent the night. We spent the night at the places I have an asterisk, trying to spend nights in places we hadn't on our way north. :)
It was just as beautiful and rugged going south as north, with splendid weather and eye popping scenery. The trip across Canada took us three days and about 1700 miles, punctuated with good meals and stories from the trip, the nightly card games, and rest. Continuing adventure too! :) The Watson Lake and Grand Prairie stops were memorable for entirely different reasons. :)
It was good to arrive in the USA on August 12th, the 21st day of our journey, where one of our members proved you don't really have to have a passport in your possession to reenter the US. :) We had a BBQ dinner on the banks of the Missouri River near where Lewis & Clark would have passed in their boats, exploring the western U.S. just a little more than a two centuries earlier. Considering what we had seen and explored the last three weeks in that light certainly gave one pause for contemplation.
The next morning early we were on our way across the plains, and home via Miles City MT, Hot Springs SD (Near Mt. Rushmore), North Platte NE, where we spent the night in Kit Carson Country, Concordia KS, Beaumont KS, Benedict KS, and then Fort Smith AR. This U.S. part of our journey took two days and encompassed 1270 miles. We actually diverted into Concordia where we landed to fuel and wait for the weather to improve along our route home. We did the same at Beaumont KS, and had hoped to eat lunch at the famed Beaumont Hotel where you can taxi your plane from the local grass strip onto city streets and park by the restaurant. We in fact did so, but finding the restaurant closed that day, flew on into Doug's grass strip near Benedict KS, met his family, and were treated to a wonderful steak lunch in nearby Freedonia KS.
After lunch our flight of two Maules took to the skies again and made a 5 PM arrival in Fort Smith, in cool, still, fresh air just after storms had moved through the area and city. It all seemed very surreal, just as did the whole Alaska experience when we look back on it! :) We look with joy in our hearts, smiles on our lips, and deep, deep gratitude for what we were able to do and experience together. Amazing!
Words fail, and thanksgiving or thankful hearts seem small, but the only appropriate response, to what we just experienced, together. A tremendous "blessing of the Lord in the land of the living."
“For the Lord is good; His lovingkindness is everlasting And His faithfulness to all generations.” (Psalm 100:5)
Click here for more photos...
Click here for video with music...
It was just as beautiful and rugged going south as north, with splendid weather and eye popping scenery. The trip across Canada took us three days and about 1700 miles, punctuated with good meals and stories from the trip, the nightly card games, and rest. Continuing adventure too! :) The Watson Lake and Grand Prairie stops were memorable for entirely different reasons. :)
It was good to arrive in the USA on August 12th, the 21st day of our journey, where one of our members proved you don't really have to have a passport in your possession to reenter the US. :) We had a BBQ dinner on the banks of the Missouri River near where Lewis & Clark would have passed in their boats, exploring the western U.S. just a little more than a two centuries earlier. Considering what we had seen and explored the last three weeks in that light certainly gave one pause for contemplation.
The next morning early we were on our way across the plains, and home via Miles City MT, Hot Springs SD (Near Mt. Rushmore), North Platte NE, where we spent the night in Kit Carson Country, Concordia KS, Beaumont KS, Benedict KS, and then Fort Smith AR. This U.S. part of our journey took two days and encompassed 1270 miles. We actually diverted into Concordia where we landed to fuel and wait for the weather to improve along our route home. We did the same at Beaumont KS, and had hoped to eat lunch at the famed Beaumont Hotel where you can taxi your plane from the local grass strip onto city streets and park by the restaurant. We in fact did so, but finding the restaurant closed that day, flew on into Doug's grass strip near Benedict KS, met his family, and were treated to a wonderful steak lunch in nearby Freedonia KS.
After lunch our flight of two Maules took to the skies again and made a 5 PM arrival in Fort Smith, in cool, still, fresh air just after storms had moved through the area and city. It all seemed very surreal, just as did the whole Alaska experience when we look back on it! :) We look with joy in our hearts, smiles on our lips, and deep, deep gratitude for what we were able to do and experience together. Amazing!
Words fail, and thanksgiving or thankful hearts seem small, but the only appropriate response, to what we just experienced, together. A tremendous "blessing of the Lord in the land of the living."
“For the Lord is good; His lovingkindness is everlasting And His faithfulness to all generations.” (Psalm 100:5)
Click here for more photos...
Click here for video with music...
Friday, September 29, 2017
Alaska Day 18
It seemed in Fairbanks that it was time to go home? We were certainly not tired of Alaska! And we certainly hadn’t seen it all. But we knew we wouldn’t when we came. :) We just had a handful of destinations we had hoped to see if the weather and circumstances permitted. And amazingly we’d seen all of them, plus a few more, with excellent weather and at a peaceful pace. :) We had initially allowed a month for this journey of a life time. A week to get there, and week to get home, and two weeks in Alaska. But we’d had almost no adverse weather to slow us down, and now our internal clocks and hearts were turning toward home. :)
After looking over the many long rows of beautiful back country airplanes on big tires and floats, we walked out to ours and after the customary loading and preflighting, we were climbing out on a perfect day looking over the city and airport from the air, heading SE and home. We’d join the ALCAN at Delta Junction, it’s northern most point, and follow it back across the Yukon and British Columbia to it’s starting point at Dawson Creek, where it more or less dumps us out onto the plains of Alberta in western Canada.
Did I mention this day, August 9th, was my 42nd wedding anniversary? :) What a great wife I have to support me being gone on this day, to accomplish this dream adventure! I had tried to make it up to her with an anniversary present of seeing a Broadway play in NYC with our son while I was gone, flowers (several) delivered to her office on this day, and a scavenger hunt around our home every few days with poems, clues, and fun surprises. But still?! You men out there know, this is not a good thing! :)
With a sense of great accomplishment and joy in what we’d attempted, accomplished, and seen — and knowing we had the week-long, continuing adventure of flying home ahead of us, we decided today was the day. We’d fly toward home, exiting Alaska where we entered at Northway, and spending the night in Canada’s Yukon at Beaver Creek on the border.
Fairbanks continued to impress us, as the hotel van drove us to the general aviation side of the airport. It just had a good Alaskan feel to it that’s hard to explain. A nice place to live and fly out of, yet with lots a services and social opportunities being the second largest city in the state. And with outdoor recreational opportunities unlimited, year round. Not the least of these — back country flying. :)
After looking over the many long rows of beautiful back country airplanes on big tires and floats, we walked out to ours and after the customary loading and preflighting, we were climbing out on a perfect day looking over the city and airport from the air, heading SE and home. We’d join the ALCAN at Delta Junction, it’s northern most point, and follow it back across the Yukon and British Columbia to it’s starting point at Dawson Creek, where it more or less dumps us out onto the plains of Alberta in western Canada.
Did I mention this day, August 9th, was my 42nd wedding anniversary? :) What a great wife I have to support me being gone on this day, to accomplish this dream adventure! I had tried to make it up to her with an anniversary present of seeing a Broadway play in NYC with our son while I was gone, flowers (several) delivered to her office on this day, and a scavenger hunt around our home every few days with poems, clues, and fun surprises. But still?! You men out there know, this is not a good thing! :)
To my surprise, I found an anniversary card on my pillow at the hotel this morning? Along with a small stuffed teddy bear. :) Then a card in my airplane seat at the airport? Then one at lunch on the glare shield? None of our bunch would confess to complicity or any knowledge with blank stares and upraised palms and shrugged shoulders when I looked at them? But unless there lives an Alaskan anniversary fairy, one of more of them was being deceiving. :) What a great wife I have! :) The last card was delivered to my pillow at Beaver Creek, Yukon that night. :):)
We hadn’t seen any large, land Alaskan wildlife yet!? Surprising to us! So the decision was made to fly today lower than usual when we were over marshes, lakes, rivers, or anything that looked like good moose, caribou, or bear habitat. Doing so, we found several small groups of moose and photographed some of them. :) At last!
Of course we would fuel at Tok, an almost compulsory stop because we needed gas, and also because of Fast Eddy’s at mile marker 1313 right on the ALCAN and right across from the airport. :) We loved that place! :)
Back in the air we resumed our moose and bear patrols, until we noticed we were about to be late for our Canadian border crossing time specified on our flight plans. When it was mentioned by Shep over the radio, Dwayne who was leading this flight headed our two ship straight for the border and Beaver Creek. We landed and cleared customs by phone, as no one was there to meet us. Then the owner, operator of our quaint hotel showed up and drove us the short distance into town. There we had dinner at Buckshot Betty’s, and a good night’s sleep… east of Alaska, but north … in Canada. :)
Wednesday, September 20, 2017
Alaska Day 17
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The Walk Thru The Woods Was Early Morning Fresh |
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Good Early Morning Sunlight With Few Folks Stirring |
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The Stuff Legends Are Made Of :) |
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How Could I Not Take This Trail? |
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Robert Frost Would Be So Proud... :) |
The guys were packed up, as was I before I left, but just milling around. They were happy for me and my discovery, which heightened all or our anticipation of our morning flight. We asked if someone from the lodge could give us a ride to our airplanes. This was due to our bags, because it was close enough to walk otherwise. One of the servers at the restaurant was just getting off work and volunteered. So we were soon airborne in the usual, enjoyable, methodical fashion and flying north again toward Mt. Denali, and Denali National Park.
Not many US National Parks have their own grass strip to serve aviators, but this one does, in keeping with the uniqueness of Alaska, and it’s fondness for freedom and the utility of airplanes. We made a formation approach and close trail landing at the picturesque strip. We experienced more wind than we expected and were surprised that it shifted to a tail wind upon landing. Which made for a little excitement and a little more fun, as we both rolled toward the end to get stopped. :) We pushed our airplanes back away from the runway, tied them down, and walked across the Alaskan Railway tracks and right into the park entrance. :) Beautiful and amazing. Where can you do something like that in the lower forty-eight? :) To top it off, the train came by for our enjoyable viewing just as we were through securing our planes. :) And did I mention, the train up here between Talkeetna and Denali is a flag service. That is, if you need a ride, you make your way to somewhere along the tracks, and wave a flag at the approaching train. The conductor will see you, stop the train for you to board, and continue the route. What a state! What a country!! :)
This park, and this park headquarters is impressive. There are so many interruptive displays, mounted animals, historical exhibits, etc. that it will fill the most inquisitive persons appetite for knowledge. And, there is a nice restaurant too! Very nice, I will add. :) So lunch was had here after about an hour of looking around and the realization we couldn’t see it all. :)
We made the short walk back to our airplanes, and were off to Fairbanks, the most northern point of our Alaskan adventure and our home for the night. We flew by an air force base where Ken’s brother Keith was stationed for a year a few years back and took photos in his honor. The terrain and scenery was varied and different from any we’d experienced to this point as we were leaving the Alaskan Range and flying up the north slope toward the Arctic Circle. Still it was rugged and beautiful with lots of hills, streams, forrest, and lakes. But less forrest than before and more scrub brush and open land. And Fairbanks? There is a lot to say about Fairbanks, but this has gotten too long already, so I’ll cover that perhaps in tomorrow’s departure blog?
Shep found us a hotel. Doug found us a dinner place, but not just any place. It was a genuine Alaskan Salmon Bake, with fresh fish and fixin’s prepared right in front of us, served outdoors on picnic tables under a grove of aspen trees. Are you kidding me? :) Well it was as good as it sounds, and plentiful. :) We caught the same bus back to our hotel, and began the obligatory card games. This was followed by a good night's sleep, and the realization that the Alaskan part of our trip was almost over. Tomorrow we would fly SE, join the ALCAN, and cross into Canada at Beaver Creek, beginning the long, beautiful road home. But tonight we’re sleeping, and dreaming, north … in Alaska.
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