Alaska 2017 Summary

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)

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)




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Click here for video with music...