We woke up in Greybull, WY to a view that made me feel like I was in a western movie. Horses and donkeys sipping water from the pond, the green oasis we were on turned to desert and the terrain quickly rose a few thousand feet off in the distance. Peaceful, serene, pretty much a place you felt at home at, and never wanted to leave. Life here, like it is in Alaska, seems to move a little slower. No rush.  

After some wonderful conversation with Louise on the deck,  Doug and Mark just HAD to take out the mini-motercycles for a spin down the gravel road. I seriously think Mark was having kid flashbacks. I mean, look at his face!

We finished off our pre-flight briefing at the local cafe with a sizable breakfast, and said our goodbyes to Gene and Louise at the airport. Before leaving we ran the 100LL pump dry (yup, took the last 94 gallons in the tank) and I learned how much performance is lost in the airplane when taking off from a 4,000 msl runway. (That or the three of us ate WAY too much for breakfast)  

The sights out the window were back to the midwest norm, farm fields and roads. Our route did take us by Devil’s Tower, so of course we had to drop down and check it out! One more thing of beauty to add to the trip highlights. I can certainly tell you this trip never failed to impress me, anywhere.

We stopped for gas (one last time) said hello to another friend in Pierre, SD (properly pronounced – Pier, like the dock) and off we went, the last leg of our adventure. Obviously, we were in for one more surprise, a tailwind!! No, seriously, we had a tailwind. Most of this trip was done well under 180kt, and finally we were above that. Not that during any of this we wanted to be in a hurry, but it was quite fitting to have on one that very last leg back to Mason City.

Maybe it was because none of us wanted to get home yet. I mean sure, I wanted to get back to see my wife & friends, and I am guessing Doug and Mark did too, but after experiencing an adventure like that, you never truly want it to end. It’s as if you are caught up in something bigger than you ever expected and you simply can’t explain it.

Heck, even after being back for a day I have a hard time comprehending what we just did. Doug and Mark achieved their goals, one of them, making it to Barrow, AK. They did it while embracing old/new friends, exploring new parts of the world that few have ever seen, and experiencing an adventure that will be tough to top. I think we all were surprised and amazed by what we saw, and are hard pressed to explain the grander of it all.

As we take time and reminisce, I am sure more stories and feelings will come up, but for now, I think I will just let you look at some photos while we attempt to digest everything (food included). Maybe we can someday fully grasp what we did, but for now, I feel lucky to simply have been a part of it.

To everyone that has been reading this blog, we hope you enjoyed it, and I plan to add some more stories and photos in the future.

To Doug and Mark, thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for letting me share in your adventure.

~Adam

Sunday started out like any other day in life; you wake up early to the sound of birds, the light rustle of the trees in the wind, a Turbin Otter landing on the water, and a cruise ship pulling into the dock. Ok, ok, so that’s not a normal day for most people (not even us) but that’s how it went. I slept on a roll away bed and when I rolled over and opened my eyes, I saw this –

Yea, we thought it was pretty awesome.  (I missed the Otter in the shot though…) If you notice the blue sky – the same one that followed us throughout our journey – you will see something not normally seen in Ketchikan: a sunny day. Seriously, they average like 12 feet of rainfall per year and most days are cloudy. So, this trio successfully used up 2 sunny days out of their yearly allotment.

We also found out another very interesting fact…apparently there is a town ordinance that said there cannot be more bars than churches. So what did they do? Built a whole bunch of churches (there is almost one on every corner) So one could call this a small drinking village with a fishing problem.

We took the ferry back to the airport (it’s across the channel on an island) gassed up the Baron, and off we went. Left turn out – southbound. 10 min later, we were out of Alaska and over Canada.

Headwinds the whole way – go figure – we made it to Bellingham, WA over 3.5 hours of flight time after we left Ketchikan. Bottle of water anyone? Coming into Bellingham we were #4 for the runway, behind two mustangs and a skyraider. (Who wants to bet Doug knew one or all of them? Come on, I know you want to) Greeted with a “Hey Rozy” on the radio from one of the Mustang pilots, Mark and I had a decent chuckle.

A stop for food, gas, and handshake with an astronaut later (Bill Anders – (Apollo 8) owns the flight museum there) We were off over some more rocky mountains toward Greybull, WY for our final overnight stop. One of the most interesting comparisons of the mountains in Alaska vs the ones in the lower 48 is that most of our trip way up north was spent below 3,000ft. Most of our trip in the over 48 was spent above 9,000. Just more mature mountains and a nice contrast to what we had seen the whole trip so far.

Our night concluded in Greybull, WY at the home of Gene & Louise Powers (Gene is the former co-owner of Hawkins and Powers Aviation) where I met their amazing family and enjoyed some wonderful flying tales from Gene and then the real stories from Louise. What an honor! I can easily see why Doug and Mark are good friends with Gene & Louise, and I certainly appreciated the time I got to spend with them as well. Just a few more people to add to the growing list from this adventure, something that will not soon be forgotten.

~Adam

We met more people along the way (have I mentioned this adventure has been made by the people we meet?) One was an older gentleman in a Cessna 180 in Yakutat who had put over 5000 hours on his airplane hauling 1000’s of sled dogs for the Iditarod Sled Race. Another, was a guy who purchased a DC-3 and old military hanger for fishing operations, and yet another (the one that made the 3 of us chuckle the most) was a group of people in a Baron inbound for Yakutat (while we were outbound) that had been keeping track of our trip. WOW!

Landed in Ketchikan and we decided to spend the night here.

More to come!

~Adam

The day took us on a quick flight to Telkeetna, a town north of Anchorage for a late breakfast at the “Road House.” If you are ever there, order the “half-standard” for breakfast (if you are hungry man hungry, order the full-standard.) With a glacier run on our mind, we headed toward Mt. McKinley and Denali National Park for a HECK of a ride. Video to be posted soon…it was epic. Watching turbine Otters land uphill on a glacier is certainly a sight. Due to the large amount of traffic, there are even multiple Mountain Traffic Advisory Frequencies – MTAF for the different areas of Denali. The perfect VFR day allowed us to do some mountain flying (with normal weather patterns what we did is not often possible)

With another – “WOW” moment behind us, we headed back to Anchorage for a “simple” afternoon. After putting our dear Baron to bed for the day, we headed to Lake Hood, to see how what a real seaplane base looks like. The lake is long and has many small inlets for parking seaplanes (each float plane has its own “slot” and most have a storage shed as well). Most definitely the most active lake I have ever seen for seaplanes, I think Mark was in love. Lake Hood is located adjacent to the Anchorage international airport so there is plenty of air traffic in the area to keep any airplane watcher happy!

One of the best places (we were told by our fearless adventure leader – Doug) to watch these seaplanes on the lake is the Millennium Hotel restaurant deck. Our low beer lights were flickering, so we stopped in for an Alaskan amber. We sat down and started sipping beers on a perfect sunny day. Across from our table (between us and the lake) were three girls, enjoying some drinks, and the day as well. Two of the girls seemed familiar to me, so I leaned over to Doug and asked…”Doug, is that Ariel (Tweeto)??” His eyes got big, he looked at me, and smiled. Yes, I do believe it is… (We had a decent chuckle about the hilarity of it all)

So, here I am thinking to myself, what are the odds. Seriously, just a couple days ago we were flying over Unakleet, unable to land and say hello to Jim Tweeto… (Weather was 200ft ceilings and 3/4 mile visibility) And now here we sit, beer in hand, next to two of Jim’s daughters. We struck a nice conversation with Ariel and Ayla, snapped some photos, and they promised to meet up with us later.

How could the day get any better you ask? (Or maybe you don’t, but I am going to enlighten you anyway) We decided to get dinner at F Street Station. We had a guest join us – Rich Davidson, a pilot from Indiana and some wonderful pilot conversation ensued. After everything that had happened, that day, I would have been perfectly happy with hanging it up for the night.

While at our table we were enjoying some very nice conversation with our waitress when she inquisitively asked about Doug’s Texas Flying Legends shirt. He told her he was a pilot that flew warbirds and such (a statement we had heard many times before) but this time was different. She replied, interesting, my family has been involved in the warbird community. “Oh really?” said Doug. She told us her uncle used to fly a Mustang, and we quickly found out, her Uncle was Don Hinz. Doug was stunned. We had come all this way, seen all these places, and met all these people, only to find another amazing connection. He scratched his head in amazement, and had no words to explain what had just happened. (I will let Doug elaborate on his emotions later if he would like)

I simply couldn’t believe all that had happened, and the night was capped off by a visit from Ariel and her sister Ayla at the F Street. A day/night surely to be remembered forever!

~Adam

Wow, this is simply some amazing country up here!!!

Oh, and yes. We did meet some new friends. What are the odds??!! (With Doug, pretty high) Story to come soon.

Enjoy the photos!

A cold day on the water, the first spot we tried yielded not much at all. The second made every part of my body hurt. After pulling up 8 fish, I was D O N E done. The three of us limited out (2 per person) and should have some good eating soon.

After the charter we were ~25lbs heavier on fish (wives, it should be shipped home early next week. Please don’t eat it all before we get back)

A quick trip from Homer to Anchorage allowed us to check out some glaciers (there are apparently more/bigger ones on our next leg) and get some more scenery overload. When I say overload I mean…seriously, is there an ugly spot in this state??!

We made it to Anchorage in time for the Alaska Wing of the CAF meeting (Doug gave a little talk on the current goings on of the CAF and the current state of aviation) And had dinner at the nationally known pilot hang out – “F St Station” Best deep fried halibut EVER. Wow.

Since we are all beat from our day on the water (it really does drain ALL your energy) we are calling it an early night. But don’t you worry, there is plenty more to do here!

FYI, it is Midnight, and the sun JUST set. This place really messes with you!

~Adam

Take a listen to the song.

And enjoy the photos from Day 5! (Sorry they are a day late…)

Our adventure took us through Dillingham (a small fishing village) where we met up with an old friend from Iowa – Travis. Now, I have never met this guy (I have heard plenty about him), but after just a few short min with him I understood why Doug and Mark considered him a good friend and why we made this stop.

Travis took us on a tour of the cannery he is a manager of. We were blown away by the machinery and processing that goes into harvesting and packaging salmon. The whole plant is worked on and prepared for months, only to process salmon for about 3 weeks a year.

After the tour we said our goodbyes and took off toward Homer – home of Alice’s Champaign Palace. (and good fishing)

But I have gotten off track of my original topic. (Blame that on my wife – SQUIRREL!) Just a few days ago we were in Canada on our way here, and as we were coming through the pass, we heard a voice on the radio – normal take off call, nothing special and Doug snapped to attention. “Is this TR?” Sure enough, we had just found another of Doug’s many friends, flying his Cherokee about 5 miles ahead of us. Dinner and a few beers at our evening stop there allowed us to meet more new friends (two sisters with big dreams that run a little restaurant in Whitehorse, Canada)

Every person we meet and have a chance to talk to has a story. Whether it is why they live in Alaska, why they moved here, or even what their hopes and dreams are. The key is taking the time to find out. Sit down with someone, anyone, ask their name, and let them talk. It’s amazing what you might learn.

Throughout this journey (scratch that, adventure) we have met many people. You can chalk that up to Mark and Doug’s inquisitive personalities. Often times you find out amazing information about someone (like the man we met yesterday wearing a John Deere hat…Doug asked if he was a farmer, turns out he was born in Mason City) I have learned on this adventure that I need to slow down and enjoy the life I am living, and not let it rush by me at a million miles per hour (or knots if you pilots so desire) Those experiences that you have may just be that much more enjoyable with those new friends you found.

Till next time,

~Adam

Some teasers from the trip – lots more to come!

After finding a cab, (there are way more than you would expect for a village of 4,000) we made our way to the “Top of the World” hotel. A wander around the area gave us our first look at what life is like around here. Dirt roads – too cold for pavement, houses built on stilts -no foundations with the permafrost, and children playing outside after 9pm – they were outside playing until well after midnight.

We ate dinner at Pepe’s (the northernmost Mexican restaurant in the world) and decided to go on a larger expedition around the town via a taxi. Johnny (our cab driver originally from Michigan) made a pretty good tour guide by showing everything from the sewage treatment plant to the new (and very overbuilt) hospital.

Exploring the town via cab was our best way to experience the life these people live. There is a college for trade work, a brand new football field (well, for a few weeks a year you can play football), and even a roller rink.

The dirt roads are hard on vehicles, as one can expect, so you see many cars broken down and in disrepair next to and behind houses. The life here is hard on the people. Very hearty souls, sometimes you wonder how they make it through their -50 degree weeks or months without sunlight and not going completely crazy. (Which some do)

In the winter, there are about 2 months without sunlight. Yup, two months.

I mentioned the permafrost earlier. This is something I don’t think I truly understood the gravity of. A layer of the ground NEVER thaws. This affects everything in your house from its foundation to the routing of power, water, and sewer lines. There is a system of insulated pipes running in heated tunnels below the streets.

The town is a Inupiat Eskimo settlement, so whaling is a big part of the life for the villagers. The ice had not yet broken off, which is currently late for this time of year – this means no whales so far. When they do get one, it is a time of celebration and sharing as everyone gets a chance to take some meat.

I think it is an interesting study that to get to one of the most desolate places in the world, you have to travel through some of the most beautiful. It makes you stop and think, what else is out there I haven’t experienced?