Doreen indulges me.
That is probably no surprise to anyone reading this.
As we (she) were (was) planning this trip, I mentioned that I would like to get north of the Arctic Circle (66° 33' 45.9" North Latitude) for no other reason than I would like to get north of the Arctic Circle. (If we had some ham we could make a ham sandwich if only we had some bread)
So she found an outfit that will fly you into Coldfoot (good name) and then you drive up to Wiseman for a little Arctic Circle Tour.
The company contracted local fliers to get us up there, and they used little Piper Navajos:
They are dual engine planes, but everything felt just a little bit less secure than the K2/Rust operations.
For example, our headsets were only one way:
which meant that the pilot could talk to us, but we couldn't talk to him
He said that if we needed to tell him something, just "pass it up the plane"
Hmmm
There are a lot of private planes in Fairbanks. General Aviation, they call it:
We did fly over our VRBO house as we took off:
Here we are with our pilot. One of the things that really gave us comfort was the fact that all these Alaskan Bush Pilots had so much experience flying up there. In spite of the fact that this Navajo felt as if it was held together with spit and bailing wire, we believed our pilot, with his years of experience of flying in the Alaskan bush would take care of us.
Until, on our way back to Fairbanks, our pilot (below) mentioned that he is an ex-747 pilot who was forced to retire a couple of years ago, but wasn't done flying. So he moved to Alaska and learned to be a bush pilot. Two years ago. Yipes!
Then, on the way back, they forgot to engage a little slider lock (that looked as if it has been purchased at Home Depot) that kept the door closed.
I latched it.
This is what I think of when I think of an Alaskan Bush Plane:
The Alyeska Pipeline goes right through Cold Foot. Cold Foot is named that because back in the early 20th century, there was a gold find very close to here. about 1,000 miners had stampeded up from Fairbanks to Slate Creek (the town's original name) get their claims in. Winter set in, and they were all trapped in Slate Creek until spring. That spring, 900 of them returned to Fairbanks. They all got cold feet. True story.
This is an example of a typical miner/trapper cabin up in Wiseman (about a half hour drive from Cold Foot.
When we arrived in Wiseman, we were greeted by Jack Reakoff, a true subsistence liver. There are only 13 permanent residents in Wiseman, and he, his wife, and his three year old baby are three of them. He makes his living by trapping, maybe a little gold panning (but I don't think so) and giving very entertaining talks to tour groups like ours. He moved to Wiseman in 1971 (!) when he was 13 years old. (he is my age) and has been there ever since. Laconic and funny, he had a great talk about the animals, the weather, the Northern Lights, and his life in Wiseman. When Doreen asked him hwo he talked his wife into moved to Wiseman, he just sort of looked down, looked around, and with a shrug implied, "Who wouldn't, if you could be here with me?"
He takes his moose every year for meat, grows in a little garden, and generally makes a go of it all alone (with his family, of course). Read John McPhee's book Coming Into the Country for insight into this life.
There was a lot of old mining equipment on the ground.
That cannon looking thing is a hydraulic mining monitor (or sometimes called a giant) which strips the land of all overburden. A horribly destructive way to collect gold. Gold, which is a mostly useless metal for industrial purposes. Me and Keynes.
This is the Koyukuk River, that runs between Wiseman and Coldfoot.
A long way from Oshkosh.
Cold Foot is sort of depressing
But they do have a Post Office.
It was a very fun day.
That is probably no surprise to anyone reading this.
As we (she) were (was) planning this trip, I mentioned that I would like to get north of the Arctic Circle (66° 33' 45.9" North Latitude) for no other reason than I would like to get north of the Arctic Circle. (If we had some ham we could make a ham sandwich if only we had some bread)
So she found an outfit that will fly you into Coldfoot (good name) and then you drive up to Wiseman for a little Arctic Circle Tour.
The company contracted local fliers to get us up there, and they used little Piper Navajos:
They are dual engine planes, but everything felt just a little bit less secure than the K2/Rust operations.
For example, our headsets were only one way:
He said that if we needed to tell him something, just "pass it up the plane"
Hmmm
There are a lot of private planes in Fairbanks. General Aviation, they call it:
We did fly over our VRBO house as we took off:
There was a lot of smoke because of all the forest fires in Alaska. But you could still see the Yukon River through the haze:
Here we are with our pilot. One of the things that really gave us comfort was the fact that all these Alaskan Bush Pilots had so much experience flying up there. In spite of the fact that this Navajo felt as if it was held together with spit and bailing wire, we believed our pilot, with his years of experience of flying in the Alaskan bush would take care of us.
Until, on our way back to Fairbanks, our pilot (below) mentioned that he is an ex-747 pilot who was forced to retire a couple of years ago, but wasn't done flying. So he moved to Alaska and learned to be a bush pilot. Two years ago. Yipes!
Then, on the way back, they forgot to engage a little slider lock (that looked as if it has been purchased at Home Depot) that kept the door closed.
I latched it.
This is what I think of when I think of an Alaskan Bush Plane:
The Alyeska Pipeline goes right through Cold Foot. Cold Foot is named that because back in the early 20th century, there was a gold find very close to here. about 1,000 miners had stampeded up from Fairbanks to Slate Creek (the town's original name) get their claims in. Winter set in, and they were all trapped in Slate Creek until spring. That spring, 900 of them returned to Fairbanks. They all got cold feet. True story.
This is an example of a typical miner/trapper cabin up in Wiseman (about a half hour drive from Cold Foot.
Jack's wife painted this sign, which is, of course, an SP magnet.
There was a lot of old mining equipment on the ground.
That cannon looking thing is a hydraulic mining monitor (or sometimes called a giant) which strips the land of all overburden. A horribly destructive way to collect gold. Gold, which is a mostly useless metal for industrial purposes. Me and Keynes.
This is the Koyukuk River, that runs between Wiseman and Coldfoot.
A long way from Oshkosh.
Cold Foot is sort of depressing
But they do have a Post Office.
We got back to Fairbanks in one piece, and noticed a little airplane graveyard there.
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