Where have you been? What have you seen?
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By GolfHotel
#1628134
Aircraft some times better cows. Not seen one take on a bear as yet. I have seen a polar bear tear open a wooded shed and eat the chocolate bars. It shat glitter filled poo for a few days. :D :D :D (not that I'm obsessed with bears and photographing them or anything.)

BTW you can spot the moment the engine fails, robs neck grows by about 3 inches longer. :D :D :D

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By Katamarino
#1628168
I made my way out of the tent shortly after the 7am Alaska Seaplanes flight had departed. Mercifully I hadn't been eaten by a bear during the night. Packing up the tent took very little time and soon I was on my way south to Ketchikan.

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Heading towards Ketchikan:
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This far south, I was seeing a lot of logging activity for the first time since arriving in Alaska:
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Downwind for landing at Ketchikan:
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I parked up and wandered around a bit until I found the FBO. Airports in SouthEast Alaska are a lot less GA friendly than in the lower 48. I ordered fuel, and went to find the ferry across the straight to town. It runs every 30 minutes and I think was $6.

On the ferry to town:
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As with most other towns around here, cruise ships ran rampant:
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Ketchikan:
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Wolf. Yours for about $3,000 or something equally stupid:
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The seaplane ramp dock, from the ferry back to the airport:
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After Skagway and Juneau, Ketchikan had little of interest. My fuel hadn't been pumped by the time I got back, so I went with the line guy to pump it myself, and was soon on my way to Klawock to meet another PoA legend, @DavidWhite - I hadn't managed to make contact in advance but figured I'd try my luck. On arrival I went into the tiny terminal building; the lady at the desk was very suspicious but called Dave and let him know there was a weird foreign guy there to meet him from the internet. Before long he'd abandoned his ukulele practice and came to say hello!

He kindly lent me the gear to finally wash the Trench mud off the airplane and then arranged for me to stay in the pilot accommodation for the night. Luckily for me someone had vacated a room on very short notice the day before. We hopped in his frankly awesome truck and, after a stop for dinner supplies, ended up grilling on the deck of the pilot accommodation and having a few "jugs". Couldn't have asked to meet a cooler group of guys! Some stories must remain untold under the "What happens in Klawock stays in Klawock" rule, however.

Klawock grilling:
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By Katamarino
#1628345
The following morning David had to head off super early for work, so his colleague Todd drove me around to see a bit of the island and have breakfast in the local town. After that he showed me around a couple of the airlines aircraft (David had also given me a tour the day before) and helped me with flight planning for my next leg. This would be the flight up to Sitka, and then through Glacier Bay, probably the most spectacular of the trip so far.

An Island Air Express caravan:
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Saying bye to Todd:
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From Klawock I headed north along the outer shores of the island chain, to Sitka.
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Heading in towards Sitka the cloud lowered again, but not uncomfortably far:
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Landing at Sitka:
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I walked into town from SItka airport, which only took about 25 minutes and was fairly picturesque.
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After a lunch of "fry bread" from a charity stand I returned to the airport and set out for Glacier Bay!

Heading north out of Sitka:
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Blue skies in sight ahead!
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Plenty of "mountain obscuration":
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First view of the really tall stuff! Mount Fairweather tops out at 15,300ft.
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A lonely cruise ship headed for Anchorage:
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Glaciers here we come!!
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Next time...ridiculous quantities of glacier photos.
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By Katamarino
#1628605
Miscellaneous wrote:Fantastic photographs, which I'm sure don't come close to doing the scenery justice.

When was your trip?


You're right, the pictures barely come close. It was one of the most amazing sights I've seen.

It was 13th June to July 3rd of this year.

Today, I am catching the first of my flights to get back to Anchorage and fly the second half of the trip!
Rob L liked this
#1628613
Thanks. :thumleft:

Katamarino wrote:Today, I am catching the first of my flights to get back to Anchorage and fly the second half of the trip!


I'm rather envious. :) Enjoy, I look forward to reading your write ups. :thumleft: Was good of you to break off your trip to go to the Scottish National Airshow! :thumleft: :lol:
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By Adrian
#1628669
What a splendid adventure (with the possible exception of camping in bear country, which tends to cause insomnia and an aching hand from gripping bear spray tightly all night!). I'm looking forward to flying along vicariously for part 2 of your trip.
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By Rob L
#1628775
Great trip report, please keep more coming!

Katamarino wrote:...Airports in SouthEast Alaska are a lot less GA friendly than in the lower 48...

I'm surprised by that...I've never flown in Alaska, but I thought small GA was friendly throughout the whole of Alaska?

Rob
By QDMQDMQDM
#1628824
Amazing trip. I'd like to do something similar next year in my 185, which is based in Colorado.

You are now heading into very mean grizzly country, especially the inland grizzlies. Can I suggest you go into an outdoor store in Anchorage and buy an electric bear fence for your tent?

https://www.udap.com/mm5/category/bear-electric-fences
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By Katamarino
#1628829
Rob L wrote:I'm surprised by that...I've never flown in Alaska, but I thought small GA was friendly throughout the whole of Alaska?


I saw almost no other small GA in SouthEast Alaska. There was no real FBO network like in the lower 48, although the larger airports each had a small one tucked away somewhere that was decent. Everything was fully focused on commercial aviation though. No pilots hanging around, no friendly airport managers, none of the "community" that you get in the lower 48.
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By Katamarino
#1628831
I found myself wishing that I'd taken on fuel in Sitka, as I wanted to loiter around for much longer, but eventually I had to turn north and head inbound to Dry Bay, the overnight stop that Todd and I had identified that morning as being the best option. Dry Bay is a long, well maintained gravel strip inside a State Preserve. There is no road access and the area is used primarily for fishing, and the take-out of rafting parties who have come down the river from the mountains.

Hurrah, more opportunity to be eaten by a bear!
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After landing I parked up the airplane and set up the tent, then headed out to explore a little. On the map in the camping area, a ranger station had been marked, so I decided to head in that direction and see if there was anyone around to say hello to.

Set up for the night:
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I came across a collection of buildings and equipment, and wondered if this was the ranger station. I could hear voices inside, and before long the dogs inside the door noticed me and started making a racket. A man came out to see what was going on and seemed quite surprised to see a visitor. It turns out that he and several of his family had bought these buildings, which were in fact an old fish processing camp, and were out refurbishing them to get them back into good working order.

The fish processing plant.
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The "spare parts" pile by the fishing camp.
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They invited me in to join them for some dinner and we spent the evening swapping stories. It turns out that the father and his dog needed to head to nearby Yakutat the next day, and I was intending to go there anyway; I invited them to fly along with me. We made plans to bring the airplane round to the camp at 8 the next day, and head off; in return he was able to put me in touch with a mechanic at Yakutat and arrange for me to do the aircraft's oil change there the next day.

The view behind my camp site:
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The runway at Dry Bay:
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There were countless old vehicles scattered around:
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The family posing with the airplane before departure:
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Leaving Dry Bay:
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Fish camps near Yakutat:
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The hangar at Yakutat!
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The mechanic at Yakutat lent me a bucket, plastic pipe, and 1" socket wrench, and I changed the oil. I'd been hauling a crate of the stuff since Pennsylvania. Oil change and leak check complete, I headed northwest towards Anchorage.
Flyin'Dutch' liked this
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