Interesting Places

One of the joys of exploring new places in a small airplane is visiting some fascinating parts of the world. I'm often drawn to wilderness in Alaska, Idaho, Northern Canada and even West Texas. This is my way of sharing some of these with you.

We landed 3 airplanes on top of a remote mountain in the Copper River area of Alaska.

This photo gives you a sense of the rugged nature of the mountains around McCarthy, Alaska. Rock and ice, cirques and avalanche chutes abound. These seem young mountains to me, still with chiseled edges.

After a long day travelling, it was wonderful to set up the tent, grab my camp chair and simply relax for awhile before starting dinner.

Lou Furlong took this photo of me flying at about 50 feet AGL along the beach of the Gulf of Alaska. We flew for many miles at this altitude knowing we could safely land on the sand if necessary. This photo ended up in the Supercub.org calendar a few years ago.

Many of the legs we flew were beyond the range of the onboard fuel tanks so I carried two or three bags of gas. It was easy to find a place to stop and refuel although five gallons of fuel is a bit of a challenge to wrestle to the top of the wing.

We flew from Mackenzie, B.C. to Watson Lake through "The Trench", a famous shortcut that saves some 150 miles off the more common Alaska Highway route. We ran into rain showers and low ceilings which necessitated a stop at an outfitter camp at Scoop Lake. Dawson and I walked down to the lake to check out this floatplane.

Here's another shot of my Super Cub parked on top of Wolverine. The slope was so steep that I had to place rocks behind the tires to keep the airplane for rolling. We walked over to the edge of the cliff and spotted the river, some 4000 feet straight down.

Before leaving for Alaska on Father's Day, 2013, we spent a week exploring the Idaho backcountry. This also gave our team of adventure pilots an opportunity to get to know one another and to hone our skills for the journey ahead.

We had just departed Skagway down the Lynn Canal and Mike captured this image of me flying over one of the many icebergs. It illustrates the beauty and danger of this special place.

After a couple of hours waiting for the weather to improve, it was time to get going toward Watson Lake. You can see some of the load I carried in the cabin. In addition, I had a belly pod full of gear making the airplane really heavy.