Back to Anchorage

Robert, Thursday, July 10

Today was the day to return to civilization. Our flight by floatplane was scheduled for 1:00 p.m. but our luggage had to be back at the lodge by 9:00. The reason is that they start flying passengers in around 8:30 and no one wants to leave that early. Therefore, on the early return flights, they just haul luggage. By 1:00 they start hauling people and with no luggage they can put more people on the planes. I hung out at the lodge while Leslie went off to take some more pictures. We brought enough memory cards to hold about 1,600 pictures and she still had over 100 remaining! As we had to pack every thing up for the early flight to King Salmon, we decided to eat in the lodge. While we were eating there was a loud commotion outside. It was a ranger yelling at everyone to get inside. A sow with three small cubs walked by within 10 feet of window in the lodge where we were eating. Unfortunately, Leslie rushed to get the camera at the other end of the lodge and missed a great shot out the window. There were the first of this year’s cubs we saw. All of the previous cubs were 18 months old while these were much smaller and only six months old. We got back to King Salmon and our flight to Anchorage was on time. This was important to us as the flight was due in Anchorage at 5:00 p.m. and the clinic where Molly and Cody were being boarded closed at 6:00. We wanted to get to pick them up rather than making them spend another night there. The luggage quickly arrived, I got the truck from the parking lot, picked up Leslie and the baggage, and we headed for the clinic. We made it with time to spare. We made it to the trailer and I headed for the hot showers. After that it was dinner and bed.