Robert, Saturday, August 23
It rained like the devil last night. In the trailer, the roof is right over your head so you hear the pitter-patter of rain drops. I thought this means another rainy, gloomy day. And I thought we would have to reschedule our flight seeing. When we got up, it was cloudy but soon the overcast started breaking up. Sunshine! Maybe not all is lost after all. We ate lunch and headed into town to see the open air market. That was a bust. Six booths were selling homemade jewelry. We had seen it all in about two minutes. We walked down to the river to see if we could see Mt. McKinley from there. The river is one of the places in town that you can get a view of the mountain. The reason is that you look across the river and so the trees don’t block the view. We could see part of the mountain but the top was blocked by clouds. Having checked out the shops downtown, we walked back to the campsite. Leslie has one shop picked out where she wants to back to for the hand-knitted sweaters that are on an end-of-season sale. That will be on tomorrow’s agenda. The trees are starting to turn so I guess the fall is almost here, at least in Alaska. We walked to the airport for the flight seeing. To the southeast there were dark clouds that were approaching. When we checked-in, we were told that there was a good chance that the top of the mountain would be visible so we set off with our pilot to go see. As there was just Leslie and I as passengers, we were in a Cessna 185. They also have two larger aircraft when they have more passengers. The 185 has six seats but the back two are for midgets and the middle two aren’t much bigger. I sat in the right front seat and Leslie had the middle seat all to herself. As we climbed from the airport, we went through rain but on the other side it was looking pretty good. Our pilot knew a lot about the area and pointed out sights on the way. We all had headsets with microphones so it was easy to talk. As we got closer, the mountain came into view. The sun was shining and we could see the entire mountain. The top of the mountain is more than 20,000 feet and the base is 2,000 feet. The highest we got was 11,000 feet so we were looking at the side of the mountain. We flew between several of the nearby peaks and the mountain and it was very scenic. As it was late in the afternoon, the sunshine coming almost horizontally made it more so. Our pilot told us he had climbed McKinley three times and also some of the surrounding peaks. We had signed up for an around-the-mountain flight but the north side was solid clouds so we made several U-turns and passed up the north side. All of the pilots who flying around the mountain announce where they are located every 3-5 minutes. This is in lieu of having air traffic control. They also tell each other about weather conditions. One told our pilot that to go around the north side of the mountain we would have to go above 14,000 feet. In a small plane without oxygen that is not a great idea. Also, losing sight of the ground in a small plane not advised. Soon we were on the way back to the airport. Our landing was one of the smoothest I have ever experienced. Some commercial pilots slam it on the ground but this was smooth as silk. The flight lasted an hour and a half. After that we walked into town and ate in the restaurant where we had drinks yesterday. When we came out of the restaurant, it was sprinkling, As we walked the half mile back to the campsite it kept coming down harder and harder. By the time we got here, we were soaked. Turned up the heat and changed clothes and soon we were warmed up. I crashed soon afterward.
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Flightseeing to Mt McKinley
Leslie Saturday, August 23, 2008
We began the day with another walk to town to check out the outdoor market. I’ve come to think that every little town in Alaska holds an outdoor market several days a week. While I would expect some produce, what we’ve usually found is homemade jewelry and baskets, some jams, a few pictures or paintings. Other than some vegetables in Palmer, we’ve rarely seen anything we were interested in buying. I guess what I’m most surprised about is how small these markets are: usually only a few booths. Perhaps that actually makes sense when you consider the size of these towns.
We walked through town again. This time I checked out a few of gift shops. I did see some wool sweaters that caught my attention. Perhaps I’ll make it back there tomorrow to seriously consider one.
Late yesterday we made plans to take a flight seeing trip around Mt McKinley. McKinley is highest peak in North America. Robert has always wanted to see the mountain but that’s a difficult challenge. Due to the height (over 20,000 ft.) and the weather patterns, the mountain is most often obscured by clouds. When we had talked with one of the flight seeing operators yesterday, he told us that here in town we’re 60 miles from the mountain and that the weather here is little indication of whether the mountain will be visible from the air. Flight seeing trips are quite pricey so we only wanted to go if we would actually see the mountain. The deal with the air transport companies is that you can cancel without penalty if the reports are that the mountain isn’t visible. When we walked to the plane we were told that returning pilots reported that there was a good chance we’d see the mountain, so we decided to take the chance.
This is the small, single engine plane we rode.
The single engine plane could carry the pilot plus 5 passenger but we were the only passengers. I graciously suggested that Robert take the front seat. :-) This turned out to be useful for photography because I could slide from side to side in the second row whereas his view was sometimes obscured by the plane parts. (I was also extremely glad to not be in the front seat when we flew through a rain storm on the way to the mountain.) The young pilot was very knowledgeable. He told us that he’s been flying for 6 years, mostly in Montana.
We crossed vast amounts of tundra.
The small airplane in the picture is flying at 2,200 feet. We were at 4,200 feet. As Robert noted in his blog, the pilots announce their present location over the radio every few minutes.
After the rain storm we were lucky to see McKinley come in to view.
We flew around one side of the mountain but due to heavy cloud cover we couldn’t fly all the way around the mountain. The pilot explained that although he is certified for instrument flying, it isn’t very safe in such a small plane – mostly it would give you a few seconds warning before you smash into a mountain. No thanks!
We flew over many glaciers and could gain from the air a better understanding of how the glaciers move. In the next few pictures you see several glaciers joining together. The dark line in the middle is a central moraine. The moraine is created by the glaciers grinding rocks over the centuries. As the glaciers come together the edges comprised of ground rocks form a line between the two glaciers.
One last look at Mt McKinley as we started back.
As we flew over the tundra, you can see the colors starting to change.
Here we are having survived the flight.
Afterward we walked back in to town for dinner at the West Rim Café. Because the weather was threatening to rain, we decided to each indoors. The food was surprisingly good and the prices the most reasonable we’ve seen in Alaska. As we left the café, it started to rain. I had Robert put the camera in my backpack. By the time we were half way back, it was pouring. At least I had a fleece jacket. We walked as quickly as possible, but got soaked nonetheless. I had on nylon pants which were soaked through. The temperature was in the low 50s. It is easy to understand how hyperthermia can occur when someone gets wet at moderate temperatures. We got inside and quickly changed into warm, dry clothes.
We began the day with another walk to town to check out the outdoor market. I’ve come to think that every little town in Alaska holds an outdoor market several days a week. While I would expect some produce, what we’ve usually found is homemade jewelry and baskets, some jams, a few pictures or paintings. Other than some vegetables in Palmer, we’ve rarely seen anything we were interested in buying. I guess what I’m most surprised about is how small these markets are: usually only a few booths. Perhaps that actually makes sense when you consider the size of these towns.
We walked through town again. This time I checked out a few of gift shops. I did see some wool sweaters that caught my attention. Perhaps I’ll make it back there tomorrow to seriously consider one.
Late yesterday we made plans to take a flight seeing trip around Mt McKinley. McKinley is highest peak in North America. Robert has always wanted to see the mountain but that’s a difficult challenge. Due to the height (over 20,000 ft.) and the weather patterns, the mountain is most often obscured by clouds. When we had talked with one of the flight seeing operators yesterday, he told us that here in town we’re 60 miles from the mountain and that the weather here is little indication of whether the mountain will be visible from the air. Flight seeing trips are quite pricey so we only wanted to go if we would actually see the mountain. The deal with the air transport companies is that you can cancel without penalty if the reports are that the mountain isn’t visible. When we walked to the plane we were told that returning pilots reported that there was a good chance we’d see the mountain, so we decided to take the chance.
This is the small, single engine plane we rode.
The single engine plane could carry the pilot plus 5 passenger but we were the only passengers. I graciously suggested that Robert take the front seat. :-) This turned out to be useful for photography because I could slide from side to side in the second row whereas his view was sometimes obscured by the plane parts. (I was also extremely glad to not be in the front seat when we flew through a rain storm on the way to the mountain.) The young pilot was very knowledgeable. He told us that he’s been flying for 6 years, mostly in Montana.
We crossed vast amounts of tundra.
The small airplane in the picture is flying at 2,200 feet. We were at 4,200 feet. As Robert noted in his blog, the pilots announce their present location over the radio every few minutes.
After the rain storm we were lucky to see McKinley come in to view.
We flew around one side of the mountain but due to heavy cloud cover we couldn’t fly all the way around the mountain. The pilot explained that although he is certified for instrument flying, it isn’t very safe in such a small plane – mostly it would give you a few seconds warning before you smash into a mountain. No thanks!
We flew over many glaciers and could gain from the air a better understanding of how the glaciers move. In the next few pictures you see several glaciers joining together. The dark line in the middle is a central moraine. The moraine is created by the glaciers grinding rocks over the centuries. As the glaciers come together the edges comprised of ground rocks form a line between the two glaciers.
One last look at Mt McKinley as we started back.
As we flew over the tundra, you can see the colors starting to change.
Here we are having survived the flight.
Afterward we walked back in to town for dinner at the West Rim Café. Because the weather was threatening to rain, we decided to each indoors. The food was surprisingly good and the prices the most reasonable we’ve seen in Alaska. As we left the café, it started to rain. I had Robert put the camera in my backpack. By the time we were half way back, it was pouring. At least I had a fleece jacket. We walked as quickly as possible, but got soaked nonetheless. I had on nylon pants which were soaked through. The temperature was in the low 50s. It is easy to understand how hyperthermia can occur when someone gets wet at moderate temperatures. We got inside and quickly changed into warm, dry clothes.
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