June 15th Marathon: No, we are not in Marathon in the Florida Keys. We flew a marathon today - 12:34 in flight! Boy do we feel it.

We got an early jump to the day - fortunately for us. Wheels up at 0700 local time from Westminster, Carroll County heading generally westward and slightly northward. The first to greet us this morning was the fog, all nestled in the low lying areas just to the west of Westminster. We were not so concerned about the fog as we were the strong storms that were forecast across our path. We originally wanted to head over Lake Michigan but the line was very solid through the Great Lakes making us opt for a more southerly route to our destination for today. We stayed fairly low to stay out of the wind but high enough to stay out of the fog. The haze was incredible and almost played tricks with your eyes trying to see the distant images. But we pressed on.

The first fuel stop was Rochelle, IL. We had been hard at it for over 4 hours and were ready to stretch our legs. The wind was now picking up a bit and our tidy little 140 kts of ground speed had been slowly disappearing throughout the trip but not too badly at this point. We made a quick stop in Rochelle and pressed on. Again we tried to stay low. We were passing the front so the fog and the hazy gave way to green fields and blue skies ... and headwinds. Oh, the headwinds. We were not safe from them at any point. They managed to remain fairly steady at between 35-40 kts, topping out at 42 kts at one point. We had planned another 4 hour leg but we were not feeling too happy with the delay in the leg. By this time, the scenery was getting way too familiar, the drone of the engine was melodic but enough to lull you to sleep in combination with the heat. I took a brief nap while Vern flew. I was awakened by Vern's laghter as he saw the corn and wheat fields "flowing" like rivers. The winds across the ground were strong enough to put the crops near horizontal. I wonder what the wind sock looks like.

We decided to make a precautionary stop in  1D1. Again, we needed to stretch our legs and get a different view than the bug flled windshield and the Midwest farm lands. The winds were quite brisk and presented a cross wind on the asphalt runway. We did not want to land on the turf not knowing its condition as we will be making many less than great runway landings at the Mystery Destination. We came in pretty well crabbed but had plenty of rudder left to make a smooth transition and touchdown - but it was a fight to the ground.

The next leg was to be a "short leg". The winds were now picking up a bit more and we longed for the times of only a 20 kt headwind. we decided to go full racing power ( note that I did not say "speed" ) in  order to try to power our way through the winds. We settled in at 120 kts ground speed under full power - it felt as if we were making the cross country attempt in a 172 instead of a 182RG.  We stopped as planned at Y19. The fellow at the mechanic shop mentioned to Vern that he hoped we were not heading west as the last guys who came through told of wicked head winds. Yeah, right, tell me about it. I wanted to stretch again and use the facilities. No one was in the building so I had to guess the mystery code to get inside. I was brain dead and ended up laughing so hard that it nearly caused me to use the "exterior facilities". I had to call Vern to come fix it and get the door opened - note to self: keep the mechanic handy.

The last leg of the trip found more of the same scenery althought the number of farms became fewer and farther between as we pressed on. To the north of course, we found what looked like the ND/MT version of the SD "bad lands" so we sashed over to get some photos and fly through the rather craggy landscape. Finally we hit our last navigation point (S71) where we ended up following the railroad, the creek bed and a series of raods through some small towns on the way to Cut Bank, MT.

Cut Bank was a welcome sight but required another one of those little practiced cross wind landings. Three fighters in one day - almost like March in LaBelle again. We unpacked Wild Mama, got the courtesy car and headed off to bed. After just over 12.5 actual flight hours, we were beat, wanted some real food an a comfortable bed.

No Toys: Departing cut bank this morning was a piece of cake. Eapis filed, canpasss notified and flight plan filed. Weather is typical montanna big blue skies and uncharacteristically light winds. We departed VFR saying goodbyes to our new friend, Leon. As we started our climb out the hsi failed. Not a deal breaker but a pain in the head. We made the 30 minute trip to Lethbridge, called Lethbridge radio and plunked down on the runway without incident. CanPass customs was a phone call and done. I liked that one.

We called Tomlinson's to see about quick diagnostics on the hsi but it is not working as the gyro went bad. We will press on and try to get a fix later while we are in another location. In the mean time is it beautiful and clear and we get to pretend that we are back in a normal airplane again. Time to enjoy the scenery. ButThe scenery was not long to be enjoyed.

We started with a nice little tail wind but shades of yesterday crept back into the flight plan. Our tail wind was short-lived as were the expansive blue skies. A low layer of clouds soon crossed our path and we dipped low enough to go under until the cloud bank opened up to 8'000 feet. As we pass west of Edmonton, we hear a radio broadcast of a sigmet with tornado and hail activity. Lovely. But we are now in the clear on the way to Whitecourt. Gasing up at Whitecourt was a bit different as well. Gas was $1.63 CAD per litre and they do not take Discover Card. We made a brief stop to file the next VFR flight plan, check weather and be on our way. This goes back to the old plotting and planning now. No direct to, no multiplicity of landmarks to choose from when working on the flight plan. It is pretty much follow the road or follow the river. Both take you to the same place so it really does not matter except for the scenery below.

We made our departure calls and headed NW deciding to meander between the highway and the river as they cris crossed along the way. One cannot comprehend the vastness of the Canadian wilderness area until you fly over at 4500' and see nothing but timberland as far as the eye can see in all directions with the distant horizon S W being the Canadian Rockies. Our original thought was a stay in banff this evening but with 30-50 kt winds forecast through the mountains we thought better of it. We will watch the weather for wind tomorrow as we will have a required mountain day and will not be able to go through the mountains with ripping winds.

Off of the mountains, we find ourselves with only a 20-30 kt headwind. Thinking back to yesterday, we are ok with that. Our path took us over Grand Prarie, then Dawson Creek, NW to FortSst John then the last leg to Fort Nelson which was our intended overnight. As we rounded the bend to Fort t John FSJ radio advised that seveal planes had turned back for weather and that we might want to call flight services for a weather report. Vern hopped on the frequency and got a report of reduced ceilings, rain but otherwise VFR. We decided to go on. 

Canada has 126.7 as the enroute frequency where folks make pireps as they fly along. We monitored the frequency and heard airplanes ahead heading to Ft Nelson and ony 59 miles out passing Mt Bigfoot. They dropped down to 4,000' but were otherwise going forward. We called FSJ radio and told them we would go on. If they saw us again, they would know the weather got too bad to pass. When we were only 60 miles out of Fort St John, the visibility dropped significantly and we headed for lower terrain to get below the clouds with a comfortable margin of airspace beneath us. We continued on zigging and zagging looking for lower until we reached the Mt Bigfoot area and found the higher ceilings and lower valley below. We were only about 40 miles from Fort Nelson and knew we made it.  Fort Nelson was very crowded with many planes coming for for Century Club annual flight across Canada. They are all here tonight and will finish the trek in Whitehorse tomorrow night and remain there for a few days.

We came in high over a ridge and did a dive bomb for the runway. We pulled off all power, put the carburetor heat and pitot heat on as the rain had started again, threw out the gear and full flaps and snuck in ahead of the masses to come. We lost another hour so we are here early enough to relax and plan for tomorrow. We were awakened by our body clocks at 0300 this morning. We are hoping that this will not be a trend.

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Flyin' Down the Highway:   The day was beautiful as we were awakened by our body clocks at 2 am; but we managed to go back to sleep until 5 am. We had asked about catching a ride over to the airport early. We wanted to get ahead of the mass of Century Flight airplanes but also ahead of the weather that was forecast for the route for the late afternoon. We caught a cab early at 7 am and got off an hour earlier than we had planned. The eapis was set for arrival at the border at 1330 local time so we might be a bit early for that. This leg was from Fort Nelson to Whitehorse. Two of the century flight planes lifted off just before us but we knew we would outrun them shortly enough. 

This was the first of the legs to go through the mountains. We started with a more "direct to" route then switched over to the highway about half way to Watson Lake as the granite clouds got higher and the white puffy variety got lower. In no time we passed the other 2 planes then led the pack to Watson Lake. As we approached Watson Lake we heard another plane coming in. Apparently one of the Century Flight planes got a real early start; but he stopped for fuel leaving us and a Comanche, HPF all alone on the next leg. HPF was still 25 miles behind us. The trip through the valleys was the best scenery that we had seen thus far. Even the 30 - 40 kt headwind did not bother us this time other than requiring an update of the flight plan for the 45 minute late arrival. The mountains were dotted with the last remaining snow in the area. The valleys below were lush and green. The highway was intertwined with the river throughout this portion of the trip like a tangle of ribbons adorning a secret package on Christmas morning.

We passed a mountain at 5166'. Never saw it as Mother Nature took a cloud bowl and placed it upside down on top of the peak. It was very deceptive to think that the cloud, so soft and fluffy looking, was hiding such a deadly surprise. We were solidly on the highway now. The direct to route was not any longer a viable option. We crossed over Pine Lake and Teslin then approached a very narrow saddle just 20 miles from Whitehorse and the Comanche was hot on our tail. We chatted back and forth for a bit before we both needed to switch to tower and come in to land. He remained behind us as a gentlemen welcoming strangers to his country.  This is our final stop before crossing the border. We visited the live people at the Canadian Flight Service Center. They were helpful, friendly, organized and full of useful information. .... From a government agency??????? We filed our customs, checked weather and made our way back to the airplane. This leg will be very lonely: no Century Flyers, no friends, no other airplanes, rarely place to stop along the way. 

 For this last leg into Northway, we had to follow the highway. The clouds were far too low and the terrain far too high to try to go over. There was no benefit to trying to go direct either. As sparse as the conditions are in this neck of the woods, the road is the best place to try to land. Occasionally there is an old abandoned airstrip nestled up against the side of the highway; and this route did present us with a few airports to overfly in case of weather or other unforeseen problems. But we were truly on our own. We talked about what it must have been like to be the first of the surveyors heading out to map this great territory. Wilderness and ruggedness surrounds you. The vastness of the mountain ranges and the daunting task of trying to scale those giants must have, at times, seemed quite overwhelming. But here we are today: GPS, terrain mapping, everything you could need to make a safe trip. All you have to do is fly the plane.

Now we were getting into the higher hills and following the road was no longer an option. It was the only way through. Flight services had cautioned us about the 15 kt forecast headwind. We laughed and thought that would be a blessing. We came though running 140-150 kits the whole way. So much for that headwind! This was a point, however, the we really did not care. We came to see the mountains and they were laid out all around us. There were high peaks with glaciers hanging high, their silty runoff forming a glacial river below us. There were other peaks not as high but very barren devoid of trees, of snow, of any discernible life. We meandered down the highway past Haines Junction, Silver City, across Klaune Lake,  Burwash then Beaver Creek where we crossed the border into Alaska. Our destination at last! We cleared customs in Nothway in less time than it has taken me to blog today. The customs agent was courteous and had us do virtually no paperwork. Pffff. That was easy. We stopped in and spoke with another live person at the Northway Flight Services station. He gave us some good weather information for heading into Fairbanks and sent us on our way. There are not serivces in Northway so we stopped in Tok for fuel before making the final 1.5 hour trek up to Fairbanks.

This was another nice part of the trip but not nearly as spectacular as the leg from Whitehorse to Northway. The landscape had flattened out around us and the grand muntains were off in the distance, leaving only the Alaska foothills towering over our little plane. We meandered along still at 4500' and well above the ground below.

As we approached the Fairbanks area, we decided to call in to the TRSA. We heard reports of a storm over Murphy's Dome moving to the northeast. We needed to locate that peak as the storms were moderate to severe. We located the point to the west souhwest of Fairbanks and figured that we would get little more than the light rain that we saw coming in.

We were clered for a left downwind to 20L but as we approached they gave us right base to 2 right. Strange. We looked off to the approach end of 20 and saw a monster of a rain shower. We saw a flash here and there and figured we had better get to the rnway ASAP. As we land and taxi to the ramp we hear the ping, ping, ping of hail hitting Wild Mama and the rains pounding in large drops on the airplane and the pavement. We just sat and waited, hoping the hail would get no larger.

Soon enough it cleared enough for Vern to make the break for the car so we could unload the plane and head to the hotel for the night.

One of our new found Century Flight friends suggested Circle Hot Springs as a possible overnight spot. We checked wth the flight service fellow in Northway and he suggested not but offered the alternative of Chena Hot Springs Resort. We called and they had a room available for the weekend. We will relax here after the 30 hour trip to Fairbanks and get an early start Monday to get the gyro repaired or replaced so we wll have it for the REAL mountains.

We stoppede at Pike's Landing Restaurant for some salmon and halibut. Mario would have been pleased as he always ate the halibut once he dscovered how suculent that fish was compared to the salmon. He never ate anything else when we came to Alaska back in 1995. We started our drive off to Chenna Hot Springs alsong the Chena Hot Springs Road. The Guidepost Book was a huge help pointing out the sights as we crossed each mile post. As we passed post 28, I read aloud: "Watch for moose in the Slough Lake". "Yep," Vern commented as we sped past "... there i one drinking fro the lake." STOP!!!! How can you drive by a moose and say nothing. Go back, go back. It was pouring rain by now but who cares. This is a moose. Our first moose and I wanted a picture.

We spotted several others along the way. What a nice drive. We finally came to the end of the road and the lodge. It is a rustic family place with an adult only hot spring rock lake. This is my kind of place. Without further ado, we were there. Basking in the 100 pus degree water while the outside temperature remained a cool 55 degrees. We found heaven.

Lights are on: It was really strange not having it get dark at all. We tried to see if there was any period of dark and the front desk said this was about it. To us, it looked like 5 o’clock in the afternoon all evening with a sunrise, if you could call it that, once the clouds cleared . . . so much for the Northern Lights.

This was a day of exploration around the Chena Resort area. We started with a 30 minute horseback ride, figuring that would about be the limit for butt fatigue. We were right. The trail was very serene and scenic. Laura was an outstanding guide giving us a good narration of the wildlife, vegetation and the area. We meandered around a small pond with a beaver dam, listened to the sounds of nature and saw some wild, exotic and HUGE mushrooms sprouting about the fields intertwined with the wildflowers. The horses, Buckshot, Rio and Yukon, were very well behaved and needed little prodding and correction.

Our butts signaled that the 30 minute ride was about to end as we crossed the runway and headed back to the lodge where we stopped for lunch. This lodge is completely self sufficient using geothermal technology and hydroponics for electricity, power and basic food needs. All of the greens, tomatoes and herbs are grown in the greenhouse … and does it ever make a difference in the salad. I had a spinach salad with the crispest green leaves of spinach ever seen. Vern ate a tomato and mozzarella salad and a pear and apple salad – both extremely good. I have always said that you cannot ruin a salad. Well, I was wrong. It seems that all other salads that I have ever eaten have been ruined and today I finally got a good one. I am not sure what I will do from now on.

The afternoon found us touring around the ice museum – a one of a kind experience. There is a couple who are multi-time world champion ice carvers. They put on a small display then granted us a tour of the facility where we saw the ice overnight rooms, ice bar where you can get an “appletini” in an ice glass (just don’t spill your drink or it will literally melt the bar!) and the various sculptures including the gladiators, naked woman, Coca-cola bear and spiral stair case. The tour was 30 minutes and, at 20º inside the tour, that was plenty long enough. My fingers and I were frozen even with gloves, 2 shirts, a sweat shirt, jacket and parka.

One of the highlights for Vern came this afternoon with the geothermal tour. We saw the industrial chiller units working backwards to turn a generator that supplied all of the power to the complex of hotel rooms and 65 residential units for the employees. Quite impressive. They turned their energy costs from $0.30/ kilowatt hour to $0.06/ kilowatt hour. Again, quite impressive; but it also allowed the facility to turn a profit for the first time in many, many years.

Historically, the hot spring is over 100 years old and was discovered by 2 aching miners. They formed a community around the spring; that community eventually becoming a resort that was never really profitable as long as fuel had to be trucked in for energy. Once the were able to tap into the geothermal power that sits on the site for free, the free enterprise system took over and a profitable business was born.

The remainder of the day was spent in the hot springs again and relaxing for tomorrow. We also had another good salad. We will check out early to make our way back to Fairbanks to attend to Wild Mama and her broken gyro. We have discussed the “plans” for flight seeing and have determined that a properly working gyro is most desirable in high terrain and questionable weather. Most unfortunately, the gyro repairs might be the determining factor for the journey for the remainder of the trip. Fingers crossed for tomorrow.

How low do you go?: IFR, MVFR and fog are terms that we are hearing a lot of. There is a low trough parked over our area. While there are periods of VFR, you will catch the occasional low cloud deck coming by. In Florida, this is a cake walk: drop down a bit skirt under the clouds and pop back up in a minute. Here it is not the same. We have spent the morning mapping out our course for the trip out of Fairbanks, anticipating the arrival of our gyro momentarily. Checking the weather, there is MVFR over Talkeetna. This means that you can land at the airport ... if you can get through the pass. The passes are reporting MVFR as well with 1500' ceilings and periods of 500' or lower ceilings. Hmmmm. I don't think so.

Plan B: The first order of business was still to make sure that we had an airplane. The gyro finally arrived just before noon and within an hour Vern had that gyro our ring like a kitten. Next was the weather. With the long range forecast not set to change we decided to keep the rental car and drive down to Denali for spend some time wildlife viewing.
 
We set off under overcast skies down Parks Highway 3. There was ample look out spots here we could pull over for a photo opportunity. On one such stop we met Harry and his wife who had driven their motor home from North Fort Myers, FL. Small world.
 
The drive was a good thing. Since we are completely unfamiliar with the lay of the land, it is giving us a good opportunity to get a sense of the clouds and weather in relation to the mountains and the passes as the route is the same that we will take in a flight to Anchorage. As we pass Nenana, the skies turned to a brilliant blue with scattered clouds. I was ready to scream. Perfect VFR. I should know better than to out any faith in a forecast. We can only hope this is a trend that will continue by the time we get back to Fairbanks to pick up Wild Mama.
 
The drive is lovely, majestic mountain vistas, wide open valleys and a smothering of wildlife. Nearing Julius Creek we spy 2 red tailed fox sunning on the side of the road. We think it is road kill until they were awakened from the dead and ran off. Needless to say, we missed that photo op!
 
The mid afternoon temperature remains a cool 70 degrees - just right to avoid both the heat and A/C. It is apparently just right for the wild flowers that line the highways. I remember from the last trip to Alaska in 1995 that there were so many wildflowers and that surprised me, thinking that would not be the case in such a cold climate. Nenana was full of wild flowers and planted flowers that we enjoyed as we stopped at the Alaska Railroad Museum. This museum is special as it marks the location of where the golden spike was hammered in as the final spike to open the Alaska Railroad. Nenana is als the site of the annual Ice Pack contest. Each year people pay $2 per guess to guess the minute when the winter ice pack will break apart. This is al local tradition since 1917 and the purse now runs about $300,000!
 
At the Tatlanika Trading Post a lady who moved to Alaska from Texas two years ago began to chat us up for a bit. She was telling about the changing Esther and how this area was so pretty but to the south it could get quite violent and wicked raining and dark. . . something for us to think about.
 
As we neared Denali Park we could see the sky change. The bright blues gave way to more clouds: more lower clouds or, possibly, must higher terrain. We dropped down into the Nenana Canyon and the wind started whipping around. There were signs along the road and even on the sectional charts warning of the winds. The perfect VFR was not looking so perfect again.
 
Finally, the park entrance was in sight. We decided to make our first Denali experience a real wilderness adventure and got a camp site at the Denali Grizzly Camp grounds. We got a nice root filled site on the Nenana River. The camp sites are immediately on the river; then up the hill are the tent sites and the RV sites and cabins. We heard some of our up the hill neighbors talking but by the time we were at rivers edge, all sounds ceased but the rushing rapids. Good thing we do not sleep walk lest it be a rude awakening.
 
Dinner was across the street at McKinley Village Lodge. We opted not to bring all of the cooking gear for camping to try to save on weight. We figured that getting food was not going to be an issue; after all, we are in salmon country and we have fishing tackle!!!
 
The evening will be cool so we have all of our blankets and long johns ready to go. Good night, hope we sleep tight!

If  I only had wings: Low tech method of weather forecasting was good this morning. As we looked outside, all we could see were high clouds and relatively clear skies. Maybe this is a start to the trend. We are due in at the Cedar Lodge this evening as the first of the 2 night Denali adventure. We have to be there to catch the bus into the park at 0'dark 00 tomorrow morning so we will make our way back from Talkeetna today.
 
The drive back north is already looking better. We have seen a mountain; not just next to us but way off in the distance. This bodes well for the possibilities of flight. If we can keep the ceilings off the deck, we will make a run for the passes. Keep your fingers crossed and do the sun dance to the weather Gods.
 
The whole trip through the passes this morning has been outstanding and I view the scenery with mixed emotions. I wanted so desperately to be flying today but here we are land bound with a tour scheduled for the next 2 days. *sigh* I keep talking about the trend improving. The rangers said that this is more typical of the August scud that has come early instead of the big, clear blue skies of July. Let's keep praying to the weather Gods that this continues.
 
The mountains are a spectacular sight with a rainbow of colors posed against the dark brown soil and evergreen trees. We take a detour on highway 8, Denali Park Road to the east. This is a 135 mile stretch of highway between Cantwell and Paxton, most of the road being dirt and otherwise unimproved. The Mile Post book said the scenery is well worth the effort. Although we are.not making the whole trip, we venture forth about 15 miles along the road and are rewarded with the promised beautiful vistas. Our wildlife count has been low for the last couple of days. Other than mosquitoes we have only seen one lone rabbit dart across highway 8.
 
Upon returning to the Denali Park area we stop at Salmon Bake Restaurant for some halibut and chips and a halibut burrito. Stuffed and happy we will wander around the local shops for a bit before heading toward the park for some local sights. We have to check in a 3 pm for the beginning of the tour package that we got for Denali. As the park is tightly controlled, there is only a short section of road that guests can travel on their own; otherwise, one must take the bus system through the Park. We opted for the 12 hour round trip ride back to Kantishna Roadhouse and Wonder Lake 95 miles into the park. It is the best opportunity to see Denali and to get a good glimpse of wildlife, maybe even the elusive bears.
 
For tonight we do the mundane: reorganizing the car and repacking the camping gear so it will fit in the plane with the hope of flight soon.

Dreamed and done: Our excitement from last night fades when we awakened only to have our heads back in the fog … another rainy day. We had heard the rain pounding on the roof last night but hoped it was only a dream. Instead of fighting it today we wandered off to Soldotna and toward the town of Kenai. Enroute, we stopped at many of the local artisan shops along to the way to see carvings of horns and tusks, rocks and minerals and all sorts of other local crafts.
 
Soldotna found us hungry so we grabbed a quick bite and headed to the Carhart store to get a hood for Vern's jacket and get some serious rain gear. We spent quite some time in the store only to come out to the bright sunshine. Had I know this, I would have bought a raincoat days ago.
 
With the sun out, we called back to Moose Pass to see if the ceiling was high enough there to try to do some float plane flying. The sun was in and out but it looked promising for the afternoon. We turned around and headed back the other way. Kenai will be there tomorrow but the sun might be gone.
 
We got to Scenic Mountain Air in Moose Pass. There were 2 super cubs and 2 instructors available and the ceiling was high enough. I flew with the owner, Vern, a humorous gentleman who has been flying these parts for the past 39 years. We took off from Upper Trail Lake and headed back to the south straight for the mountain. Vern was good enough to give me some mountain flying tills along with the float time. We hugged the side of the mountain to get enough lift to make the ridge where we dropped down to see the black bear on the side of the mountain and 3 grizzlies in the stream catching dinner. We circled for a few minutes the headed for the ice fields.
 
Harding Ice Field is one of the largest in Alaska. To say that the sight was spectacular does not even begin to describe the beauty of the snow capped mountain. The benefit of having the colder summer is that the blinding white snow pack was still on the top of the ice pack and it has not yet turned to the glaze ice. This is what helps make the advance in the long run. No global warming here this summer. This is one of the most awesome sights I have ever seen. I had wanted to make this flight in Wild Mama but with the weather, we simply have been unable to make the flight. But today, in a Super Cub plugging along at 70-75 mph we had a leisurely journey, with an experienced guide and mountain pilot. I was very much at ease and we switched back and forth on the controls so he could maneuver me in for some really nice Kodak moments. But there were so many.

Each turn of my head made my heart leap; the pure white snow, the deep blue ice packs; the dark brown jagged peaks untouched by the lingering snows. Each captured my attention as we flew past.

We turned out left to come over the back side of Bear Glacier and flew down this tide water glacier to Prince William Sound. Dropping down to near the water level we turned back and flew beside the glacier below it's height at the water. We were at 300'. We made a couple of passes in front of the glacier and I took in every detail the best I could. Wild Mama could not have made this trip. She is much too fast and to slow her to near stall speed at this altitude to sight see would be, well, let’s just say my mind would not be on sight-seeing. 
 
Vern and his instructor, Joe, were in trail behind us. We called to them to circle back to snag a picture of the plane in front of the glacier. They dropped as we climbed to get a great shot. We could see up the crevices of the glacier, could see the medial line and the small (200 pound or so) ice chunks that had recently calved off.
 
We circled and climbed back over another small ridge. At the next left turn, the whole Iliac Glacier opened up before us with a full ice field. The water was so clear that you could see much of the ice beneath the surface to make you truly believe that only 10% of the ice is visible on the top. We climbed staying just about Iliac Glacier all the way to the top seeing her long lines that flowed from the mountain top to the Sound. From crossing Iliac we swooped down across the Exit Glacier where we had walked yesterday - such a different and much more spectacular view from the air.
 
On the way back to the seaplane base, we passed a lone mountain goat, then a herd of about 40 more on the ridge line. All too soon, we dropped in for a glassy water landing and it was all over. I was not yet ready to land.
 
Two years ago, Nicole Cagnolatti awarded me the WAI scholarship "If you can dream it you can do it". My dream was to get my float plane rating and fly a float plane in Alaska. Thank you, Nicole. You made it happen. Dreamed and done!

This evening we are back at a beautiful, small, rustic cabin at Cooper Landing Fish Camp. Let's see what tomorrow will bring ...