Craig holds up his soggy pants after days of rain. Photo by Dave Jones
“The rain let up and the sun poked through. I got up and put my wet boots, socks and pants on and proceeded to find 1 and 1/2 cup of over-ripe blueberries… Craig and I played a couple of games of acey deucy [backgammon]. I started to play Tony a good game w/tea and coffee and 1/2 way through [pilot] Ron showed. We all scurried about happily…”
Mark, Dave, Craig and I took the 1st shift. We had to fly down the Alatna because of the cloud cover.
Our pilot Ron explained that because of the low cloud ceiling and poor visibility he could not take the direct route from Bettles over the mountains. This route meant a great deal more aviation fuel to ferry us out. He said he had delayed our pick up day. After a few days he bit the bullet and said “I couldn’t see leaving you guys out there any longer.”
“We saw 3 or 4 pairs of moose – some bulls with full racks. We had seen a shed caribou rack up in the pass on Mon [August 26th]. We had said goodbye to Tony, Sharon and Brett and soon to Mark and bush pilot Ron. Ron was a real character – a real bush pilot. He radioed ahead and we caught the connection to Fairbanks from Bettles. We ran to catch it in Bettles. Craig flipped me a Snickers.“
“I got to sit in the co-pilot seat to Fairbanks. Captain Dave was a different sort from [bush pilot] Ron. I don’t think he appreciated the smelly, wet, muddy guy next to him… we flew through the clouds.“
We dodged large cumulus rain clouds and I got a good look at the weather radar in the so-called “right seat.” We were returning to civilization slowly and the technology advanced as we progressed from the Beaver to the turbo-prop.
“Fairbanks was rainy and we rushed to the Regency. In retrospect it all happened so fast. The van played MUSIC! It was great! Peter Gabriel. We washed up at the hotel and the cab to the Godfather Pizza had music. Dire Straights. A jukebox at the Godfather Katrina and the Waves, The Fixx, Michael McDonnald, Tears for Fears and [more] Peter Gabriel. Taco Pizza and fresh salad bar. We groaned with pleasure. Pitcher of beer. Our cabbie came back, more music, rock and roll. We saw Aliens [2]. Popcorn, Milk Duds, Coke. Fun movie. Bad print. We caught the same cabbie to 31 Flavors – which was closed – so we told him to wait in front of the Safeway so we could cop some ice cream.”
“Back at the hotel we hurt ourselves. Microwave pizza, Jamocha almond fudge, mud pies, Beer. We watched George Carlin on Carson. Dangerous Sports – indoor hunting, motorcycle pole vaulting on ice, high school auto racing and David Letterman.”
Whew — so glad you made it back to civilization. I had hunger pains reading your posts from the previous few days. I hiked with the Appalachian hiking club north of the Brooks Range in 1980. I remember the pilot picked us up, then had a hard time clearing the Range. When he finally got to the top I remember him saying: “Did that bother anyone else other than me?” And of course we all know the saying: “There are old pilots and bold pilots, but there are no old, bold pilots”.
“North of the Brooks Range”! Wow Carol, that is way up there. When was this?