Seward, and Fairbanks

Days are blending into each other. The schedule is settled in, and mealtimes are landmarks, bringing light to each day. Not as much time is available for hanging out online, hence the delay and lack of detail in the daily recordings. Any time that is available for internet is time that could be spent wandering the wilds of Alaska, an undertaking to which not all are privileged.

The days of working in the hangar are drawing to a close. The LeTourneau guys are leaving tomorrow evening, so this is their last full day here. I am really going to miss them, but I am excited that the time is moving on. I will still work in the hangar after they are gone, but it won’t be as intensive as before. At least I hope not, because I still have no idea what I am doing without a little guidance.

Some of the adventures of the past…

The look out is great. I went up there alone last Wednesday. It is somewhere between 500 and 1000 ft up from the ranch. There is a path on the other side of the road that takes you straight up there. It’s a little bit of a climb in places, but it is totally worth it. You get an incredible view of the ranch, the river, and the mountains behind it. I think the wind blows strong there, creating a micro climate where the trees don’t grow. The vegetation is all very tundra-esque, and the few trees there are really short. But further up the hill, the trees are bigger again. So that gives me the impression that the wind blows enough at that spot to keep it colder. Honestly I have no idea, but that is my guess.

Thursday I attempted to get in bed as soon as possible. Not that it really happened, but that was the plan. We headed to Seward on Friday, and had to leave at 5 am. So I wanted to get as much sleep as possible. It didn’t turn out that way.

I ended up getting about 5 hours of sleep, so I took my pillow with me on the way to Seward. We were going on the Kenai Fjords glacier tour. It is a 9 hour boat ride that explores the coasts the of the Kenai national park. We saw tons of wildlife, and got to watch a glacier flow into the water.

Amongst the wildlife seen were puffins, bald eagles, seals, sea lions, porpoises, sea otters, and whales. The sea otters were as cute as always. As we pulled away from one of them, he waved to us. We also saw several mothers with their pups. The porpoises were really playful. They would swim right up next to the boat, poking their dorsal fin out of the water before splashing back down. The puffins were really amusing. Instead of flying out of the way, most of the time they would just dive down below the surface. The few that did try flying never got their bellies out of the water. We decided that the puffins were comparable to the 150s attempting to take off.

We got to the glacier after lunch. It was incredible… just like I had imagined. I have seen pictures of glaciers, but I never stopped to consider the audible effects. As the ice moves, incredible cracks are heard. It roars as loud as thunder, yet sounds so much more powerful. The captain shut the engine off for a while as we watched and listened.

All in all, it was a great day.

Saturday we were working in the hangar to make up for the day we missed going to the glacier. Earlier in the week, Dwayne asked me to fly with him to Fairbanks. He thought it would be a good experience for me, flying in the mountains and stuff, so I was invited to come along. We left around 3:30.

Before leaving, we had to do weight and balance. At Letourneau, we carefully calculate the center of gravity, and figure out how that fits into the range given by the manufacturer. Let’s just say things aren’t quite as detailed here. We loaded in the luggage, and started loading in passengers. As the last few people crawled in, the plane tipped on its tail. So we unloaded a few people, moved the baggage to the nose compartment, and reloaded. We succeeded at not tipping over, so we were within limitations, according to Dwayne.

It was a great flight. The weather wasn’t excellent, so Dwayne was able to show me how to navigate to the good weather in the mountains. We used the updrafts off mountains to gain free altitude. He showed me how to read lakes for wind information, how to find the smoothest ride, and how to follow the rivers. We looked for bears, but didn’t see any until the trip home. On the way home, we saw 5 black bears, several moose, and Ruthann saw a grizzly. We finished the evening with chocolate milkshakes at Dwayne’s house.