Coming Out of Winter... Some Areas Faster Than Others!

What do you do when a door opens in front of you? You walk through it!  This particular door that opened for me was an opportunity to fly to two different bush communities one day (May 29th) for work. My coworker was flying there to do an inspection, and there was an open seat on our bush plane. He didn't have to ask twice if I wanted to go!

Our ride... which included a few items for the people at one of our stops (that's a saddle the guy is loading there).

They're doing some work on the runway these planes usually use by Lake Hood, so we had to taxi over to and take off from the International Airport. A couple views from my seat along the way...

That guy is a bit bigger than us... thankfully he was allowing us to cross in front of him. :)

Take off... overlooking Lake Hood and Lake Spenard, along with other parts of the airport. Can't complain about the backdrop of mountains, either! 

Our humble city.

There is a small boat traversing the windy river... see it? It's near the center of the photo. You might need to click on the photo to see a bigger version.

More of the scenery as we head west from Anchorage.

Just a few puffy clouds for the beginning of the day... you'll see later that these grew just a bit.

Arriving at Skwentna... yes, that's the runway. Our pilot told us they keep it very well maintained, even in the winter.

The runway from the other end... as we're getting ready to take off.

Clouds are increasing/growing as we head into the mountains. Still some awesome scenery!

Ever feel like your head is in the clouds? ;)

I thought the designs on the ground were pretty interesting. Not really sure how they came to be. I also thought it was interesting that this area still had some snow on the ground, but little did I know that we'd be seeing a lot more of that!

Ahhh... getting into the mountains now. We're heading toward Rainy Pass where our next stop will be.

Looking out the window on the other side of the plane... even more spectacular views. This state never ceases to amaze me!

This is the best picture I got as we landed at Puntilla (Rainy Pass Lodge). This runway wasn't maintained as nicely as Skwentna, at least partly because it has very poor drainage. There were also some rocks on the runway. As our pilot was splashing mud up on the underside of the wings trying to get through muddy puddles, he told us that this certainly wasn't the worst runway he's landed on.

We walked a little under a mile to the lodge. These cabins are ones people can rent... for up to $1000/night. The horses in the photo are walking toward me... they use the horses when they take people hunting. They seemed to be roaming free... not a bad life for a horse!

The person that lives here is a guide, and he apparently has a whole museum in his cabin, complete with a model-T. Would have been neat to see that, but we didn't have enough time.

Leaving Puntilla and heading back toward Anchorage. At this point there are showers around. We got bounced around a bit on the way home, but it wasn't too bad.

This lake is Helicopter Lake. There's a helicopter fuselage at the right side of the lake... from a helicopter that crashed into the lake at some point. (Yes, the lake still has quite a bit of ice on it.)

Oh, just some more beautiful views, that's all... ;)

A good example of a braided (glacial melt) river that is typical around here.

Green trees... but there's still a decent snow pack. An interesting contrast.

Looking out the other window (by the pilot) at some of the showers around us.

As we were approaching Anchorage, I noticed a barge leaving the port and heading down Cook Inlet.

Those photos are the highlights of the day. This is one of the things I love about my job. These opportunities don't come around too often, especially with budget cuts and such, but they sure are fun (and eye-opening) when they do come!