Folks
Thanks for the comments. Fun to read.
When I left Georges place the wx was not so good so the best weather seemed to be in Skagway (which was also the nearest place - That worked out well).
I bummed around Skagway for a day and got to see something I had seen before but for those in the lower 48 it is a pretty unusual sight. Salmon making there way up a ditch. Not a stream, not a river, not even a creek. Video..........
Then off to a cabin where I got to see some otters working on a salmon. EVERYTHING is feeding on the salmon now. Bears can be seen at just about every stream that goes to salt water, eagles are there feeding too, as are gulls, other fish, etc.
You can see more of these otters in this video.....
Then over to a new cabin. This is the Red Bay Lake cabin on Prince of Wales Island
Ooops....ran aground a little before I hoped. No big deal just had to wade to shore. This was at the Sarcar cabin during a "cabin Tour"
This cabin has a nice covered porch which would be handy when it rains. You would not feel so trapped in the cabin.
I had a sorta good weather day so I did a cabin tour. I went to Baranof Island and visited the Avoss, Davidof, and Plotnikof cabins. Then back to P.O.W. (Prince of Wales) Island to go to Josephine Lake Cabin. This is Josephine lake. It is at 1900 feet and often weathered in. Mike Woodson has a lot of Alaska experience, mishap free I might add, and he tells the story of dropping a guy off here and it took 7 days before he was able to get back in to pick him up. Mike has often spoken about the winds. I listened but did not understand. I do now.
And speaking of weather.....all the locals here are saying this has been the worst summer in a long time. Broken all sorts of rainfall records. September has been pretty rough so far. In addition to low clouds and rain we have added a new element that I did not see in May, June, or July of last year or this year.
WIND. It has been windy as the fall fronts start to blow in. When you get into the mountains (everywhere here) the turbulence is wild. Worst I have seen in 40 years of flying. Now admittedly I have not flown a lot in Alaska, but it has watered my eyes. When I did my cabin tour to Baranof, all three of the cabins were visited in extreme turbulence. It definitely adds a level of challenge and stress. Not fun. I asked George Campbell about it and he said "Thats why I canceled all flying yesterday" Having flown "yesterday" now I understand. It is not fun when you hope the wing does not fall off. Five days in a row of high wind and turbulence. Last night was so bad I wore ear plugs in the cabin to sleep. My good friend, Buck arrives Monday and I sure hope we get some "no wind" weather. I no longer care about clouds and rain. The wind also works the floats while the plane is beached and getting battered by the wind and resulting waves. And on that note - most of the cabins on P.O.W. have very rocky beaches that would be especially bad during high winds. Going in to Jims lake a couple of days ago, during the turn my airspeed went from 94 to 54 in an instant. Talk about the "downwind turn"....LOL
On the rocks at Josephine Lake Cabin. No good parking here. This cabin is no longer being maintained by the Forest Service Dept. It is in pretty rough shape. It is a stunningly beautiful place but I guess the utilization is not enough to keep it up.
I think this was taken at the Young Lake Cabin.
Cabin tour video
Thanks for following. I hope you enjoy.
Bill