Hi from the Yukon

Just a quick hello from Whitehorse in the Yukon. We've been flying since Friday as the weather allows, and hopefully the weather will allow us to get to Anchorage tomorrow. I can't begin to describe the awesome scale and remoteness of landscape we've travelled thus far. That'll have to wait to a later post - one with photos. :)

At the moment there's just time for the briefest of outlines, so here's where we've been so far...

Friday - left Paine Field in Everett, WA. Crossed the border at Boundary Bay, BC (south and east of Vancouver) from there we went east up the Fraser River valley (drop dead gorgeous!) and landed in Hope for the night.
Saturday - left Hope in low ceilings and ran north up the canyon past Cache Creek to Prince George. Camped for the night at Mackenzie.
Sunday - probably the most amazing day of flying ever - north up the Trench Route, past Fort Ware and on over 200 miles of uninhabited, undeveloped, untouched vast wilderness between the Canadian Rockies and the Cassiar Range. Landed at Watkins Lake where the fish are biting every 5 minutes and camped overnight.
Today - left Watkins lake and followed the Al-Can until we got socked in at Teslin. Weather cleared and we (along with another half dozen planes) ran the scud through the pass along the Al-Can to make Whitehorse.

Being proactive

Well, at least I got rid of the #@$#*!! $$@!# kidney stone before we took off.

Jeez.

322MX prep

Lots of final prep to do for 322MX so the Flying Fish has been spending a lot of time in the hangar checking things off the list.

Cargo nets, chart rack, quick-access life jacket storage camera holster, rod & reel rack, sound proofing (this was a Huge job, well done Luv!), fix the headset, update the GPS databanks, and so many more maintenance and tuning points too numerous to describe, oh, and of course, need to weigh the plane again to create a new weight & balance calc...

Five days to go.

Gearing up

Survival vests, backup camera, lights, guide books, charts, maps, GPS, bear can, bear spray, air horn, cyalume lights, solar panel, gaiters, hats, down jackets, shotgun, camera, tripod, tent, sleeping pads, sleeping bags, daypacks, mosquito deterrents, sting balm, med kit, light, clotting sponge, rehydration salts, supplementary meds, stove, water filter, cookware, water bags, and lots and lots of stuff sacks... 

Joining the Cast & Blast crowd

AKA Buildergrrl goes shopping, buys a shotgun and then the NRA shows her how to use it.

You're just going to have to ask me about this sometime. 

It was really something.

800 Calorie Survival vest

There's a saying when it comes to airplane crashes - what's on you is survival gear, what's in the plane is camping gear. So we each have a fly-fishing vest that we put on when flying over remote terrain. 

Since I know you're curious, here's my survival vest with all its contents splayed out. 

 

It all packs up like this...

 Back pocket:  folding cup, ziplock bags (2lg., 2sm.)

Inside left pocket:  PLB  (personal locator beacon)

Inside right pocket:  leatherman tool

Outside right top pockets: stormproof matches, firestarter (compressed trioxane fuel), bic lighter, sharpie pen, gel shot (Cliff, apple pie flavored, 100 calories)

Outside right bottom small pockets: cloth tape, duct tape, matches, gel shots (Power Bar vanilla, Cliff mango, 200 calories)

Outside right bottom large pocket: emergency bivvy sack, emergency bodywarmers (like handwarmers, only bigger), gel shot (Power Bar caramel, 100 calories)

Outside left top pockets: whistle, mini LED light, compass, mini deck of cards, gel shots (Power Bar caramel, Cliff mango, 200 calories)

Outside left bottom small pockets:  band-aids, neosporin, claritin, SPF 15 lip balm, string, gel shots (Power Bar caramel, Cliff apple pie, 200 calories)

Outside left bottom large pocket: burn gel, sting relief gel, antiseptic wipes, pocket survival pack (includes: magnifying lens, signal mirror, firestarter, fishing kit, needle & thread, scalpel blade, aluminum foil, wire, safety pins, and a tiny pencil and paper)

All together the vest and contents weigh four pounds.

Studying up on Bears

Bears figure large in the imagination of anyone contemplating an Alaskan adventure - myself included. Alaska has four bears of very different personality: Black Bears, Brown/Grizzly Bears, Brown/Kodiak Bears, and Polar Bears. All are different species, and all can eat you up. And if a bear decides it's going to have you for dinner, well, good luck to you then. 

So I've been reading Stephen Herrero's definitive study: Bear Attacks, Their Causes And Avoidance. A worthy book. And very scary if you read it from beginning to end. 

Basically, the first half describes various bear attacks on people, and they usually go like this: "Now it's very rare for a bear to attack a human, but here's an instance where..." and something grisly ensues. So I recommend starting in the middle of the book, where he starts to describe the characteristics of bears, where they live, what they eat, what kind of tracks and signs they leave behind. Then, after learning about them, go back to the middle and learn how to avoid them. When you're all done with that, then read about what happens if you mess up and find yourself in some kind of bear/human up close and personal encounter.

Good reading. Guaranteed to give you good dreams. Oh, yeah.

So I read up on bears. Then I went to the zoo and spent the afternoon watching the two Brown Bears around dinner time. Watched them "play" and beat up on each other with claws the size of my fingers. Watched them swim - pretty good at it. Watched them chase each other around at an easy lope - they're pretty darn quick. Those logs and boulders don't slow them down any. Watched them gnaw and claw on a log and basically tear it apart without too much trouble. And then I realized that these two were relatively small for Brown Bears.

Hmmmm. OK, so there's some perspective. 

Here's something interesting that one should know about bears - Black Bears and Brown behave differently around people. And they behave differently in different situations, and depending on what kind of mood the bear happens to be in. The one common factor in most bear/people interactions is this: the bear has more options than the person does. Usually, the bear is the one that makes the decisions. 

So it seems to me that avoiding a bear/person interaction is probably going to be the best place to start. To that end, we'll be getting a couple of marine-grade air horns which according to the research have been pretty effective in letting bears know that there are people around to be avoided. As our second line of defense we'll be carrying bear-spray. This high power super concentrated pepper spray has proven very effective bear deterrent. We'll each be carrying a canister in a holsters attached to the chest strap of our packs. As a last resort, we'll also be carrying a 12 gauge shotgun and lead slugs. 

The goal is not to have to use the shotgun. You're just as likely to piss the bear off as you are to kill it. But if it happens that the bear's got your sweetie in it's paws, what else are you going to do? Poke it with a stick?