The first leg of the trip is the easiest; you drive to Whittier, Alaska. It is a beautiful drive along the Turnagain Arm with 10-12,000 ft mountains out the driver's side window and the ocean out the passenger's side. then arrive at the Anton Anderson tunnel in Portage. Once there, we wait for clearance to drive through the tunnel. It's the longest highway tunnel in North America (13,300' or 2.5 miles). Which a train also uses, you definitely want to WAIT! Visit the tunnel site for more details and take a virtual drive at http://www.dot.state.ak.us/creg/whittiertunnel/index.shtml
Coming out the other side you find yourself in Resurrection Bay and Whittier Alaska. A fishing community and also where the road ends. Now we must wait for the Alaska ferry to arrive. It is scheduled to leave Whittier tomorrow morning at 5am and arrive in Cordova. Our progress and the time it takes begin to leave our control at this point, that's Alaska!
While we wait for the ferry, Ill explain why we need one to start with. Normally I load up everything in the back of a plane and fly wherever. When you can use the ferry system on any part of an adventure you use it. It's much cheaper and always a scenic ride. The ferry ride from Whittier to Cordova takes 6 hours and covers about 100 miles by water. No only that you take your vehicle along too! They are parked in the bottom of the boat. Great way to go. Check them out at www.dot.state.ak.us/amhs/index.shtml
Photos above show the clustered, twisted mess the vehicles parked in the bottom of the boat were. It was amazing that not even a bumper was touched-during loading or offloading. This time of year all the tourists have left so it was mostly seasoned locals that are used to doing this.
We arrived in Cordova, day two and only 150 miles into the trip. Now we load up the airplane and continue on with the last leg of the trip to camp. When we load the plane that includes an Achilles 13' inflatable along with 20hp motor and all our camp gear and food. But wait, the weather is not good at Kushtaka Lake; our landing site yet another delay... this could take a while. It's all par for the course when it comes to getting around Alaska.
By noon things are looking better and we are off airborne at last! The only thing that will stop us now, is a sudden one!
We fly over some of the most beautiful, vast and human less country in the world. It's real beauty lies in human less! Nature owns this land and you are always at peril-damn I like that!!!
On our approach to Kushtaka Lake we notice there is no wind at all. Some might say good. Not true. In a DeHavilland Beaver floatplane you sit about 6-7 feet above the floats. When there is no wind or breeze the water is like glass and you cannot tell how close the floats are to the water as you touch down. YOU MUST KNOW THAT!!!! Just getting to camp in Alaska is risky, damn risky. Lower 48 take note' this ain't no pony ride!
Fortunately, Kushtaka Lake is large and we were able to feather the Beaver in ever so gently. We taxied up to the bank and began unloading our gear. Better have those waders already on cause you can't get as close to the shore as you would like with a heavy load. There were Brown Bear tracks everywhere! Looks like a good spot. However, we are still not all the way to camp.
We blow up our raft, load all our gear and motor over to the mouth of Stillwater River which spills out of Kushtaka Lake. About 5 miles down the Stillwater you hit the Bering River. We had to use our oars to navigate the swift Stillwater River; it was flooding and anything but "Still". It's also shallow with large boulders everywhere, which meant no motor! Two hours later and right at sunset we finally arrived at our camp. It was a LONG 210 mile journey, but quite typical in terms of traveling about the Alaskan Bush country. I am glad it is so tough to get around here. That keeps Alaska remote and wild!
