The plane lifted off the runway into an overcast sky. The pilot, a young guy named Ken, climbed a few hundred feet and then ventured across Unga Strait which separated Popof Island from the Alaska Peninsula. We left the village of Sand Point, and were soon across the strait, and winding our way through a pass with mountain peaks towering on each side. The landscape changed to low hills and then flattened to lake dotted tundra.It was June of 1970. 
I had just finished my first year of teaching high school biology in Anchorage, and was set for an Alaskan adventure that summer. 
The take-off out of Sand Point marked the third day of a journey in which each succeeding aircraft was smaller that the one before. I flew the 270 air mile leg from Anchorage to Kodiak in a Boeing 707, transferred the next day to a Grumman Goose for the 350 mile flight to Sand Point, and now sat in tandem behind the pilot in a Super Cub. My backpack, small suitcase, and supplies were strapped in behind me. A structure appeared in the distance - a small red speck on a vast green matrix - nothing more for as far as the eye could see. The red speck, some sixty miles distant, was a cabin maintained by the Alaska Department of Fish & Game (ADF&G).
Ken directed the plane toward a short runway, one so narrow that the wingspan exceeded its width. Its length seemed to shrink on approach. We crossed the Sapsuk River, touched down on the end , and quickly ran the runway’s meager span. The plane passed the far limit and bumped over rough terrain before coming to a “complete stop”. I think we landed with a slight tailwind, but there was a low hill at the other end, and Ken would have had to fly just above it and then quickly drop to make an even more perilous landing. The runway needed lengthening.
A man left the cabin and walked the fifty yards separating us. George Carnes got to the plane as we finished setting my gear and supplies to the side. The three of us lifted the tail, spun it around, and shoved the Super Cub back onto the runway. Ken took off in the direction from which he had come. We stood watching as the plane climbed into the gray canopy. Its size soon dwindled to a speck, and its barely audible hum diminished to silence. George reached for a box of supplies; I grabbed my gear and we started for the cabin.
I currently work on the Sapsuk River for ADF&G! This is my fourth season working out here. We now have a weir up river a ways from the old counting site, a new cabin, and another airstrip! It was so cool to stumble upon your blog and hear about your experience!
ReplyDeleteHello, I am a fisherman and adventurer in my later years but still with a good deal of spirit and drive (65 years old). I am planning a back country trip to either the Nelson or the Sandy river in June to swing flies for King Salmon and need to work out some logistical issues, particularly around camping and land use, as well as long term storage of equipment. I am considering having my old mini van shipped to Cold Bay or Nelson Lagoon and leaving it for a period of years along with two inflatable boats, motors, and camping gear. I need to find a way to contact the local people for help in this regard, as well as hoping you may be able to shed some insight. Thank you, Dave Norling
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