Mail Plane Inside Artic Circle, July 21, 2009

We decided to spend more of our children's inheritance & fly with a mail plane to some remote Eskimo villages in the Artic Circle. We flew on Tuesday, July 21st from Fairbanks. We spent a week in a Walmart Parking Lot in Fairbanks. (So we could afford to fly! :-) )

This is the plane we flew in, a twin engine Piper Navajo. There were only four of us and the pilot on the trip out and only the pilot and the two of us on the return flight. One of the outgoing passengers was an Eskimo from Anatuvuk Pass, and the other was a young girl, by our standards (Ha,Ha), about late 20's early 30's. She was going to the town of Bettles, our first stop.

I don't know if you can see but there are float planes alongside the shore of this remote lake. Maybe they are all fishing? We think so.

This is the Bettles gravel airstrip, our first stop. This dirt runway has a full instrument landing system!

The girl in the yellow flew in and her friends met her there and unloaded all sorts of food, including canned milk. The friends are unloading into the pickup truck bed. We're always walking on gravel.

The little fellow on the left is the Eskimo man. He had been in Fairbanks for the Indian-Eskimo Olympics, which we missed by one day because of Denali.

This is Anatuvuk Pass, the second stop on our flight. It is way up into the Artic and lies between two mountains, obviously. The town is just over the horizon.

Anatuvuk Pass is also the name of the village which is seen on the upper left. In the foreground is a glacier river called a braided river. I think it is the John's River. The airstrip here is also gravel with a full instrument landing system!

This village of about 360 people have electricity which is provided by large generators. These generators are supplied by these diesel tanks which are refilled when needed by special planes, which fly in the fuel.

This is a street scene from Anatuvuk. There are a few cars and trucks here.

Most people here run around in ATVs.

Instead of a car parked out front of this house, it is an ATV.

This is a eight wheel ATV, maybe the "Cadillac" version? Maybe it goes better over water, I don't know.

This is a typical Eskimo home with the entryway outside the house, to keep out the cold, I imagine. This home was neatly painted; all homes are not this nice. They are all small, though.

This is Inupiat Community Artic Slope Search & Rescue building.

This is Lynda by the airplane wing, on the runway, at about 5pm in the late afternoon. It had been in the 80's when we left but the temperature on this high pass was cold and it was windy.

This is one of the street scenes with a teenage boy walking by in the red shirt. There is no pavement in this town anywhere, not even at the airport.

As you can see from this street scene, most travel on ATV's. The second one even has a cover of sorts.

This is a street beside the runway. The fella on the ATV is standing up as he drives it.

Here is another house in the village & the same teenager as he walks by, remember the one in the red shirt? He is smiling. He was very cute!

This is George, the pilot, and Jim, the passanger, in the front seats of the plane. The pilot was very good and actually was also a flight instructor.

This is a canyon wall in John's River Pass. Rugged mountains, I think!

This is a cabin on a remote lake we spotted as we flew back to Fairbanks. There are no roads here so flying in is necessary. Obviously, no electricity; They call it being "Off the Grid".

This is an aerial view of the dirt Dalton Highway, which goes north from Fairbanks to Prudhoe. Alongside it on the right is the Alaskan oil pipeline.

This is a view of Fireweed which is growing right after the devistation of a forest fire. This is why it is named fireweed, because it is the first things to grow after the fire. You can see exactly where the fire had gone along the tops of these mountains.

Here is poor Lynda, relegated to the back seat in the airplane! (Ha, Ha) Actually she chose this seat for the view!

This is our approach to the Fairbanks Airport. It is coming in over the Tanana River. Fairbanks is in the upper right of the picture and the runway in the upper left.