Snow squall and Deadman’s Bay

Continuing last week’s trip and catching up on posts . . .

Wednesday to Larsen Bay 5/27/10

Brian and I were heading out to Larsen Bay this morning to set up another camp for our Larsen Bay project.  The weather was colder and light rain was falling as we waited for the plane to arrive.  We had Paul (one of our surveyors) drive us over to the airport as we watched a plane land and thought it was ours as it taxied in to stop.  It was a Servant plane and Wes the owner was flying in a group of school kids and he told us our plane was right behind him on final approach.  Several minutes later Nick, our pilot taxied in with more children who had been in Kodiak for a school function.

Once they unloaded and gathered the cargo of supplies off both planes everyone quickly left as we loaded our gear and some of the surveyor’s items into the plane.  We taxied out for takeoff and climbed out to the southwest over the harbor where several fishing boats were out hauling in herring.  They had been out most of the night attempting to catch their limit of fresh herring fish to be taken to the canneries close by.

The clouds were much lower this morning and it was colder outside so we hugged the coastline flying over the water until we reached the southwest end of Kodiak Island.  We turned north through Deadman’s Bay looking out for other float planes and aircraft transitioning the area.  Nick pointed out several locations along our route as the weather turned nasty and we headed through a snow squall.  Big flakes were all around us as we descended staying below the cloud layer and into one of the many mountain passes which took us to the other side of the island.  We turned back north and crossed over a snow covered area where you saw many tracks from deer and then saw several groups of two to four deer wandering looking for food.  The snowfall was lighter but still coming down.

This flight segment was a wonderful experience flying low level over several bald eagle nests in the tops of the trees.  We were close enough to see the eagles sitting in the nests watching us fly overhead.  Several nests had one eagle sitting in the nest while one was sitting on a tree limb next to the nest.  All of the eagles watched us as we flew by.

We came upon a hill that several bears had just climbed out of their lair from hibernation and were lying on their backs rolling around like a dog.  It was amazing to see them and I’m sure after a long winter’s sleep they are hungry, ready for the fish to return to the streams and rivers nearby.

Normally on a clear day the flight takes about 35 minutes but going the long route around the south end of the island we flew almost an hour and a half. It was not long after I saw the bears that we made a right turn and up the bay and soon saw the red roofs of the cannery in Larsen Bay.  As we approached our downwind leg another plane was preparing to take off.  We watched him as we turned base leg to final and started to land while three deer ran across our approach end of the runway.  We landed and the Island Air plane took to the runway as we cleared it and he was off to Kodiak with several people on board in a light snowfall.

Brian and I dropped our gear next to the Tribal president’s rig and walked into town listening to the wind and watching the snow flakes dance around us.  We started walking over to the area where our truck and crew housing trailer were being parked until we came back into town.

Word quickly spread that we were in town and several vehicles started driving around to see who had gotten off the plane.  Nick flew back to Kodiak while we remained to set up camp.  Bill (one of our local hires) met up with us and took us over to our equipment.  He told us he would drop off the people with him in his rig and come back for us as well as grab our gear from the airport.

I started the rig (a new Chevy HD 2500 with 86 miles on it) with the fifth wheel trailer for crew housing attached while Brian hopped in our loader and headed up to the jobsite to move some big piping used in their water penstock line coming from the top of the mountain.  He made a path wide enough for me to drive the trailer through and we set up the housing unit next to the tsunami shelter high up on the hillside past the new water treatment plant we would be building.

We made a temporary place to park it next to the shelter which had a power supply and Bill had one of his crew take the propane bottles to fill them up for us.  This would give us heat and fuel for our generator if needed.  We leveled the trailer, unhooked the rig from it and powered up everything.  Once I opened the unit I made the slide out spaces extend into position and left it ready for someone to sleep there if needed.  The survey crew would be coming there early next week so it will be nice they will have comfortable accommodations. 

We still lack many items to make it livable and many of those items are in one of the conex containers which are in transit from Anchorage to the island.  Things like pots and pans as well as plates and other household items are coming but at least it will be dry and warm.

We could not move the conexes yet or work on the pad so we readied everything for the surveyor’s trip next week and called it good.  It was still snowing and the ceilings were lowering so we called back to Servant Air to return to pick us up for the trip back to Kodiak.  They advised us they were not going to come back out today and told us to try to get a flight back to Kodiak with the other charter service which makes flights in and out of Kodiak.  We are currently waiting for an Island Air flight to pick us up so we can return back to Anchorage a day earlier than planned.

After several delays we finally had word that the plane had left Kodiak and would be about an hour before it would arrive if the flight could make it with the low ceilings.  We waited in our rig at the airport talking and watching the different ATV’s drive by seeing what we were doing.

We thought the flight would not make it and were ready to leave and go try out the trailer when we saw the runway lights turn on by the pilot so we knew the plane was close to landing.  About five minutes later in came the islander plane to taxi in to park and unload passengers and cargo.

The pilot told us he needed to fly down to Karluk and then return to Larsen Bay to pick up someone from the lodge at a later time but was not sure if the weather would hold long enough to make the 25 minute flight down and then return.  He would pick us up with the other passenger due to come out in about an hour.  I told the pilot that if he did not mind we would get onboard and go with him to Karluk in case things closed down and he could not return at least we would be onboard and could make it back into Kodiak that evening.  After a slight debate he allowed us to go with him and we took off out over the bay heading south to drop off a mother and daughter.

I’ll stop here and finish this adventure tomorrow night.

Ice