Friday, September 30, 2011

Alaska Epilogue

Before committing myself to fly to Alaska I wasn't sure if it was right for me, or worth the time and expense. Would it be better to use that time and money to travel to new faraway lands? To seek breadth in the mountains I'd already explored closer to home? Now, a month after returning home, my only regret is not having spent more time in the North, and I have a strong desire to go again. I've been fortunate enough in life to have seen a great deal of the western United States on the ground, in the air, to explore the Pacific coast from the tip of Baja to the Washington coastline, and do to a fair amount of international travel.... yet going a bit further north from home was surprisingly foreign and alluring, and I barely scratched the surface.

Trip route & places I landed.
If you've just found this blog, I'm writing up a diary of the trip, dating the posts as they were on each day of the journey. If you'd like to follow chronologically (i.e., not the way blogger will display them on its own), this list may be useful (not all the legs have been written up just yet!):
If you're considering making the trip as a first-timer, these may interest you:

Numbers:
  • Aircraft: 1966 Mooney M20E
  • Number of mechanical breakdowns or things that broke along the way: 0
  • Flight time: About 40 hours in the air
  • Distance: A bit over 5,100 nautical miles, round trip
  • Least expensive avgas: Anchorage Merrill field, $5.09/gallon
  • Most expensive: Whitehorse, Yukon, $8.40CDN/gallon
  • Nights camping: 9; in hotels/B&Bs: 3; in hostels: 3; couch surfing: 2
  • Cars rented: 3

Posted by Redfeather at 1:57 PM
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4 comments:

  1. ChrisOctober 1, 2011 at 2:45 PM

    What an amazing trip you've had. I'm envious! I thoroughly enjoyed reading each installment. Someday, I hope to accumulate enough vacation time to attempt such a thing. Heck, I would be happy to fly as far as your starting point, let alone reach Alaska.

    By the way, if you want to put your entries into proper chronological order, you can actually specify a date for each post under "Post Settings". I usually change the date on my blog posts to represent when the event occurred rather than when I finally got around to writing about it.

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  2. RedfeatherOctober 2, 2011 at 11:15 AM

    Thanks for the kind words! There are a few more days to write up but I'm leaving on another trip soon so it may have to sit for a few weeks.

    Regarding the dates, I've been doing the same, back-dating each post to the day each represents. I figured that for someone to read it through beginning to end I would just put a list of the posts in the order they occured.

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  3. PeterCOctober 16, 2011 at 5:09 PM

    Just finished reading about the Alaska trip. What a great experience for you. You made it feel like we were right there with you. Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  4. FiidJanuary 4, 2012 at 9:47 AM

    I've just finished reading about your trip. I enjoyed it immensely. Thanks so much for documenting it and sharing, both from a pure adventure and from a pilot point of view. It's awesome and very inspiring.

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