WEAVER FAMILY: Up to the North Slope

June 25 (Dead Horse, AK)

We did some computer work, Roger did some flight planning and figuring things out, and we left the hotel at noon and headed to the airport to fly on to Dead Horse today. We were going to go to Barrow, but since there were no direct roads there, we decided to follow roads instead of deadheading out over the mountains and tundra and end up at Dead Horse. It was quite an interesting ride! We flew a couple hours and stopped for fuel in Bettles which was kind of an amazing little place. Very small, but had two places with fuel, a little café where we could get hoagies, WIFI, and lodging. We had a sandwich there and then took off. We were following the road through some pretty high mountains and got to a pass where the clouds were closing in, and we couldn’t get through the pass. Thankfully there was a little airstrip right before the pass at Chandalar Shelf, so we landed there to wait it out. If that airstrip wouldn’t have been there we could have gone further back to another airstrip cause there were several along the route, but then we may have needed to return to Bettles for more fuel. We built a little fire (it was cold and the mosquitoes were bad), and thought we’d just wait to see what was going to happen. Across the road was a road maintenance facility and a guy from there came over to see what was up, and drove us up over the pass so we could see what the weather was like on the other side. We went back to the plane and waited a bit more and the sky seemed to be getting lighter and clouds thinning out, so Roger thought if he could circle up high enough we could get above the clouds and get over, which is what we did then. I was just a tad freaked out, but tried to keep my cool! The highest peak was 8100, and we were up to 9500, so we knew we weren’t going to hit any mountains! This IPad we bought for the trip has saved the day and paid for itself many times over on this trip. It shows exactly where we are in relation to a road, shows exactly where the peaks are, how high, etc, etc. Roger picked his way through the clouds and was talking to FSS giving pilot reports etc.

We got to Dead Horse about 10 – 10:30 pm, not knowing where we were going to pitch up for the night. It was pretty cold (high 30’s), and windy, so were hoping for a bed instead of a tent, but weren’t sure. We knew there was a hotel here, and Roger had talked to someone about it, but they didn’t have the number for him to call to check it out. Anyway, there was a semi-trailer we parked next to with the back door open we thought we could sleep in if it came to that! J Thankfully, there was ONE room left at the hotel, and it was ours. $220/night for both of us, but all food included and laundry facilities etc. and everything one needed. JOLENE