The Middle of Nowhere

Jenesa and I were both excited for our early morning floatplane adventure in Ketchikan.  Before sailing from Vancouver, we watched from the ship lots of floatplanes taking off and landing in the harbor.  The concept of airplanes on water is hard to imagine back in York, PA.  But, up here in the northwest....it's as common as the Amish and buggies back home (or something like that!).  Cool fact - we heard that 1 in 60 Alaskans own a plane for transportation around the state.  Many towns and cities are not connected by roads, therefore making it nearly impossible to get from point A to B by vehicle on land.

Our group of six squeezed into the little Cessna floatplane with co-pilot Corbett in the front for the flight out to the fjords.  Luckily, the rain from earlier in the morning began to slow to a drizzle and later stopped altogether once we made it into the fjords.  What's a fjord?  It is a long, narrow, deep inlet of the sea typically formed by submergence of glaciers in the valley.  It was difficult to take many pictures from inside the plane....but it was quite the amazing view flying over the mountains, lakes, and misty landscapes as we descended into the Misty Fjords National Monument.

Upon landing on one of the lakes inside the fjord, we had the opportunity to get out of the plane and hang out on the pontoons.  We were pretty much out in the middle of nowhere....but enjoying every minute of it (at least for the moment....stay tuned)!

On our return flight, the pilot spotted a bear with her cubs down below in a mountainside clearing.  He was even nice enough to circle the plane back around for us to get another view of these bears.  Unfortunately, this was also the exact same time I was searching for a barf bag....and I missed the whole bear show!  Geeeesh....I was mad and sick at the same time!  Jenesa was fine, of course!  But my belly felt there was just enough turbulence in that little floatplane to make me wish I hadn't eaten breakfast that morning!  Poor Leonard!

Even though I missed seeing the bears.....I got another great photo opportunity as soon as we landed back at the dock.  Sitting high on his perch beside the plane, I nailed this closeup of the bald eagle.  It certainly made me feel so much better!