Our activity for today was an aerial tour of Lake Clark and Katmai National Parks. Departure was an hour late because the pilot wanted to wait a bit for the ceilings to go up which sounded pretty good to us. The terrain is laced with river valleys between the hills and mountains, so an experienced bush pilot would know how to get from Point A to Point B via a route in the valleys. I was following with my ForeFlight app and rather enjoying the experience seeing our course on a terrain map.

Our first stop was a gravel bar on the Savonoski River, a braided stream. I had never landed out like that before and it was pretty cool. Our airplane was a 1947 Stinson 108 with tundra tires. Those tires slow the airplane down quickly once on the ground. We walked around the gravel bar for a while. It was cloudy, windy and cold. Back in the airplane we had a nice sack lunch then headed off for the Valley of 10,000 Smokes, a hundred year old ash deposit from a volcano. We landed there and Ginny and our pilot strolled off across the ash field for a while. I opted to stay warm in the airplane. Our flight back to the Farm Lodge was an hour and forty minutes. We spotted some caribou on the snow patches and saw a nice waterfall. We also saw an airplane that met with grief trying to land out.

Today's photo is of me sitting in the front seat all ready for the upcoming aviation adventure