The “Blue Goose” took-off immediately after it left us on the shore of a big lake near Morzhovoi Bay. As the plane flew away, I felt that we were just about as remote as is possible on earth. We were going to be there Thursday night, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
The leaders of this trip had brought a two-way radio for us to use in the event of an emergency. Accordingly, one of the first things we did after landing was to check to see if the radio worked. To our dismay, we discovered that we could raise nothing but static! Apparently, we were out of the radio’s range. Not only were we now without transportation to get back, but we didn’t have any means of communication! Being at the mercy of the bush pilot that had brought us, we promised ourselves that nothing was going to stop us from being back at the pickup spot at the appointed time!
This was my first experience at being in the wilderness with no means of communication with the rest of the world. I had a lump in my throat, feeling dependent on that pilot returning when he was supposed to retrieve us. The whole trip was a little nerve-wracking for me because I felt out of control. I had sort of tagged along at the last minute, not having had a part in the planning. I am not normally the sort of person to throw that much caution to the wind!
Gathering up our sleeping bags and the rest of our gear, we hiked northerly across the tundra toward the Bering Sea. The abandoned village was supposed to be in that general direction.
(As an aside, that very airplane later ended up at the bottom of 100 feet of water. Not long after our trip, the pilot made the mistake of trying to land on a lake with his gear down. I’m glad that didn’t happen when we were in it! Apparently, no one was hurt, but that mishap would have been really scary!)