Ketchikan!
0508 Ketchikan Smoking
So we woke early with a Terrace airport security guy admonishing us for tenting several yards out of place. So friendly and Canadian about it, we all enjoyed the interaction (he later told us a funny flying story). After looking into weather and our souls we decided the backtracking past Prince Rupert again is worth tagging AK. We love visiting new states and provinces as you probably know. The moment we landed, our hearts all but leapt from our chests with delight. Such a beautiful place! We were here before, on one of the cruise ships you see in the distance of this shot from outside the airport terminal. As you can see, the smoke from all the regional fires has reached here too but doesn’t detract much in person.
It took lots of jumping through hoops to make this happen, and we still have more to go both leaving the US and entering Canada. May the rules be favorable upon our journey. Despite some fears (ask Anne), Tripp performed flawlessly. She lifted us easily to 11,500 and would have happily kept climbing at 500fpm but the air was getting a bit thin and we’d already reached safe gliding distance to passable airport alternatives. Being higher we saw the now-familiar route from Terrace to Prince Rupert anew.
0504 More Mountain Marvels
Long streams of bright orange stuff were in many coves and along beaches, and stretching out into the inland passage. Anyone know what they are?
0507 Orange Seas
Outside the airport terminal we paused to visit our old friend fireweed, that we had both so enjoyed in our Northerly years.
0513 Fireweed
Now back to Tripp for our hoop game with U.S. and Canadian Customs. Oh, the U.S. guy when we landed here sure was surprised that we’d just flown in for an hour! 🙂
John & Anne Wiley 
likely, pollen drifts.
Comment by sue — 2010/08/13 @ 14:51