"I am a drinker of the wind
I an the one who never tires
I love my freedom more than all these things.
The Conquistador, Comanche and the Cowboy
I carried them to glory.
I'm La Primara, Spanish mustang,
Hear my story."
La Primara, by Ian Tyson
On September 15th, after a delayed start due to cold temps and frost on the wings, I took off from Peterson Field and flew North: 010 heading towards Ft. Yukon, through the White Mountains, past the Crazy Mountains and the Little Crazy Mountains, past Victoria Mountain and towards Burman Lake and Birch Creek Village. Burman Lake holds a special memory for me because it was here, on the frozen surface of this lake in 1983, that my old friend, now long deceased, Joe Firman demonstrated for me the secrets of ski flying, and this lake with its multiple channels and impressive length was the perfect place. As Joe said; "you could make 5 touch and goes in just one pass"!
My route of flight took me over Ft. Yukon and onward to the Porcupine River - that incredible river of clear water, long smooth gravel bars and The Ramparts, where the river cuts through a rocky gorge near the Canada Border.
When I reached my goal, Old Rampart, site of a Hudson Bay Trading Post in the 19th Century, I landed on the rocky shore and took pictures of a statuesque obelisk that arises at the mouth of the Salmon Trout River. This is wild Alaska at its most remote. beautiful, pristine and untouched by man. The great privilege of the Arctic Pilot!
Wolf tracks preserved in the dried river mud.
