Sunday, 22 May: Ride Along to the George Inlet Lodge

 

This afternoon Dan was assigned to fly out to George Inlet Lodge to pick up passengers who were there after booking an Excursion Crab Fest. That means they flew out on a Taquan airplane to the lodge, road on their boat to their crab pots, retrieved some Dungeoness Crab to take back to the lodge to eat. Then Taquan comes back for them and gives them a 20 minute flight tour on the way back to KTN.

The George Inlet Lodge is, of course, on the George Inlet, which is North and East of KTN. Dan says that when you take off from Taquan in the Tongass Narrows you fly to Mountain Point, then turn left at the George Inlet. All I know is that it is, again, a pretty flight. And today's flight was very, very smooth. It was high overcast and Dan flew over Revillagigedo (the island that Ketchikan is on) at 2,000 feet.

It is amazing that we have had sunny and relatively warm temperatures but there is still snow on the mountains. In fact some of the lakes in the Misty's are still frozen. But I will save that story with pictures for the next blog.

See the snow on the ground and on the mountain?

This is the head of the George Inlet

We are flying a little lower now because right around the end of Revillagigedo (locals just call it Revilla) we will be turning right to get to the lodge. BTW, Dan says you can use Google Earth, look up Ketchikan to find all of these places. Just go there and look around.

Here is the George Inlet Lodge. Look at how glassy the water is. Dan is going to have to do a glassy water landing. But I know he can do it!

The Lodge used to be at a different location as part of a logging camp in the 60s or 70s. The previous owners moved it via barge to the location where it is now, and turned it into a lodge. If you would like you could do a Google search for George Inlet Lodge Ketchikan to learn more about it.

Here is the plane we flew there in. We are not at the edge of the dock by choice, it is just about that small. I know that you cannot get two planes there. I hope our people are ready because there is another plane coming behind us to pick up 4 other passengers.

These are our passengers. Looks like they are all tuckered out from eating too much crab. They did say that they enjoyed the flight-seeing on the way back to KTN.

Once back at Taquan, Brian, the dock worker fills up Dan's plane before Dan ramps it for the day. He, Dan, has a flight tomorrow morning. Everyday, 5 days a week, they have a passenger, a psychologist (therapist) who works with the native people. She lives in Ketchikan, but works in Metlakatla on Annette Island. Taquan takes her out in the morning and ProMech Air picks her up in the evening (a 15 minute flight each way).

Well, all the planes, except one who is going on a freight run, are back for the day. Pilots will begin ramping their planes. It is fun to watch. But ya gotta plug your ears when they do that because, at full power, it gets really, really loud.