Manzanita Lake in the Misty Fjords National Monument Wilderness

Dan and I had Tuesday off from work. As it was the second in a row of beautiful days, we thought we'd better take advantage of it and fly out to Manzanita Lake for lunch. As you can see from the sign at the left, the lake is located in the Misty Fjords and there is a National Forest Service cabin at the lake. Actually there are two, but the one we picked for our picnic lunch is right next to a beautiful waterfall.

So, you are probably wondering how we got there. Well, when we were kayaking at Southeast Exposure Kayaks we learned that the owner has a Piper PA12 on floats, but he doesn't have a seaplane rating. So Dan has been instructing Jarad, and in return, he lets Dan use the PA12. The plane is a bit bigger than our Piper J3 Cub, with a bigger back seat that can accommodate two small people (like Stacie and Thomas) side by side (two seat belts) and the pilot flies from the front. And it has a bigger engine, more like a Super Cub (for those pilots who know). It is a plane with which Dan would like to replace our Cessna 185.

Dan on the float of the PA12

On Tuesday, after we slept in (8am instead of 5am, our usual wake up time during the rest of the week) we headed out to the Safeway grocery store to pick up sub sandwiches, then WalMart (of course) for a hitch and ball for the car (it already has the receptacle for it on the car frame) and finally out to Peninsula Point (locally known as Pen Point) where the airplane is kept. We had to launch the plane down a steep ramp. It was steep because the tide was going out. I didn't know my Rogue had it in her to do that big job. But she handled it beautifully.

The day was sunny, not a cloud in the sky, warm, 78 degrees for a high that day, and the wind was still relatively low, but due to build throughout the day. We loaded up the plane, launched it down the ramp, hopped in and got ready for take off. Once airborne, we headed out toward Ward Cove. We were going to fly up over Brown Mountain and look for mountain goats. Dan said we had to climb to about 4,000 feet to get over the mountain to see the goats.

The truck belongs to Jarad. This pic is from the day before.

Once off the trailer, Dan spins the plane around.

That's Ward Cove (on the left). We started our climb and headed up behind Ketchikan. The scenery was amazing, the airplane performed great. It seemed like no time at all and we were above it all. There was still a good amount of snow on the mountain tops. And I started to look for the mountain goats. Dan shouted, "There's some, did you see them?" What? Where??

"We'll turn around so you can see them again." I never saw them the first time! He shouted, "Right there, those little white dots!" Okay, he's shouting because there is only one head set in the plane and Dan has to use it to speak with any other planes in the area. I had no headset, so.........hence the shouting. Hmmm, little white dots huh? I think Dan's going to have to go around again. I'm trying to look for the goats, use the video camera and snap a picture with my camera. I told him, "Sure, I see them." Ah huh. If you zoom way in on the next picture, you will see a speck with a shadow, that's the mountain goat. And on the next picture, there are little white dots on the rocks. Zoom in and hopefully you will be able to make them out. So I don't care what anybody says, I SAW mountain goats!

Look down in the bottom left corner and zoom WAY in!

The goats are center, down a little and toward the left.

Brown Mountain

Dan figured it was time to head over to Manzanita Lake, whether I saw mountain goats or not (I saw them, I really did). We crossed over George Inlet, where the George Inlet Lodge is, over Carroll Inlet and Ella Lake, turn left to Manzanita Lake. We are now in the Misty Fjords National Monument.

There are two cabins on the lake; one on the south end of the lake and one on the north end of the lake. We went up to the north end, as that is where the waterfall is. Manzanita is a long and beautiful lake with grass land on the north end. We came around for our approach and landing. We landed and taxied toward shore. Dan opened the door as we slid onto the lake bottom at the shoreline and came to a stop. Good thing I wore my pink boots as we had to step out into ankle deep, clear, clean water.

I experienced the same feelings that I did the first time Dan and I landed in Nooya Lake in the heart of the Mistys. It was absolutely quiet, absolutely serene, absolutely breathtaking and awe-inspiring! I just had to take a moment to take it all in. The majestic beauty just leaves a lump in your throat.

Then I heard Dan shout, "Come on! I'll show you the waterfall." He was already half way up the path to the cabin and waterfall. We walked the short, steep, winding path and came upon the cabin. And behind the cabin was the waterfall. I shouted, "Oh wow! that is beautiful!" You may have noticed that we were doing a lot of shouting. Well, it wasn't because we were not close enough to each other that we couldn't hear each other. We just didn't want any bears to not hear us!

Double bunks on either side of the cabin with table in middle

Front door. Kitchen counter on the left. I think you use the stove for heat and cooking

Zoom in to see the location of Manzanita Lake

After looking around a little, we started to get hungry and decided to sit on this log to eat our lunch. Dan started looking into the stream that came down from the waterfall and noticed that there was a whole lot of sparkling going on in the sand. He scooped up some of the sand and the sparkling was definitely in the sand. Could it be gold??? Where's that little vile when you need it?

Or is it just "Fool's Gold?" I don't know, it sure was shiny. And when I poked at it, it bent instead of broke. Hmmmmm.............

Oh well, let's do a little more exploring. There was a path going up on the other side of the cabin. We decided to see where that went. It was more than a path. It was more of a boardwalk. Dan said he knew where the boardwalk ended and what was there...................

The "Throne Room"

What a view while you are sitting there contemplating

A yellow and orange Beaver on floats just flew by. Dan said it was RDM Aviation. He knew that one of these cabins was rented this weekend, but didn't know which one and when the people would be up. We were finished with out lunch adventure, so we decided to pack it out. But first Dan wanted to do a little fishing from the floats. I said, "Sure. I brought a book anyway."

Well, you know, they call it fishing, not catching! After a little while and a little drifting in the plane, we decided to stow the fishing pole and take off.

We flew over Ella Lake again, across Carroll Inlet, George Inlet and over Mahoney Mountain. When we flew over Mahoney Mountain, we could see Mahoney Falls. Wow! What great scenery. There was also another waterfall that was really long, but I don't know the name of that one. The plan was to fly over Upper Ketchikan Lake and Lower Ketchikan Lake, past Deer Mountain and come up from behind and over the town of Ketchikan. Everyday when I'm working, I look up at Deer Mountain. I know that between the mountain and the channel, the weather is held over town and it can be very different from around the other side of Mountain Point. It was really something to see the mountain from the top.

Mahoney Falls

Upper and Lower Ketchikan Lakes

Downtown Ketchikan

The Sea Princess was in at Dock 1 (bottom of picture), the Holland American's Zaandam was at Dock 2 (middle of the picture) and you can just see the stern of the Sapphire Princess at Dock 4. There wasn't any ship at Dock 3.

This is the Sapphire Princess at Dock 4. The two Princess ships are huge. But sometimes we have in Royal Caribbean's Radiance of the Seas, which is even bigger than the Princess ships.

I had a lot of fun on our day off. I feel very fortunate that I have been able to do the things we've done. Oh, by the way, in the picture of me above, I may look a little green, but that is only because the window on the top of the fuselage is green so it isn't so very hot in the sun. Even though it got pretty bumpy by the end of our afternoon, and the wind blew up some good sized waves and swell, it was a most perfect day.