Sorry for the long hiatus! It's crazy how quickly time has passed since I wrote this piece for the Kobuk Valley National Park blog. I’ve been keeping very busy, and hopefully will have more time to tell you all about everything I’ve been doing. Summer is flying by; soon I’ll be home sitting under the changing fall leaves of Michigan trees. But for now, read about my first experience in a bush plane!
In the early morning of June 7th, my first flight in a bush plane, I practically jumped out of bed full of excitement and nerves. Holding my breath, I slowly approached the window to check the weather conditions. They would determine whether I could prepare for the trip or go back to sleep. I drew back the dark curtains, and was greeted with a bright blue sky and a calm ocean in the distance. The perfect morning for flying in a bush plane! Trips in small aircraft are extremely weather dependent; even if the weather is clear, windy conditions make for a very uncomfortable ride. The NPS pilots prefer flying in the morning because convective air currents generally increase in the afternoons, creating more turbulence.
At 7:00 AM, I met the other NPS staff at the hangar, including an NPS pilot and NPS Education Specialist. We slipped on the Nomex flight suits over our clothes, which were all entirely made of natural fibers such as wool, cotton, or leather. We also put on PFD vests stocked with emergency kits. Once dressed in the proper gear, our pilot oriented us to the plane and ensured we knew how to use the seatbelts, open the doors and windows, and shut off the fuel and engines. He also pointed out the personal locating beacon (PLB), and emergency tent and sleeping bags. After about 45 minutes of preparation, we called Kotzebue Airport Control Center and Denali Dispatch to receive clearance to depart.
With butterflies in my stomach, I sat in the backseat and readied for takeoff. I felt the plane start to shake and heard the engine loudly roar as it got going, and suddenly saw the outside world start to move. We made our way to the runway, then sped up and lifted off the ground. I felt my stomach flip a little as the buildings in Kotzebue began to shrink in size. Using the radio headphones, the NPS pilot asked if everyone was OK. I felt better than I expected, thankful for the calm weather to make this flight as smooth as it could be.
Every year seasonal employees, like me, join the NPS team to work in the Western Arctic National Parklands. The remote nature of these parks make visiting them a challenge, even for employees & local residents. Seasonal employees are unfamiliar with the three parklands managed from Kotzebue. These parks are Cape Krusenstern National Monument, Noatak National Preserve, and Kobuk Valley National Park. In order to better understand the parklands, this park unit makes an effort to send employees out for short trips.The opportunity to fly over and see the parklands with my own eyes will help me to be a better resource for park visitors.
On this trip, we flew over wild rivers, mountain ranges, and the sand dunes of Kobuk Valley National Park. We also landed at the dunes to experience them as visitors might. After I floundered out of the plane and onto the sand, I slowly scanned the landscape. I saw massive mounds of sand with intermittent clusters of short plants growing, a shallow river, and a forest of spruce on the other side of the valley we landed in. There was a light breeze, but the sand and the June sun felt warm and comfortable. We walked toward the trees, crossing the shallow river, and found a trail created by wildlife through the bush.
As we moved along this trail, we noticed lots of scat left by different wildlife. One pile was definitely bear scat, full of caribou fur. Could it have been left by a bear following the recent caribou migration? We also observed wildflowers of many kinds growing with the lichen and other tundra plants close to the ground. In June, everything is just beginning to bloom, grow, and thrive—including the mosquitoes. Several surrounded us, but I imagine their numbers will dramatically increase before the summer is through.
It was incredible to visit the sand dunes of Kobuk Valley, but I also enjoyed viewing the colorful and unique landscape from the sky. The Kobuk, Squirrel, and Salmon rivers, the Baird mountains, and the villages and remote camps were fascinating. With this trip, I gained first-hand experience to prove that the wilderness in Alaska is magical.