We’ve enjoyed several flights up Knik River recently. I’ve flown solo, flown with my honey, plus flew guests who’re staying at our house. All were fun trips up to the glaciers.
Most flights were sightseeing along the glaciers and and looking for critters on the lower elevations of the adjacent mountains – mountain goats, moose, bears, other planes. Then we land on the clay pan between Knik and Colony Glaciers for a short walk over to Inner Lake George (the lake in front of Colony Glacier), then just sit and absorb the silence. We also had to perform the obligatory ritual of collecting glacier ice from Colony Glacier. Later at home, those drinks even taste thousands of years old with that old ice.
I took my honey flying up Knik River on a Friday before our guests arrived. We landed at the Clay Strip (AKA Mud Strip). I had to go and embarrass myself with the biggest bounced landing I’ve had in years. More embarrassing than damaging fortunately. My wife is not a enthusiastic flyer, my botched landing probably scared my wife more than she admitted. Fortunately, only my wife saw (and felt) the landing, as no other planes or people were there.
I have been practicing my short-field landings while solo, with only me in the front seat and survival gear in the back. So maybe the different weight & balance threw off my short-field landing timing – more of an analysis than an excuse…OK, that’s a feeble excuse.
My honey n I landed at 0830 and experienced the hottest day of our summer. It was an easy 70 degrees F on our walk up the moraine (temperature hit 76 degrees at Merrill Field when we landed later in the morning). Luckily as we walked down the moraine, we walked into the cold glacier air trapped within the moraine. That unexpected cold air felt sssoooo good.
We continued strolling down the moraine to the lake edge in front of Colony Glacier and stood in awe as the glacier calved. We enjoyed watching the shoreline as the lake water rose and fell from the mini-tsunamis created from the calving glacier. Lots of photos were taken this day.
The moraine is formed from the glacier’s last advance. As the glacier advances, rocks and gravel are bulldozed in front of the glacier, pushing up a berm. Then, when the glacier retreats, the moraine forms a bowl which traps glacier meltwater, creating a lake. The moraine in front of Colony Glacier averages maybe 150 feet high, with a 200 feet wide gap for the lake’s outlet river. So all the air trapped within that lower third of the moraine bowl is chilled by the glacier and icebergs floating on the lake. The water (and air) stays very cold. While we were relaxing on the shore, we even saw ice trying to form on the lake surface near the larger bergs.
My wife n I had several critter sightings flying up and back. We saw a momma mountain goat and her kid grazing close to a waterfall. Which was very cool, regrettably, neither of us had our cameras ready…we planned to fly over em on the flight out…the goats had moved on by then. We also saw gobs of swans and moose along our coming and going routes.
Our guests were up from Montana vacationing and touring Southcentral Alaska. They had a couple days before their fishing charters began, so I took the boyfriend, Noel, flying up Knik River on Saturday. We flew upriver along the north side of the valley – which is where most the moose browse. Then flew over Knik and Colony Glaciers so Noel could photo the glacier faces and long winding paths of each glacier. We landed at the Clay/Mud Strip uneventfully. Two planes were already parked and tied down on the strip. The windscreens were dew covered, so we assumed those folks were camping.
When we were walking back to the cub, we saw folks loading up one of the other planes. Turned out to be a dad and his two sons. And sure enough, they had camped on the lake side of the moraine. Not sure they’ll camp so close to the glacier again, as the calving glacier was louder than expected in the middle of the night. We gabbed with them awhile, then mosseyed over to load our gear in our plane. We waited for them to taxi and take off before we got in the cub. They were in a Piper PA-12, a three-seat version of the two-seat Super Cub. So Noel got to witness a well-performed short-field take off.
Stephanie (our other guest) & I planned on flying Sunday morning. Unfortunately, at 0600, the Weather and Hazards Viewer website showed the winds already blowing 15 mph at Butte and Palmer. The winds were forecast as 15 to 30. I wussed out.
One the return leg with Noel from Knik River to Anchorage, we survived the lumpy, winds of 15 mph, which is not too uncomfortable for someone out on a flight-seeing trip. Any winds higher than that would’ve made the flight uncomfortable for Stephanie.
They have another couple days in the area. Weather permitting, we’ll try to get Stephanie up flying after their Kenai River fishing expedition.
More photos from the last two flights.
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