Day 10, July 4, Anchorage, AK to Whitehorse, YK

Dad called Mom and she said, "when are you coming home?" so I guess it was time to head back.   Today we planned our first leg from Anchorage to Northway, 265 nautical miles.  There was a weather system over Anchorage but the cloud temperatures were above freezing and the cloud heights were forecast to be lower than our planned altitude of 10,000 ft MSL, so we filed IFR to fly over the clouds.    Leaving Anchorage we got a nice view of a glacier before entering the clouds:



Now the fun began.  We climbed up to our altitude of 10,000 ft. and we weren't above the clouds.  We requested 12,000 feet and that did the trick.  But for a brief 15 seconds, we passed through the very top of the system, and entered clouds and got a sheet of ice on the plane.  Oh boy.  Icing is scary because it adds weight to the plane, but worse, it destroys lift, the force that keeps your plane aloft.  Fortunately that was the worst of it and the clouds decreased and eventually disappeared, and the ice quickly sublimated.  I always like to have an out, and in that case, if the clouds had been a little higher, our out was to turn around and return to Anchorage.  But all looked well ahead of us at this point.   The weather was forecast to be VFR (visual flight rules, i.e., good weather) at Gulkana, about the halfway point and this was our second out, if weather deteriorated towards Northway.  We flew over Gulkana and it was clear to the  surface.  Then we entered clouds.  and got ice.  and turned around.  and informed ATC we were canceling IFR.  and landed in Gulkana.   No problem.  Now what.  Well, the guys at Gulkana said, you might be able to fly the river valley VFR.   There are a couple of places where the route could be blocked by clouds but plenty of room to turn around.   This turned out to be one of the most fun flights I've ever made.   We were in a glacier valley for much of the way, with plenty of emergency landing spots, and enough landmarks to know where we were and not turn down the wrong valley.  We were also following a road.  And we had the GPS.  Once we got to Nabesna, probably the most narrow and highest spot, it was all clear and we turned left, headed out the Nabesna river and the ground descended beneath us. 

Here we are heading up the Copper River valley:



Here is Northway Alaska.  Recall this airport was closed on our way up, but winds finally shifted.  


After fuel in Northway, our next stop was Whitehorse.  There was marginal VFR reported on the way to Beaver Creek and then it was supposed to clear up.  And that's exactly what happened.   Here's the last of the smoke:


And here's beautiful Kluane Lake:




There was a gorgeous glacier to our right that we just admired and didn't take a picture of.  I wouldn't have minded flying up there to check it out.  

We arrived in Whitehorse in clear weather and called the number for customs and they cleared us into Canada with no questions.  We stayed at the High Country Inn and had a nice dinner at the Westmark Hotel.