Across Alaska- Part I Nome-ward Bound
Ever since we got married three years ago it has been our tradition to get a chunk of time off in late June, when Alaska summer is at its prime, and head out to explore a new destination. Last winter we had debated between a trip to the Aleutians and a trip to Nome. In the end, we decided to go for Nome and wait till we had a bigger plane or a couple friends to go with us to the Aleutians.
As it typically goes I got home after working the night shift, slept for a few hours then we packed the car and headed to the airport. According to the official iPhone weather report, we would have sun balls for days on our trip.
Our first stop was only 20 minutes west of Anchorage at Will & Goldie’s lake house complete with a grassy landing strip. Will has been giving me flight instruction for my tailwheel endorsement and he also sat down with us and gave us a lot of local knowledge for flying around the Nome are.
After a night at the cabin, we headed inland towards McGrath.
This picture is near Egypt Mountain just after the Iditarod checkpoint of Rohn.
Calm wind on the Yukon! We stopped in McGrath to refuel and we were greeted by 90-degree scorching weather with no wind or cloud coverage to help us out. All we could think about was ice cream and getting out of there.
Finally, we hit the coast and headed for Unalakleet.
Arriving at the colorful coastal town of Unalakleet.
No trip to Unalakleet is complete without a stop at Peace on Earth Pizza. Yum!
The amazing weather even made the 4-wheeler graveyard across from Peace on Earth look bright and fun.
Walking the beach just a stones throw from the airport.
We camped by our plane in the fields of flowers.
The next day we refueled and followed the Iditarod trail North.
We flew over Shaktoolik then turned South West after hitting Koyuk.
This is the Elim Airport. Impeccably symmetrical
Following the coast to the village of Golovin.
The Coastline was continually changing, sandy beaches to rocky cliffs filled with thousands of birds
The First sign of Nome was the long stretch of road following the coast that leads from Safety to Nome. This road marks the last stretch of the Iditarod dog race.
Nome Sweet Nome and home of my sister and Airport Pizza 🙂
Will & Goldie let us use their cabin 5 miles out of Nome on the Osbourne Road. We were able to land on the road and taxi into their driveway.
One theme of this trip turned out to be the weather. HOT weather. Inside the house felt like a sauna.
We didn’t have a car to drive in town so we ended up commuting into town with the plane. The city strip is conveniently a short walk to the grocery store, coffee shop, and my sister’s house. After landing we parked and watched this family run down the runway.
After visiting my sister and Nick we unloading the plane and repacked what we would need for a couple days before heading out to explore the Seward Peninsula.