Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska I need a card...

Last year about this time I picked up a guy (older than me!) about 7 miles down the beach who had bogged his ATV down 15 miles farther down, and was about done-in walking back.

10 days or so ago I met a guy (not much younger than me!) a mile farther down the beach than the last guy. He said he'd bogged out down at Arctic Circle- some 35 miles farther down the beach, and had been walking for two days. He asked for water, which I had. He was looking a little peaked, so I also gave him a couple breakfast bars, a Snickers, and a ride back to town.

Last night I was all nekkid and climbing into bed when I saw Northwest Aviation's floatplane on the lagoon out the bedroom window.

"Cool", I thought, "they just brought in some hunters from camp". But the prop wasn't moving, and I didn't see anyone in the cabin. Went out to the living room and binoced the plane. No visible pepe in the cabin- and the plane was slowly drifting backward, motor into the wind.

I called 911, then on their advice, the radio station (no answer). Ran next door to Lew Pagel, Kotzebue's Finest (and only) Chiropracter. We jumped into his boat moored 30 yards out back, and zipped down to the plane, now half way down the lagoon. Off the front of the left float there was a dragging line which I reeled in to find a 4 foot, 2" pipe, (picket turned sea anchor) on the end of the 20 foot rope. Matching rope on the right pontoon, no pipe, so I tied them together as a bridal and hitched my 10 foot dog leash to it (only thing handy at quick notice! ), and Lew put a tow on it.

Wasn't working well, so we went to plan B, coming up alongside the left float, which had a slack-rope attached to fore and aft cleats. Using that to hold the plane alongside, we begin to tow it into the lower lagoon launch place, which we had just drifted past, a half mile below where the plane came loose just above our residences. There were flashing cop lights there and they had been hailing us on the bull-horn, but we couldn't understand... About half way in, a coming-back-from-camp boat came thru under Second Bridge (we are clever in our naming of places here...) , beached, then took on someone at the landing, and came back out. The pilot. Hence the bull-horn.. Cops also had both my and Lew's cell numbers, but we had cleverly left the phones in our houses....

Pilot boarded the plane, dressed the loose lines and got into the cabin as we eased off a bit on standby. The way this guy's day was going.... but the engine fired right up, no sweat. Still had 300-400 yards of drift to the lee-shore.

End of excitement.

Likely would have been more excitement out there had I not taken the time to get (sort-of) dressed before going over to Lew's. No socks, underwear, or shirt, just boots, jeans and a medium weight rain-proof hunting jacket.

Might have been a bit uncomfortable nekkid in that cold rain and light wind, too....

Anyone know the salvage value on a 172 or 180? I don't know my planes, much...

Oh yeah. I forgot the part about Tripper Lab (all 90 lbs) on the back rack of the ATV on our way back to town 10 days ago...

He wasn't giving up an inch of space...If I'm going to get that intimate with an Eskimo, I'd rather it be female than a two-day walking guy...

Sounds like the knuckle head with the airplane owes you, big time. Were you there when Buck Maxson (sp?) took Jim Betts out in his 206 on floats to pull a guy out of the surf? That was something else.

Not familiar with that one. But there is all sorts of stuff that happens in the tulies that never gets wide-spread...

If some of this stuff happened in Anchorage or South-Central, it would make national news.

We kinda like it this way...

las:

Jim Kincaid owes you a favor.

KC

Wonder what Jim Ruud would have thought?

Truly regret not going on a drop off moose hunt with that guy.

Great pics......oh wait- there were none were there? (But I swear I could see the whole thing!)

While that situation sounds like it could/should have been avoided, all too many of these types of things happen all too frequently it seems, just because the odds get tested so many times "out there".

It's always nice to get the upper hand before it's your turn. (This is a real-world "pay-it-forward" situation that a lot of folks could learn from. Hopefully the pilot will remember your favor when he comes across someone else in need.)

It's always nice to get the upper hand before it's your turn

That's my plan! BTDT- and am not hesitant to cashing in on it.

PS. Lew's cop buddy on shore said he got pics.... As said, we neglected the finer points.

Funny story!

Only if you ain't nekkid.

I wuz traumatized...

Probably 50 other guys here have done similar stuff n the last couple years, but they ain't on Campfire....

It's the lay of the land.

"Reality TV" has no clue... how can it, being scripted? It ain't all that dramatic - just what is.

But, damn - it's fun!

good play on stopping a fleeing seaplane in mid-self-evacuation!
No thanks from anyone yet?

would think your drinkin would be free for a good bit las


but can imagine the guy being a bit shell shocked to realize how close he'd come to disaster without you and the chiro's quick response.

if indeed you're not offered ANYTHING by the guy, remind me never to fly with him. (grin)


now here's my "rescue" story as a contrast to yours las.


headed back from a great day at CHSR yesterday, we come upon a minivan stopped in our lane (of course headed back to FBKS) with the emergency lights flashing. "Great" sez I to myself, "here go my plans to get home at a decent time and fix the boys dinner"

pull around them and pull over and get my blinkers blinking, run back in the light rain to see what the trouble is with the van.

inside are 3-4 lil Jap lady tourists with some kind of Tom-Tom
"what seems to be the problem?" I query

I want to go to CHSR, is this the right way?


holy F me, you stopped in the middle of the road, with a side road not 15 feet from you to figure out directions?????

told em they needed to turn around and go back about 35 miles

as we pulled out, I looked in the rearview and saw her turn around in the road, again rather than using the side road and the car that had to wait for her to make her maneuver.


lol a tale of two cities,


and NO las, she didn't offer me a BJ or anything else either! (grin)

The goal of those Japanese tourists is to conceive a child under the northern lights........was it cloudy?

Las, good on you! That's what Alaska is about, a few folks that should take more care in what they do, and a few folks that go out of there way to take care of them.

Speaking of tourrorists, a couple times this summer I came out of church to be greated by guests to our state. We're right off the Seward hwy leaving town. I had one querry me about a note on their map about the scenic interest. I said the note indicated the entire Seward hwy was a scenic road but he kept insisting I tell him what the point of interest was where the words were placed on the map.

Have had plenty of people pull stupid chit in the middle of the road, sadly most of them live here. Have seen some flat out stoopid chit right out my office window on a weekly basis, people driving the wrong side on a divided road, swinging way inside on a turn almost hitting pedestrians, even a drug bust in the parking lot across the street. City life...

both the lady in question and myself, our child producing years are OVER!


but man there was this one hottie lil Japanese chick at the hot springs! But I didn't notice her cause I was there with the missus.

A buddy happened upon a guy in a camper on the Parks just south of Denali. Camped in the northbound lane, at night (not dark, but like 10PM). Curtains pulled, no lights on... just camping.

An insurance adjuster friend had a case where a family ran out of gas turning around on a narrow road, just over the brow of a hill. The truckful of youths that hit it was likely intentionally airborne when they tee-boned the car full of sleeping folks...

I've been not noticing stuff that I'd notice if I noticed things like that for nearly 38 years now. And the wife has always noticed that I'm not noticing that....

I seem to have lost the thread here...

oh you made the and the mrs. both chuckle las


you're a wordsmith pard