Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Summer in Bettles, Airplane Wrenchin'

Just a note to confirm Dennis made it to Bettles ok. He said he'd mail (as in postal service) an SD card from time to time, and when he does I'll post some pics. This remote work scenario is probably old hat to you long-term Alaskans, but interesting to many here maybe.

He's got very limited email and no text capability as of yet. From email:

"I have a 3 room cabin/house. There is a bedroom, a living room, a connected kitchen to the living room and a hall that goes to a small bath and a storage room. My bedroom floor is sloped about 2-3 degrees- welcome to the tundra!
Wright Air flies here every morning and usually every afternoon. Today there were TWO Grand Caravans that dropped off cargo near as I could tell. Yesterday there were only Navajos. Ruby loves it here of course. I have taken a few photos. I will send a card about every 2 weeks I guess. There is a phone here and I can get calls if I'm but the office. I don't know the number off hand but it is on their website. She told me that the FAX number is also a good number to use since they don't have a fax. I will get a calling card and make occasional calls.
So far we only have one operational aircraft- a Cessna 206. I put a new elevator control rod in a Beaver today and it should be ready to fly by Monday. The float planes are still in storage. There are moose and caribou sheds everywhere here.
I had bear jerky for lunch. I haven't seen any critters except hares so far- and a few geese. There are canoes out the ass here, aluminum, composite, plastic- must be 10 of them. He said that he doesn't use them anymore. Only inflatables now. I guess it is too much of a PITA to haul them in planes. You can't get rid of anything so they just stack up! Canoes EVERYWHERE. I need a bike. I am working on that.


He said he overnighted in the Golden North Hotel in Fairbanks and recommended it if one just wants a clean bed and bath and no frills -- definitely not a "lodge" type place. He also said the produce at Fred Meyers in Fbks was awesome, and bitched like the rest of us about the new big game tag prices.

Also, Ruby is his dog.

I'll add new stuff to the thread if I get it.

J

You certainly re-calibrate your standards as far what you consider acceptable accommodations when working in remote Alaska.

Thats assuming some of us have standards... We do of course but they are very low. Especially when it comes to sleeping, no need in fancy if my eyes are closed lol.

I'm sure we'll see some photos of photos of Ted Nugent, at least I guess they're still posted in the lodge. Is he working for Brooks Range Aviation or Wrights or who?

He has a floor and bitches because it has a wee list???

2 to 3 degrees is hardly enough to help ya get going in the morning!

Hope he enjoys his stay.

Hope he has his stuff packed for when he decides to not go back!

Ya can't bitch if your boots aren't frozen to the floor or your hair to the wall.....

It's Dennis. Variance from specification must be opined.

I told him to put a wedge under his head and STFU.

PM sent, Legit.

According to Dennis' last weather post a couple days ago, the ice on the pond where the float planes take off is still thick enough to support his weight. Which means 2/3 of the fleet is pretty useless.

The dog, however, is happy as a pig in s#$T.

Hey, if the dog is happy, what's he got to bitch about?

Now me, I'm down on the Kenai, and it ain't much warmer than Kotzebue, at least in the morning. That's a legit bitch! And it's been windy. and spitting a few drizzles.

I came south for this????

Fortunately, I have a chit-load of in-garage jobs to do.

I spent 5 hours today in the house and garage looking for the car keys.

Still missing....

This civilized life isn't all it's cracked up to be!

But the garage is looking a little bit better! Those bastids are around somewhere- I drove the rig home just yesterday!

Suck it up LAS!
Put on your rain gear and get after those kings......the river is full of em!
Save me a king fillet as we can't have any from the Copper this year.

come on down to TX if its to cold there.... 95 followed by 92 followed today likely by about 88 and 100% humidity... ugh.

You can have the heat and humidity. I just got back from a quick trip to POW and returned with a redneck sunburn. Sunny and 70* is perfect for this PNW boy. It blew a gale the first night then cleared to bluebird skies. It's beautiful here today so hopefully that gale blew winter out and the North Pacific high has set in for the summer.

I don't want it. Havent' been able to deal with it much in years... so 4-6 months out of the year my productivity is slower and I"m flat miserable.

They were in the pantry... I have NO idea!

Received an email from Dennis while away at a BR shooting match this weekend. Said he has been there 2 weeks and it is an interesting place.

Does he like how they call it bettles ..yet the empty town of bettles is down stream and on the other side of the river...lol

I had to 'come to town' today. Going back in the morning. I am working for Brooks Range. Our pond is ready and the first plane goes on it today. Then I have to get the beavers ready.

About my bedroom. There is such a slant on the floor that twice I have got up in the middle of the night- well, there is no night here, but anyway, still half asleep and I have stumbled downhill like a drunk and crashed into my desk! I am learning to wake up more before I stand up! We have a super cub that we get to use after work but it has been to windy lately to have any fun playing. Today was great but I am not there.

I have seen one bull moose so far -bedded on a river bend oblivious to the super cub. According to the USFW guys that are monitoring the tracking collars, the big bears are still up pretty high- 3500' so none down where we are flying yet. Lots of rabbits (hares?) in town. Season should start kicking off next week with some river rafting folks coming. Not sure when I will get to town again and not enough bandwidth on our system to surf- check emails and the weather is about it. If anyone comes through- say howdy.

Dennis

Have a blast!

"Then I have to get the beavers ready." Sounds like a great job!!!

Oh, you probably meant Beavers.

Jeff

Not sure anyone would want a Beaver-sized beaver...

Oh, and an Otter too

That otter keep you busy for a while!

No doubt- needs and engine swap.

Headed back to the village. Might be a couple of months before I see phones and internet again..

Later

If you get to fbks for a bit give me a heads up Dennis. My pard has worked for everts air for near 40 years and is doing some side gigs working on smaller traditional aircraft. You two could probably understand each other. Me I just nod.

Never heard of a wallow?

I am still living the dream. Interesting place to work. Meeting lots of nice people and a few weird ones!

An apt description of a the entire state

Glad to hear that you're enjoying it!

Dennis, make sure you say hi to Jeff Meierotto and his wife Sheryl. She grew up there and they still keep at least one place there as well as their hanger and home in Two Rivers. I just spend a week with him on Kodiak and know he and Sheryl are up there now.

458, Is that Marty's kin?

Jeff is Marty's brother and Steve is the third. they all live in Two Rivers on their own airstrip
And all three are highly competent individuals with equally competent spouses. Sheryl may have grown up in Bettles but she graduated from Harvard !

Well, that was graphic! Laughing!

This just in -- a few pics of life in Bettles sent via snail mail on an SD card

I know some of you old Sourdoughs find aircraft and bush camp environs to be old hat, but forbear. Some of these pics are of a place called Wild Lake. That's where the laker was caught -- only fish of the day They were making a supply run to some miner on a claim there.







The moneymaker:



fuel,anyone?

$30 plate at the local lodge:


OK that wasn't true.

Dennis's cabin Camp Slopemore:



The place is littered with un-used good canoes like these, abandoned for inflatables:



Ruby living the dream:



Note the date:

Mediocre views daily:



Aptly named street:



Pickups:

Ruby picked up a gig as an OSHA Powered Industrial Truck instructor.



These guys don't have many ice-free days to make a living:




Will post more as they arrive.

It don't suck.

Far better camp than I had in Qatar and Kazakhstan. What trip it must be...

Amen to that!

What's Dennis bitchin' about??? There's carpet on the floor! That ain't roughin' it, that's civilization!

Ed

Don't think Dennis was bitchin, just noting the relative merits of bush living!

It beats the hell out of 120* in Phoenix this week!

If Ruby is happy....

An English Professor of mine had a serious pet peeve over using synonyms to describe the same thing... Hell and Phoenix really are the same word...

I"d tend to agree about Phoenix.... watching the weather now and then anyway.

No bitchin' here. I saw the weather report in Phx. No thanks. Woke up to light rain this morning and cool temps. Should be a good day. River is clearing up and mosquitoes aren't getting any worse. Need to go fishing again-soon.

Yep -- 119 at the airport, but county weather station near me confirmed: 120 and 8% humidity.

103 at 0700 this am,

Snivelers!

I think we hit 75 today. Did I mention I woke up to a light drizzle? Found out today the pilot we were counting on can't make it. Need another float pilot!

So it IS a dry heat.

Looks like a great time.

I've noticed that Fairbanks has had some 80+ degree days already.

I thought 90 plus actually, but I could be wrong.

Not sure if we hit 90 or not but when it hit mid 80s was plenty hot for me

We're having a gorgeous summer here

Finally got out and did some fishing. Took the Beaver and hit Walker lake. Caught 5 nice trout in 20 minutes including one about 20#. Then hopped to another lake and did the same with pike for about 30 minutes and then flew home. It was about 1 am by the time we got back. Glad I got to sleep in until 7 Sunday morning. Kept one trout and had it for dinner last night. Kept all the pike, boss is pickling them. I can't post photos but maybe Jeff with throw one up!

Here's one of the trout.

A great day at the beach!

That is a good looking fish!

That is good fish, I hope the bears do not see it.

I ate him first- no bears!

Dennis,

Hope to get a chance to meet you. Arrive at BRA via Wright Air on Aug 17th.

Kurt

Hey Dennis-

Is the fella with the mustangs still there?

I got a story about an interesting day spent there.

Kurt, I will be around. There aren't that many of us so I will see you- might not know you but I usually meet everyone at some point. Between pulling people off the Caravans (Wrights) and transporting folks to the float pond to talking to them in the office I get to see everyone. August is MUCH busier so we'll see how it goes.

Nobody with mustangs or at least I haven't heard the story. I will inquire tomorrow!

What's the scuttlebut on the 210 that sank in Wild Lake? Really a 210 or did the FAA botch the reporting, again?

Dennis emailed that it was in fact a 210 and it is in fact at the bottom. He can fill in more.

No fatalities, though.

Glad to see you're having fun in the neighborhood. Any idea when you're heading back outside? If you find yourself buzzing on floats around down towards the yukon feel free to drop in. It's a bit of a ride but just over the hill by Alaska standards. I'm between Ruby and Tanana.

Good directions by Alaska standards... I'm sure he will find you, if he looks.

How hard could it be?

Dennis, Thanks for the photo of your Pike. I tried to respond to your email, but remember your short time with a connection. Have fun Buddy, you are sure in God's favorite country.

Thanks.

Yes, an older 210 WITH lift struts. I can't find the tail number. His phone was in the bottom of Wild lake so he couldn't call out. I heard a rumor from some fisherman that stopped in for fuel so we hurried over to check on the rumor. He was OK, a little cut up from crawling through the broken windscreen. Plane was 30' deep already when he crawled out. His wife watched the whole thing from shore. They neighbors saw it and jumped in their boat to rescue any survivors. When I talked to him he had not yet talked to the NTSB so I won't share any details. Wild lake is 500 feet deep in the middle. That plane is there forever. I'm just glad Marty is OK.

I have some internet in the early mornings so I can occasionally get a photo or two out. So far only Pike and lakers on the hook. Can't wait to get after the sheefish. Had some for dinner a couple of nights ago- fantastic eating.

Yeah, I was being a little vague on purpose. Figure Dennis can PM me if he wants more specific directions. 😀

Of course on the 120 miles of river between Tanana and Ruby there are only two places that are occupied year round, so we do kind of stand out a little.

Feeling crowded?

On occasion. 😉

Engine quit, the only 210 on floats? Curious?

N9664X

Back in Arizona for 3 days- Dayammm it is hot here and I thought Bettles was bad!

Enjoy Arizona. Didn't get flooded did you?

No, most of the rain missed us. 9 people drown in Payson Saturday, flashfloods are more dangerous than folks think! We got 1/4" here at the house. Bettles, meanwhile has had some bad electrical storms with their own wildfire an all!

I heard some thunder last night north of here, but it was far off. That's probably what Bettles was getting. Smokey here this morning. I'll have to check the fire map again this afternoon once the planes are up and around reporting anything new.

Buddy picked me up at the terminal, went to the grocery store and got some supplies and flew back in Don's 170. I had great weather all the way. About Prospect creek it got smokey and I could barely see the runway in Bettles until I was on about a 3 mile final. Anyway it's nice and cool this morning.

Dennis, you guys getting any rain out this weather. I keep seeing big black clouds rolling by, but no rain to speak of here. The Mrs said it's raining on the slope this morning. We haven't had any real precip in about a month with lots of highs in the 80's. One good lightning event could get this tinderbox rolling. Was welding on an aluminum hull the other day and had to soak the ground where I was working because every time I raised my hood I was kneeling in fire. Kept things interesting.

Yes, rained pretty good yesterday late afternoon. They have started resurfacing our runway and the moisture was a blessing. Lots of fire crews here lately. The tractors were dropping water on one last night. I see they aren't back this morning so they must have put it out.

We got some right after I posted that yesterday, but by the afternoon you'd have never known it. The Brooks range is beautiful country and probably my favorite part of Alaska. I realize you're not in the Brooks, but you're awfully close. I hope you're getting out enough to really see some of it while you're here.

BEARS....


Yesterday morning we got a frantic call from some geologists that we had dropped off at one of the lakes. They had a bear come through camp and charged them. Luckily for them, they had an 870 with slugs and one of them threw 4 rounds down range (close range). The gun was now empty and the bear between them and the rest of the ammo. The high tailed it the the lodge at the end of the lake. The girl was still in her underwear- I guess it really rattled them.

Took my dog and found the bear. It was dead. His shooting was good. No need for the dog- it only made it 20' from the beach where they shot.
A decent sized boar. I skinned it out for them and we took them all back to Bettles to unwind. Hide and skull goes to the fish cop whenever they send someone to get it.
It was the first time he had shot at anything but paper. My hats off to the lad from Stanford! The Swede wanted to shoot my Tikka so we did a little target shooting on the beach. Did you know a 200 grain Partition will go all the way though a plastic Folgers can? Who would have thought! I think these kids may be all right.

Dang black bears are giving Alaska a bad name this summer!

It's good for them. Toughen them up. Perhaps they'll realize Alaska isn't a cross between disneyland and a petting zoo. I hear those folgers cans are TOUGH!!! :-)

Good of you to go help out. Did you bother putting a tape on the hide?

Nope- looked like a 6 footer though.

Ruby got to find her a BIG rabbit! I bet she was fired up.

U on the north bank, near the hot' spring?

I would guess you're thinking of big eddy fish camp. It's about a mile below the trail that goes into horner. While very prominent, people are generally only there for fishing nowadays. John and Lorraine used to be there year round, but that was quite some time ago. I'm about six miles further downriver from there.

Dennis, a 6'er is certainly pretty good size for that country. I've got a similar sized hide hanging over the banister by the stairs. It was shot in early September and the amount of fat on that critter was crazy!

Ran that country a bunch, there was a guy (?) who only had a canoe ,would paddle to galena and BACK home wit supply's...! http://jukebox.uaf.edu/RavenStory/htm/honea.htm ....sorry to OP we'll stop here !!

In 1980, I spent a few weeks as a F&G fish counter using John's fishwheel and living in their summer fish camp cabin a mile or so below Big Eddie, where the Honeas lived when not in Ruby. We used his fish wheel between openings for a count. Actually, his daughter Valery and her boyfriend of the time, Randy Kangas (remember him?) were operating the fish wheel for commercial catch, but it belonged to John.

One night in Ruby, I listened to John and Sidney Huntington trade stories of "the old days". Lordy, my ribs ached!

The best line of the night was when they were talking about going to village dances and getting in fights with the full-blood boys. One of them, probably Sydney, said "It's a good thing the girls liked half-breeds, or I'd be a virgin yet!"

Valerie (one of the most beautiful women I've ever personally met) was in the the room. She just looked at me and shook her head.

I was riding to Galena to retrieve my canoe (left there 2 years before) in Val's boat on a fish run, when we spotted a grizzly swimming the river. "Watch this", she said.

We went by that bear 10 feet away under full load and power, making a big wake, which rolled that bear. It was so mad that when it reached shore it bounced up and down on all four stiff legs, daring us to come ashore. That night, a half dozen fish camps were bear-wrecked.

I'm sure one had nothing to do with the other.....

A couple times a week my camp partner and I would go up to Horner Hot Springs for a bath. She was pretty good looking too, even with her clothes on. I was , alas, happily married. And still am, same wife.

Las, pm headed your way.

Weather has been cooler here lately, probably humid and miserably hot in Phx. Kurt, USMC2602, and his buddies are here. Just got in from Bou hunting. Kurt killed a really nice bull. Probably the nicest one to come in yet this year. They took good care of me with some care packages and leftover grub from their trip. Thx Kurt!

Dall sheep meat is the best thing I have eaten in ages. The Shee fish I had for dinner a couple of nights ago was probably the second best. Lots of good experiences up here.

Bears are still a problem, one friend of mine was home for lunch and heard someone honking the horn on his Ford Ranger. He went out to see what they wanted and it was a bear inside the truck. His shotgun was IN the truck with the bear. He called us on the cordless phone and a radio call went out. By the time I got them the bear had ripped the stuffing out of his seat -while he watched- and walked back into the trees. I think he will keep his windows up now when he parks!
If I knew how to post photos with the new system I would put one up. I guess I'll send a couple to Talus and let him figure it out!

Sounds like you are having a great time Dennis.

What is a shee fish?

Google.

It's one word, BTW.