Johnson Creek 180/185 Fly-in-17

Woodsen, who is part of the Alaskan chapter of the 180/185 club, had been receiving emails about a fly-in at Johnson Creek Idaho, but since our plans were all very flexible we weren’t sure if the timing would coincide for us to make it. We also had tentative plans to visit a friend in Smiley Creek Idaho after leaving Montana.

When we found out the 180/185 fly-in started on Thursday and our friend in Smiley creek wouldn’t be free till at least Friday, we decided to head to Johnson Creek for the fly in.

We had convinced Jason and Christina, the friends we had met at West Yellowstone, to join us in Johnson Creek, so the next day we packed up and took off. First up was a scenic tour of the park, then on to Johnson creek.

We flew to Yellowstone and flew over the canyon and waterfalls, Norris Basin, then on to Old Faithful and then my favorite—the Grand Prismatic. I was secretly hoping we would catch Old Faithful erupting, but no such luck. On to Johnson Creek.

As we got closer to Johnson Creek runway, it was hard for me to imagine a giant grassy strip amidst the dry forested mountains, but as we turned the corner there it was, a giant grassy strip easily visible from the Air.

We landed and parked and soon our neighbor, the owner of a beautiful Cessna 185 on amphibs, was introducing himself. One of the first questions you are asked when you fly somewhere is where you are from, and being from Alaska makes for a great conversation starter. Our neighbor, Steve, was from Texas but had called Alaska home for many years and still returned to enjoy Alaskan summers and spend time with family. After chatting for a bit we found out his son-in-law also worked for Alaska Airlines, then I realized I had read their log entry in the Italio River Cabin’s guest book earlier on this trip. What a small world!

Woodsen ran into another pilot he had flown with when he worked for Ravn, and it seemed like every other pilot we met had spent time in Alaska. This seemed more like the aviation community were used to up in Alaska.

We welcomed our friends from West Yellowstone and helped them tie down next to us, then we were all invited to check out a swimming hole a short drive from the airport. We loaded up in the airports courtesy van and headed out to cool off.

Johnson Creek airport, which is ran by the Idaho Division of Aeronautics, offered showers, bathrooms, campsites, Wi-Fi, a freezer for campers to use, and the caretakers even make coffee for the campers. Later in the evening the sprinklers that keep the grass runway lush, turned on and the kids entertained themselves running up and down the runway soaking themselves in the spray.

Beside enjoying our fly-in ritual of walking up and down the rows of airplanes and meeting new people, we also went on a short hike. We set out to find a hotspring above the runway, but after walking for a while and realizing we lost the trail, I turned around with Yukla and headed back to the airplane. Woodsen continued with the girls and found the trail, but also turned back before getting to the hot spring.

Our second day at Johnson creek proved to be a hot one, and Eska was angry! I’m guessing it was partly due to the heat, and partly due to the two teeth she had been working on cutting the entire trip. In the afternoon our friend Matt, who we were planning on visiting in Smiley Creek, texted woodsen to let him know he was on his way to his cabin and would stop in at Johnson Creek to and say hi.

Like Jack from West Yellowstone, we had met Matt and his two kids at the Geocache at Ultima Thule years ago. More recently, Matt had been volunteering for the Iditarod Airfoce, and had ran into Woodsen who followed the race with the Atlee and Melozi.

We had originally planned to stay a second night at Johnson Creek, but between the heat and cranky baby, we couldn’t turn down the offer of cooler weather and a comfortable cabin at Smiley creek.

The only problem now was that in the heat of the day the density altitude profoundly affects airplanes performance, and with our heavy airplane, it was the worst time of day to take off.

As they say, when theirs a will theres a way. We loaded Matt’s empty plane with the majority of our camping gear and we both safely took off and headed for Smiley Creek.