Heading North- Wasilla to Delta Junction

Some trips come together seamlessly, others feel like they are on the brink of falling apart at any moment. Weather shifts, things come up, plans keep changing, and kids get sick. Plenty of things can derail our last-minute trips.

In March, Woodsen flew the Iditarod with Atlee and Yukla; in Nome, they stayed with our friends the Stangs. Woodsen returned with an invitation to visit them at their cabin in Council, and this was the week he had coordinated to make the trip.

Wasilla to Nome is a 4+ hour flight, so we hoped to break it up by visiting friends in Unalakleet for a few days on our way up. Those plans changed when our friend was in a bad 4-wheeler accident and medevaced to Anchorage. Instead of seeing her in Unalakleet, we saw her in the hospital and were relieved to see her in good spirits and anticipating a full recovery.

Weather for Council also kept changing, so we started to brainstorm other plans. Also on our summer to-do list was a trip to interior Alaska to visit friends in Delta and Fairbanks. We decided to see if it would work to head to interior Alaska in the beginning of our trip then finish the week out in Council when the weather was forcasted to be better. The morning we had planned to depart we were shifting gears, rethinking food, calling, texting, and ended up heading to the plane with the plan to make our way to Delta Junction to visit long time friends and fellow aviators, the Johnsons.

We loaded up and headed to Palmer Airport for fuel.

Despite getting situated in the plane 10 minutes prior, the kids jumped out and played while Woodsen fueled the airplane.

With our departure delayed until the afternoon, and the sun shining hot, Woodsen opted to climb up to avoid the hot, unstable air that would make for a turbulent flight.

As we climbed, the clouds, mountains, glaciers, and valleys created dramatic views.

We crossed over the Talkeetna Mountains and enjoyed views looking up the valley towards Isabelle Pass, with the Delta River and the Richardson highway running through it.

Flying near Delta Junction is tricky thanks to all the restricted airspace in the area. In the summer, things are even more complicated with wildfires and their associated TFRs. Along with navigation challenges, Delta is known for its squirrelly winds. Our instruments showed almost 40 knots of wind 500 ft above the ground, but there was hardly a whisper of wind once we landed.

We taxied into D66 runway and enjoyed their “terminal” area as we unpacked and waited for our friends.

Our friends arrived shortly after we landed, and after warm greetings, we packed up their car with all our stuff and headed to their house. Now that our kids are older, it takes less time to warm up, and in no time they were playing and getting cozy on the couch together.

As the kids played, we planned our adventure for the next day. We decided to drive to Fielding Lake. Vance and Meredith had heard of friends catching large lake trout there, and had wanted to explore it since moving to Delta Junction.

We headed to bed excited for the next days adventure. Read about our day at Fielding Lake here