Saturday - Day 1
Weather
Sunny - 60's


Goats Seen
25+

 

 


Saturday Morning:

Met Johnnie Laird at the Ketchikan airport. Got bags and headed to his home to organize the gear. He had great news, the weather was to remain clear and we were flying out that afternoon on a 2:00 pm. bush flight with Taquan Air. We did some shopping for a pair of caulks (special jungle boot) and a few odds and ends. Then back to his home to organize and inventory our gear and food for our trip.

We went over the detailed topos of the area we would be hunting and headed over to Taquan where we met our pilot JJ. JJ was an experienced bush pilot which is important in the Mistys. All the pilots out of Ketchikan are good ones because the rest are dead! In the below photo, Johnnie and JJ roll our gear out to the Beaver float plane. Note cruise ships in the background.


Saturday Afternoon.

The flight was thrilling as usual, we buzzed the mts. and saw lots of goats. The population in this area is more than I expected - this is going to be fun! As we approached our area we kept a distance so not to get the goats too spooky but we carefully noted where the goats were hanging out and possible routes to get to them. I was surprised at the greenness but that did not seem to diminish the incredible steepness of the country - as you can see by this aerial photo.

The bush plane landed and within minutes we were unloaded and waving goodbye to JJ as he flew over our base camp. It was now Johnnie and me for the next few days. We set up a base camp at the low elevation lake. Tomorrow we would do the death march to our mid-sized spike camp called camp 2. We enjoyed our last Blimpie Sub and even toasted our upcoming adventure over an Alaskan Micro-Brew. We knew that after tonight it was stream water and tightly rationed freeze-drieds for ten days.