They were pooped, but really happy and had a great time serving the camp in many different ways.
And a week later here they are returning to Anchorage's Merrill Field.
This the plane they flew in. A 9 seater.
Here they are leaving for camp.
This is Richard, our friend and the one who taught Ralph and I how to fish for salmon in these Alaskan waters. Richard caught his 5 King Salmon yearly limit in 5 days! Not many fisherman can say that.
This is Jim. He and his wife Mikey, pictured below are good friends of Richard's and have become my friends and fishing buddies. They are wonderful people and so much fun to hang out at the fishing hole with!!
Mikey, who caught a King Salmon last week also.
My fishing buddy Richard and I weighing my fish.
Okay! I did it! On June 19, 2007 I caught my second King Salmon! Last year on June 19, 2006 I caught my first. My first fish was 25 inches and 11 pounds. This year's fish was 41 inches and 25.7 pounds!!!! You have no idea what a rush you get catching a fish like this unless you have experienced it. I think it took me about 5 long, arm burning minutes to land this male King Salmon. Tomorrow I go on the hunt for one more before the season dies out and the Silver Salmon season arrives. Yippy for ME!!!!!
These pictures are of a Red Necked Grebe family. The dad was giving the kids a ride on his back and the mom was hunting underwater for food. She would come up and feed the kids and dad would just ride them around. They are beautiful birds.
I have wanted to see an American Dipper for YEARS. They are located in many different areas around the US. I finally saw this one at the salmon viewing area near Portage Glacier. I was very excited to be able to get some a nice shot.
These young gulls were just right off the parking lot. I hope they will be okay.
The momma gull came with fish in her tummy and regurgitated them up for the little ones. It was pretty gross, but really cool at the same time.
I think this may be my favorite picture this summer. This is an Arctic Tern. If you don't know much about them it would be worth looking up. They love to hover over the water watching for things to eat in the water. This one hovered for a good minute and allowed me some great photo opts.
Not sure you can read this, but if you click on it you might be able to read about a Bore Tide.
Momma and black bear cub twins! This was REALLY far away so you can't really tell what they are, but I promise you they are a black bear family! LOL
This beautiful Berniese named Princess was also enjoying watching the bore tide (or maybe the other dogs there!)
It is a little bit difficult to see, but this is the Bore Tide that comes up the Turnagain Arm. It varies in size from very small, just inches, to about 6 feet. This one was about 1 foot but looked more like a wave because there was no wind to push it up. The inlet was perfectly calm and this bore tide just came straight up the inlet and took over the sandbars. It was pretty cool. Some visitors were a little disappointed in the size, but big or little it was pretty amazing watching it come up the Arm.
Arriving safe and sound on plane number 3. What a day, what a glorious day!
The Susitna Valley where three rivers come together. The beginning of our flight back to the airport.
One of the amazing glaciers in Denali National Park.
Glacier pools on one of the glaciers. 
More of the mountains. 
This is the only privately owned property in the park. You can rent this yurt out but you must fly in, bring all of your own EVERYTHING, and pack EVERYTHING, I mean EVERYTHING out! There are NO bathroom facilities! LOL
The side of a glacier. Our pilot said this area of the glacier is over 300 feet high. You can see a river running under the left side of the glacier.
More of Denali from afar.
Here it is closer.
Here is base camp. The ones that are going to hike Denali (and there are 1200 signed up this year) will be flown into base camp to begin their hike. They then hike 16 miles to the bowl.
The bowl is on the left side of the picture and the mountain. From the bowl they begin their climb to the summit.
This is just a beautiful shot of some of the mountain passes we went through.
Well, what a day we had yesterday. Our plans were to arrive in Talkeetna, get Jack and Alexis on a flight seeing trip and Marea and I were going to try the high speed river boats. When we arrived, Jack proceeded to order us 4 seats on the plane! I was in shock. I have never been on a small plane before and I was so scared. The story evolves from there. We got on a little Cessna 185 with a young pilot named Eric. He was very nice and very cautious and I was still really scared! LOL We got our seats (a five seater airplane) and took off. I was still really scared but all seemed well and I started to enjoy the flight. We got close to the mountain when Eric noticed a noise in the engine that he didn't like and told us we would have to go back to the airport. Okay, that really scared me, but he assured us that there was nothing serious, just concerning and we were fine. Whew! We made it back and landed. Got to our new plane with an older pilot named Rick. Rick had flown in the Navy for 20 years and had been with K2 Aviation for 10 years, assured us we would be fine and something going wrong with the airplanes were very rare. We were soon laughing at this statement because our next plane wouldn't even start! He said in 10 years he didn't know of a family who had been moved off two different planes. I was beginning to question whether the Lord was trying to tell us to leave the airport and go to the riverboats! LOL We cautiously got on our third airplane and all seemed well again, until we had taxied a little bit near the runway and Rick announced that he had to get off the plane and screw on the oil cap that was sitting on the top of the plane! Jack and Marea continued to laugh, but the humor of the whole thing had left me by that time and I was ready to get OUT of the plane. I didn't and boy am I glad I didn't! Rick took us on one of the most amazing adventures I have ever been on! The pictures will explain most of it!
Getting ready to head up in the air on the FIRST airplane!
Our third aircraft was named Big Fart Sky Goober. Okay, no comment.
The shadow of our plane.
Our first and far away views of Denali (Mt. McKinley) with it being on the right side.
