[Updated 16Jun10]
[Map at left is the actual track of our flight, with points taken every 2 minutes. This is from the Automated Flight Following (AFF) system.]
12Jun10
Ken: Spur of the moment decision -- let's try to get to Ivotuk (Mesa Site, field camp along north side of Brooks Range)! So we packed up a bunch of food and headed for the airport. The weather looked iffy, but good enough to have a look, and suggestions of getting better as we went north. Unloaded bike and some unneeded travel stuff from the plane, loaded our bags and food, fueled
and headed towards Bettles. This photo is leaving Fairbanks. The airstrip in front of our house can be seen to the left. Line of rain showers to the east of our path kept pushing us west, as you can see in the track above. We ended up approaching Bettles from the south. Fueled, grabbed a couple of snacks, got a briefing and filed for Ivotuk. Heading toward Anaktuvuk Pass, we ran into serious rain showers as soon as we approached the mountains. We probably could have made it through, as we had at least 10 miles visibility into the showers. But being low in that pass with clouds coming down was not appealing. After a couple of 360's assessing, we headed east to Coldfoot (amending our flight plan, of course). Parked the plane, walked to the Visitor Center (in light rain) and chatted with the NPS fellow there. He said there were B&Bs in Wiseman and called a couple for us. One had a room, so we headed back to the plane. Filed an informal flight plan with 
FSS for the 5 minute flight, and off we went to Wiseman. Here we are just off Coldfoot heading north to Wiseman. New landing strip for me -- 2000' of nice sod. Tied plane down and walked in to the Boreal Lodge to check in. By this time it was well after dinner time, and no place to get dinner. So we used the kitchen and fixed some of our food. Bedtime.
13Jun10
Ken: Slept late, threw together something for breakfast (Boreal Lodge is not B&B), cleaned out room and checked out. Left our bags in their office and hiked around town for a while. Photo on right above is the Middle Fork Koyukuk River at Wiseman. By this time, we were already into "bush mode", and not eager to return to Fairbanks. Called FSS and it looked like good weather to the south, so we filed for Manley Hot Springs. Photo on left is Wiseman runway looking south. Photo on right is the runway and town of Wiseman, looking north. Photo below is looking south past Wiseman toward Coldfoot.
The road (left line) is the Dalton Highway, aka Pipeline Haul Road. The thinner line nearer river is the pipeline itself. Easy flight under broken clouds, following Dalton Highway until it turned SE. Approaching Manley, we saw lots of activity beside the runway. Fire Incident 
Command Post set up to support several fires around the area. Fuel caches for helicopters, etc. This photo shows the approach to Manley, and the fire camp on the left. Tied plane down, headed to the lodge for a late lunch. Both of us were into good books, and we spent the rest of the evening lounging around the lodge reading. Really decadent, and lovely.14Jun10
Ken: I had finished my book about 0330, so slept in. Nikki got up and went up to the Dart's to
use the hot tub. This photo shows the tubs in the greenhouse. Those are grape vines overhead, and tropical flowers are growing there. She was still there when I wandered out and found her. We walked down to the Fire Camp and chatted with a couple 
of the folks there. Nikki had a hair appointment at 1430 in Fairbanks, so we had to give up and head back to Fairbanks. Here's the plane sitting in the field of iris, just before departure. And 40 minutes later we were tying the plane down at FAI. We do enjoy these mini-vacation trips made possible by the plane.
