June 17, 2002 - June 20, 2002

Map Of This Week's Route

Just last night I realized that it has been a couple of weeks since I have been to work. I am finally settling down to the lifestyle of no cellular phone, continuous Internet, or a schedule. My feet have tan lines from my sandals and I can't remember the last time that I tucked in a shirt. I do not miss work one bit yet, and so enjoy life without American Eagle crew scheduling. No ties, no ironing, no alarm clocks other than the birds and the sun. I could really get accustomed to this existence. This journey has been enhanced for me by all of the flying that I have been doing. Piloting a single engine aircraft across the country in all sorts of weather is real work. This week we are sure to encounter many new and extreme challenges brought by the onset of the Rocky Mountains. Also, personally, I am entering unfamiliar territory. Today is the first time ever that I have been in Wyoming and I will continue into uncharted areas for the next 2 and a half months.

This morning Philip and I left very early from Custer County Airport for an instrument training flight to Rapid City, SD. The real wakeup call came during the initial ground roll and climb out of Custer County. Jesse was on board as well, and the extra weight combined with the high altitude of the airport dropped our climb rate to less than 500 feet per minute. This isn't even half of the performance that we are accustomed to seeing from the DA-40 at the near sea-level airports that Philip and I routinely fly from. This was an excellent introduction and lesson in the effects of pressure and temperature on what pilots call density altitude. This was Philip's first introduction to mountain flying and high elevation airports. One quickly realizes that mountain flying is serious business since so many options no longer exist.

After returning to Custer County Airport, the Winnebago dropped Philip and I off at the National Wood Carving Museum. This tourist attraction contained a room full of animated woodcarvings from an individual who had spent nearly 30 years making all of the figures and mechanics to put them into motion. This seems to be a typical small town tourist attraction.

Since Philip and I had no way of getting from the museum either into town or back to the airport, we propositioned other visitors for a ride. Finally, LaTonya, the museum manager, offered us a ride into town on her way home. After a brief stop at the local coffee shop, which had an extremely intelligent talking gray parrot we meandered throughout the local shops. I am finding that in almost all small towns in the United States there is a Main Street. Furthermore, this street looks nearly the same from town to town. It is coincidental that I notice this, as it is the source Carol's tribulations in the novel Main Street that I have nearly finished.

LaTonya had recommended a local restaurant, Sage Creek, for dinner and touted that it was the absolute best in town. Upon entering, I immediately recognized the hostess as somebody that I had recently met. It turns out that this is the same girl that helped me get Internet access at the campground last night. Nichole, this seemingly ever-present girl, is working two jobs to pay for her new Mitsubishi Eclipse. That is some dedication. LaTonya was right; the meal was great. She and her husband even returned to the restaurant to pick Philip and I up and give us a lift to the airport. The people in Custer, SD were terrific.

This morning began with a visit to Jewel Cave National Park. I so appreciated the constant 49-degree temperature throughout the entire 2-hour tour. This cave is so unlike many others that I have been in as it is relatively dry and much larger. It is the worlds third longest cave surpassed only by Mammoth Cave in the United States and one other in Europe. The lighting within the cave was tastefully done and did not consist of the lurid colored flood lamps that are often found in similar tourist caves. Overall, this is probably the best spelunking tour that I have been on that did not require kneepads and throwing your clothes out afterward.

We had hoped for another early start to the day; however, while approaching the airport this morning, I noticed a flight service station on the field and could not pass up the opportunity to pay them a visit. This was a great opportunity for Philip and myself to both better understand the services available to us as pilots. The folks at Casper Flight Service were full of new information and went out of their way to explain a variety of aspects of their job to us. I highly recommend an in-person briefing to any pilot who has never had one.

Our flight plan for this morning initially had us going almost direct from Custer County to Jackson Hole, WY, but due to the high altitude required to make the trip over the mountains, Philip and I decided to take an approach from the southern side. As we progressed through the mountains the sights were spectacular. Since the DA-40 does not have supplemental oxygen nor is it pressurized we are forced to fly through the lower passes in the mountains, rarely over all of the peaks. The snow capped peaks slowly drifted by out our windows. Enhancing the sight were the clouds that just barely covered the highest peaks. Mountain flying is a challenging endeavor as one must be extremely considerate of density altitude, meager aircraft performance, severe up and downdrafts produced by the wind howling across the tops of mountains, and the hard rock of the mountains themselves. As we progressed along the final 20 miles of our trip into Jackson, WY, a large rainstorm dropped across the top of one mountain right into the valley that we expected to use to make it through the mountains. Since the surrounding mountaintops were covered in clouds we could not determine a route that would surely avoid the hard mountains so we turned around and landed about 80 miles to the south in Big Piney, WY. We had hoped to pick up fuel here, wait until the storm passed and make another attempt. Upon landing we found a deserted airport with nothing in sight. After waiting for nearly 2 hours, a couple of gentlemen appeared to take care of some of their own business. It appears that the manager and fueler, took the afternoon off.

There was a strong crosswind on landing and afterward Philip said to me "It's not dying that I'm afraid of, but rather, I'm afraid of not having lived." Due to the strong wind, I made the landing and I wonder if this was his critique of my less than perfect job.

The great thing about small towns is that everybody is so friendly. One of the strangers that had come to the airport let Philip and I borrow his truck to go to town to eat and get some much needed water. I never did find out the man's name, but we did return his truck.

After the much-needed meal and determining that we were never going to get fuel at Big Piney, we decided to make the 18-mile flight over to Pinedale, WY. Indeed, the airport manager was on site and we got our tanks topped off. Finally, we decided that everything was in place to make another attempt at Jackson Hole. This was one of the most beautiful flights that I have ever been on and the reason that I don't get out of aviation and into more sensible work. We cruised just below the clouds with the snow-capped mountain peaks passed gracefully off of our wingtips. The pass was clear this time and we landed in Jackson Hole, WY just as another rainstorm came trucking across the mountains and dumping its contents on the area.

Our short flight from Custer, SD to Casper, WY offered a view of mostly flat and barren land. This is desert country and it gets quite hot in the daytime and very cool at night. All I saw were cattle grazing on the barely green plateaus below. It was wonderful to watch the horses trot by and the dust plumes rise from behind the cars motoring on dirt roads from the airplane.

Jackson Hole is exactly as I had pictured it. The scenery is so spectacular. The Rocky Mountains are some the highest and most jagged in this area. Rocky sides are covered with green shrubbery and trees. This evening as I write this I am watching multicolored clouds zoom overhead and through the mountains. I could stay here for a while.

This entire flight today reminds me very much of the time that a tremendous friend, Paul Mommsen, and I spent 3 long days ferrying a Cessna 150 from Ontonagon, MI to just north of Phoenix, AZ

I awoke to a Moose mooing somewhere in the campground area. After a brief investigation I discovered two Moose lying in the grass nearby. I didn't get too close; though did my best to get a photograph or two.

I am no Greg LeMond or Lance Armstrong; however, a 15-mile bike with Jesse to Jenny Lake in Grand Teton National Park was next on my list of activities today. About 2 miles into the ride on a dirt road we were greeted with a couple of small herds of bison right on the road. A fence was broken and they were roaming more freely than I would have wished. It was disconcerting having them stare at you with their immense size and horns ready to gore you. Fortunately though, none were overly ornery and we didn't have difficulty getting past them.

After the Winnebago met with us in Jenny Lake, we did the hike around the entire body of water and walked in awe of the Grand Tetons towering above us. The skies were clear and the mountains looked like part of a shark's line of teeth rising out of the earth. As a result of the way this portion of the mountains was formed, there are no foothills and the drastic change from flat grass and tree-covered land to the gigantic mountains is awesome. There is still a good deal of snow lingering above the tree line and the temperature was perfect all day for outdoor activities.

We hiked for a total of over 5 miles and got to view a great waterfall coming out of the Tetons and flowing into Lake Jenny. With the sun shining from the clear sky onto the falling water it looked as if somebody had chromed the waterfall and droplets of liquid chrome bounced off the rocks below.

I have been away from work for so long now that each evening when I sit down to write, I must use a calendar to find not only the date, but also the day of the week. This is terrific!

What a spectacular day today was. Over night, the condensation from our breath collected on the inside of tent and froze forming interesting ice crystals on the inside of the rain fly. We left the campground by 6:20 AM so that we could make the short drive to some old farm buildings with the Mountains towering in the background. This made for a perfect photo opportunity with the early morning sun at our backs, the quaint buildings in the foreground, and the snow capped Rockies in the background. How great! This is also the first time on the trip that Philip pulled out his Fuji 6 x 17 cm medium format panoramic camera. This camera only gets 4 pictures to an entire roll of film!

Once the film was exposed we headed out to the Jackson Hole Airport for some scenic flying. The air was nearly perfectly calm and the temperature cool. Philip, Kyle, and I went for an hour flight over the town of Jackson, WY, Jenny Lake, and the entire Jackson Hole area. This is probably the best scenic flight that I have ever been on in my entire life.

This afternoon developed with a wander around downtown Jackson, WY and a visit to the National Museum of Wildlife Art. Surprisingly, this was probably one of the best small town museums that I have been to.

I am going to be sad to leave Jackson, WY as the people so friendly and spirit very relaxed. I enjoyed meeting the typical ski bums and other interesting characters that one would expect to meet here. I have really enjoyed my visit here. One really adopts Paul Simon's lyric "Who am I to blow against the wind?"

With a rented car being driven by Philip and Kyle, Jesse and I in the Winnebago, our small convoy progressed northward to Yellowstone National Park. The beautiful topography continues from Grand Teton National Park right into Yellowstone. Once in Yellowstone, it is very eerie as all of the trees are nothing but barren matchsticks. The wild fires that raged through here in 1988 destroyed most of the trees and green growth. It is slowly beginning to recover and is a beautiful sight watching Mother Nature rebirth.