We did it. We flew in a plane today!
We woke up in Anchorage way too early, then had a regular breakfast with all six of us. Three wanted to chance the weather and drive 60 miles north back to Talkeetna. The other three decided to drive south and visit Seward and some other coastal towns. Kevin, Erik, and I arrived at the Talkeetna airport at 10:00 as we were told. The clouds were thick and grey all the way up. They told us to come back at 12:30 to see if the weather clears. So we went into town and had some lunch. After another good meal at the Wildflower café, we went back to the airline office. They said they were ready to fly NOW! We grabbed our stuff and ran outside and squeezed into a tiny Cessna airplane. We took off and flew below the low cloud ceiling for around 40 miles toward the mountains. As we were climbing through a glacier valley the skies opened a perfect patch of blue sky for us to climb through. We snaked between 6000 foot cliffs and glacier floors that were 2 miles wide and 35 miles long. We circled around and ended up landing on the top of Ruth glacier around 6700 feet. The snow landing was exciting with the skis bumping up and down on the thick snow. We all hopped out of the plane, and with my first step I sank about a foot into the snow. I regained my footing and began to explore the vast landing area. The glare from the snow is intense and the temperature was pretty warm at around 75.
Our pilot Cameron, gave us about 20 minutes to enjoy the views and serenity of where we were. The perfect silence was briefly interrupted by a small avalanche of snow falling off one of the high peaks. Nothing to worry about, just a small cascade of snow with a loud crashing sound echoing between the walls. We all snapped a ton of photos of each other and the group. Then we packed ourselves back into the sardine can and took off from our snowy slope. On the way back we took a pass near Mt. McKinley to see if the peak would show through the cloud cover. It did. We were thrilled to get a look at the 20,000 foot highest peak in North America. It looked huge and worth the wait and money spent for the flight.
After the landing we decided to drive south again and camp in Palmer, a small town north of Anchorage. We found a nice grassy spot and set up the tents. Mine was still wet from two nights ago, so some drying time will be needed. We got back on the bikes and found a small Mexican place for a very tasty dinner. We haven’t had any bad food since we entered the state. They must take pride in all their cooking.
I split from the others and went in search of a wireless internet signal for my blog. I drove around town stopping every few block and pulling my computer out testing for a signal. I final settled for a Macdonald’s. It probably looked funny to the locals.
3100 foot cloud ceiling 
Ice Fall, chunks of ice falling off cliffs.
Ruth Glacier
Glacier pools
Mountain Outhouse at 7000 ft.
McKinley at 20,320
A "braided" river made up of glacier sand.
