I found myself wishing that I'd taken on fuel in Sitka, as I wanted to loiter around for much longer, but eventually I had to turn north and head inbound to Dry Bay, the overnight stop that Todd and I had identified that morning as being the best option. Dry Bay is a long, well maintained gravel strip inside a State Preserve. There is no road access and the area is used primarily for fishing, and the take-out of rafting parties who have come down the river from the mountains.
Hurrah, more opportunity to be eaten by a bear!
After landing I parked up the airplane and set up the tent, then headed out to explore a little. On the map in the camping area, a ranger station had been marked, so I decided to head in that direction and see if there was anyone around to say hello to.
Set up for the night:
I came across a collection of buildings and equipment, and wondered if this was the ranger station. I could hear voices inside, and before long the dogs inside the door noticed me and started making a racket. A man came out to see what was going on and seemed quite surprised to see a visitor. It turns out that he and several of his family had bought these buildings, which were in fact an old fish processing camp, and were out refurbishing them to get them back into good working order.
The fish processing plant.
The "spare parts" pile by the fishing camp.
They invited me in to join them for some dinner and we spent the evening swapping stories. It turns out that the father and his dog needed to head to nearby Yakutat the next day, and I was intending to go there anyway; I invited them to fly along with me. We made plans to bring the airplane round to the camp at 8 the next day, and head off; in return he was able to put me in touch with a mechanic at Yakutat and arrange for me to do the aircraft's oil change there the next day.
The view behind my camp site:
The runway at Dry Bay:
There were countless old vehicles scattered around:
The family posing with the airplane before departure:
Leaving Dry Bay:
Fishing camps near Yakutat:
The hangar at Yakutat!
The mechanic at Yakutat lent me a bucket, plastic pipe, and 1" socket wrench, and I changed the oil. I'd been hauling a crate of the stuff since Pennsylvania. Oil change and leak check complete, I headed northwest towards Anchorage.
