Bearhawk Trip, June 2017

[Helidesigner]

For anyone interested; I will be participating in the Big Tires and Campfires flying trip out west organized by Steve Johnson of Supercub.org. I plan on posting pictures and descriptions of our trip on this forum topic as we go like I did on my Alaska trip. The basic plan is to meet Steve and his wife Laura in Kansas City. From there we fly to Spearfish, SD, meet more people, then to Winifred MT, to meet more people, fly around there for a few days, then head to Johnson Creek ID to meet even more people. I think Bob Barrows may be at Johnson Creek this year. It should get more spectacular as we go. You can follow my track at https://share.delorme.com/MarkScott. Filter on the date to see the trip only. We plan to leave Tuesday morning the 6th and return the 20th, weather permitting of course. Please chime in with any comments or questions!

[DemoDollCate]

Skip and I are going to the Mo Breaks & JC fly in also. Leaving AZ on the 8th. Continuing into the PNW after the JC weekend.

[Mark Goldberg]

As I posted on another thread - Bob expects to arrive in Johnson Creek on the 8th. Mark

[Helidesigner]

Terrible weather forecast for the North East Tuesday. Unless a weather miracle occurs we will leave early Wednesday.

[Helidesigner]

Finally got in the air. We fought a lot of low clouds in PA and even had to turn back once. The weather finally improved west of the PA-OH border. Here are a couple pictures. Tomorrow we meet friends and head to South Dakota. Hopefully we fly by Mt Rushmore. By the way the FBO at KTAZ in Taylorville IL is great!, 24/7 kitchen with food!

[Helidesigner]

Flew over the Bad Lands Yesterday. That is the best way to see them by far. Mt Rushmore was a cool sight too.

[whee]

Your making me wish I'd worked harder/faster so I could meet you in MT and fly some of the backcountry before you head to JC. I sure miss flying the Frank Church.

Keep the updates coming!

[Helidesigner]

Made it to Winifred MT today. We got a great look at Devil's Tower on the way up.

[Flygirl1]

Hi Mark, been following you and wondering at this point when you are headed to JC. Dennis and I are there right now and can't get out. Bob is at Cavanaugh Bay. We might head that way if the WX clears. Bob is planning on staying there until Mon. Then thinking of going to Smiley Creek. Not sure when he is going to be at JC. I tried to message you on that other site, but I guess I don't know how. Hope your having more fun than we are--it's cold, WET and scuddy.😒 D-n-D

[DRLPatrol]

Before I read Donna's last entry I checked out JC's web cam, http://www.ruralnetwork.net/~yellowpinecm/ and was pleasantly surprised. There was D-n-D plain as day.

Doug

[Flygirl1]

Be glad you are not here. In the web cam, that's fresh snow on the hill. 😒

[Bdflies]

Just this week, I told my wife about the adventure y'all were having. Grass strips! Great scenery! STOL airplanes and wonderful comeraderie! I suggested that this trip could be a plan, for next year!

Now, you mention that it's cold and nasty..... Still looks like fun, though.. Might not mention that cold/nasty thing to The Blonde...

Bill

[Helidesigner]

We have had a couple good days. Saturday morning we flew to the Heller back country strip (L51) in the Missouri Breaks area. There were 19 planes there! I had to park in tall grass. It is a beautiful place. Thereafter we followed the Missouri River West, turned south along the Judith River, and headed to Lewiston MT for their big pancake breakfast. On the way back it got pretty bumpy but did a little air to air photo work with Kathy's Bearhawk and a Husky. The rest of the day was too bumpy to be fun and weather came in later in the day.

Sunday morning we flew to Cow Creek (CW0) with a Cub and two C-180's. The runway is the grass at the far left in the picture. Also quite a place. The wind was mostly down the runway but gusting to 20 kt at times which made it interesting. The Bearhawk set up for back country work is perfect for this kind of flying. My 8.5x6 tires work well on the more traveled backcountry strips. In the afternoon we headed to Lincoln, MT (S69). It was a bit bumpy enroute to the mountains but smoothed out just before we got there. We opened the window and got some good shots of the snow capped mountains. Tomorrow we travel to West Fork (4U7) via Missoula (MSO). The plan is to wait out rain on Tuesday and travel to Johnson Creek Wednesday.

P.S. You can go to www.airnav.com and search on the airports by identified to see where we have been. You can pull up the sectional charts there.

[Helidesigner]

We finally got pictures to upload!. Here is a picture heading to Johnson Creek on Wednesday. We were able to skim over the mountain tops and see lots of snow and trees. Johnson Creek sits in a steep valley which makes for an interesting approach. It is a beautiful place with a runway that is like a golf fairway. There are two other Bearhawks here. We only did a little flying in poor weather on Thursday and Friday was a washout. The weather forecast is good for Saturday and Sunday.

[Helidesigner]

Saturday was a great flying day. It started with fog banks all around the airport but it cleared up around 9 am. We landed at Indian Creek, Thomas Creek, and Upper Loon Strips. I also gave an evening ride to a Bearhawk builder in attendance. My son Andy took LOTS of video. We will get some posted once he reviews it all. My favorite was Upper Loon The two attached pictures are from there. The approach has a huge rock face on your left about a half mile from the runway thresh hold. The pictures are at the end of the runway. We headed home on Sunday. We made it to Rawlings WY after passing through a pass near Alpine Airpark WY. Rawlings was challenging, winds 22 gusting to 32, 30 deg off center line. I never ran out of control authority. I had to work at it but the Bearhawk handled it just fine.

[Mark Goldberg]

Sounds like a great trip. From comments over the years it seems Wyoming always has challenging winds. Mark