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Knik

Vlad

Well Known Member
If you visit Palmer AK fly Knik Glacier.



Stunning views. There is a fair amount of traffic keep your head on swivel.
There was a transport plane crashed there mid last century. Over fifty lives were lost. Only recently the glacier exposed the wreck. Military established a TFR trying to find the pieces and remove them by barge.





Visibility was great no turbulence we climbed almost to the top.





Then turned around







and did a buzz job.







If you ever end in Palmer AK fly Knik Glacier... :D
 
Oh man, do I have a Knik story. Several years ago my wife and son and I were staying in Anchorage. While dining on a crab omelette at Gwinnie's, an acquaintance offered to take my son 4-wheeling up the Knik arm in his jeep...but he didn't tell us where they were going. We agreed and later that afternoon, my wife and I were sitting on the patio of the Millennium eating nachos and waiting for them to return. They didn't, and we got no call on my cell phone, so we went back to the motel. About 9PM, we got a voice message saying they were at the Palmer airport and we needed to come pick them up because they had "lost" the jeep.

They had gotten up to just below the glacier and had attempted to ford the river of icy water flowing from the glacier. They got halfway across and the jeep sunk up to the gunnel's in the water and stalled out. So my son and the other guy decided to strip down to just blue jeans and hold their shoes, clothes, wallets, cameras, and cell phone over their heads and walk to shore. They stepped off the jeep and were immediately submerged so they scrambled and sputtered to the Southern shore, without their belongings.

So there they were, half naked, shivering in 40F fall weather and it was starting to get dark. Undaunted and unafraid, they started walking barefoot over the river stones and gravel down the road from where they had come,

About an hour later, divine intervention occurred and they found a couple in a Piper Cub with Tundra tires parked on a gravel bar. The couple was fishing. They took pity on the two idiots, did some weight and balance calculations, and agreed that the wife (lighter of the two) would fly them down to Palmer. The jeep owner got to sit in the rear seat, and they crammed my son in the tail cone. Sounds sketchy, but they made it alive and dumped the kids off at the FSS on the airport.

Apparently the FSS closed not long afterwords, so they turned the kids out on the tarmac. Somehow, a Palmer police officer found them wandering around the airport and put them in the back of his cruiser to warm up (bless him). The wife and I arrived about that time and took them back to Anchorage. Not a word was spoken for the entire 1 hr. drive.

Back at the motel, my son took a long, hot, shower and nursed his bruised feet. The next day I went to ANC and had a talk with the TSA to figure out how to get him back to the lower 48 with no form of ID at all.

So Vlad, be thinking about what shoes you're wearing when you fly over country like that!
 
Quite a story John! Trying to picture where was it at the Arm?





Mike Bauer may chime in it's his backyard. :)
 
The Knik was always one of my favourite flights, just 10 minutes from my place in Chugiak. Did you land at the packed glacial mud strip by Lake George? A lightly loaded RV9a should have no trouble landing there. Someone has a canoe, life jackets and paddles stored at the lake and you can take it out amongst the small icebergs.

Wonderful place. It is quite busy in there at times but safe if everyone uses the assigned CTAF and follows the rule of flying on the right side of the valley and gorge.

Mountain goats and Dall sheep were a guarantee. Whenever I took someone new that wanted to see Alaskan wildlife I knew just where to go.

Great pictures, great memories.
 
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Agree About Traffic Rules

The Knik was always one of my favourite flights, just 10 minutes from my place in Chugiak. Did you land at the packed glacial mud strip by Lake George? A lightly loaded RV9a should have no trouble landing there. Someone has a canoe, life jackets and paddles stored at the lake and you can take it out amongst the small icebergs.

Wonderful place. It is quite busy in there at times but safe if everyone uses the assigned CTAF and follows the rule of flying on the right side of the valley and gorge.

Mountain goats and Dall sheep were a guarantee. Whenever I took someone new that wanted to see Alaskan wildlife I knew just where to go.

Great pictures, great memories.

Yes, Vlad, not only in my backyard, hours and hours of flying Hueys there in the 1980's.

True about the Goat and Sheep, easy to spot if you know where they're at. Knik River is a popular 4-wheel area, but lots of areas along it to get into trouble, probably near 4th of July Creek near the base of the North mountain when flying in.

To see black bear, good spot is a couple of the very steep valleys above 4th of July Creek.

Your last photo is of Lake George, Corp of Engineers had to blast the "dike" to create a spillway. Used to fillup with ice melt and then dump into the Matanuska Valley and flood Palmer area.

If you would have continued along the right side of the South part of valley staying to the right of Lake George, you could have flown up the big glacier that leads towards Eagle River Valley.

Going over the top of Lake George Glacier to the left or center, you can then cross over into Hariman Fiord and cruise back to Whitter along the Northwest shore of Prince William Sound. Lots of wildlife and scenery to see!

Almost flew back that way last Sunday the 15th, but Capt John and Markham decided to spend more time in Talkeetna. Was going to take them for a 280-mile sight seeing tour to get back to Kenai.

Used to fly Huey's based out of Anchorage, we had many, many routes to fly in that area.

Fantastic Photos once again, they bring back great memories!

Thank you Vlad!

A very sad note to this area, back in the 1970's thru early 1980's a serial killer would stalk and rape young women "strip" club dancers. He then flew them to the Knik area and then hunted them with a high powered rifle. A movie was made about him, "Robert Hansen" was his name.

The movie is called "Frozen Ground" with Nicolas Cage as the Alaska State Trooper who finally caught him.

Hansen died last year at the Seward Spring Creek prison.

Best regards,
Mike Bauer
 
Totally Not RV Related...Just Sharing Memories

Vlad & Snopercod,

Thanks for the memories. I too have flown the Knik Glacier route several times in a rented Citabria out of Merrill Field. Considering all the tailwheel traffic in ANC, I was surprised how difficult it was to find an FBO that would rent a tailwheel back in the late 90’s. I finally found one old timer on the field, a retired Iowa crop duster, that had a tired Citabria he would rent. You rented his aircraft on the honor system and left a note in his upper left desk drawer with your flight time and payment (cash only system).

Part of his checkout was off field landings (just like Vlad…gravel roads, and hay fields (landing between the bales), and also taught blind canyon turns. I couldn’t quite replicate his demonstrated turns doing that sharp 180 with virtually no loss in altitude.

Wrt restaurants…Gwinnies, the Millennium Hotel patio, and one of my all-time favorites, “F” Street Station. Gwinnies has a most interesting history and I will leave the locals to embellish that. However, their breakfasts are second to none…to include a side order of reindeer sausage. The patio at the Millennium Hotel is the place to be for a summer brew while watching the float planes passing 100' overhead at Lake Hood. I started going to F-Street back in the 70’s, not sure how long that restaurant has been there but a great mixing place for locals, military and airline crews. It perhaps has the greatest bar food you will find anywhere including a huge self serve block of cheese sitting on the counter to cut a wedge out of. And for those of you “hungover”, during the winter on Saturday evenings past midnight, there was naked bowling at a bowling alley located near ANC international...was curious, but was never hungover enough to visit...but out of hypoglycemic necessity, perhaps an emergency place to stop for a burger!

Regards,
Tom
 
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?Gwinnies, the Millennium Hotel patio, and one of my all-time favorites, ?F? Street Station.
I never knew about F Street Station. If I ever go back (doubtful), I'll check it out. I think I'll skip the bowling alley, though :eek: The Millennium is called the "Lakefront" now, but both the patio and the restaurant/bar overlooking lake Hood were awesome. The wife and I drove all over Alaska and never once had a mediocre meal anywhere. The food was amazingly good, even in some out-of-the-way places. The pizza place across from our motel in Anchorage had the best Greek salads we've ever tasted.

I guess my favorite, though, has to be the West Rib Pub in Talkeetna. We had a Musk-Ox burger there the first time we went. I don't think you can get them any more, but they were delicious. The second time, we had a "Seward's Folly" burger (see below):

Sorry to hijack Vlad's thread, but here are some pix:

Gwennie's Old Alaska Restaurant:
wp1RNp.jpg


West Rib Pub (and liquor store and grocery store) in Talkeetna:
8VoaOA.jpg


Seward's Folly:
w2kjWY.jpg
 
Great town!

However you can take a pass on the west rib... the service there is poor and the staff is rude. It seems like you are always inconveniencing them and they hate travelers from away.

:cool: CJ
 
A very sad note to this area, back in the 1970's thru early 1980's a serial killer would stalk and rape young women "strip" club dancers. He then flew them to the Knik area and then hunted them with a high powered rifle. A movie was made about him, "Robert Hansen" was his name.

The movie is called "Frozen Ground" with Nicolas Cage as the Alaska State Trooper who finally caught him.

Hansen died last year at the Seward Spring Creek prison.

Just watched that movie last week on Amazon Prime! Weird to read about it here after just watching it.
 
I finally found the photo of the ill-fated Jeep from the above story. This was taken a few days afterwords when the Jeep owner and his buddies went to retrieve the Jeep. The owner had to dive down and hook up the tow cable to the frame. Brrrrr! Maybe someone can identify the location from this photo:

9cZ2r0.jpg
 
I finally found the photo of the ill-fated Jeep from the above story. This was taken a few days afterwords when the Jeep owner and his buddies went to retrieve the Jeep. The owner had to dive down and hook up the tow cable to the frame. Brrrrr! Maybe someone can identify the location from this photo:

9cZ2r0.jpg

Looks like it is near the North side of the valley. 1/4 mile from the base of Knik Glacier where it dumps into the outflow from Lake George. "Knik River" parking lot!

4th of July Creek runs along the side of the mountains a little farther to the North.

That is extremely COLD water in this photo!

Best regards,
Mike Bauer
 
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