Does soap get dirty

Destination Marabou.  I planned to meet with Loni Habersetzer for some flying for the week.  This area is one of Loni's playgrounds, and he's always looking for a challenging new spot to land.  He's got the capabilities of his plane dialed in, and is one smooth operator.  Marabou Landing is operated by Nick and Sheila of Wasilla for 20-some years.  Approximately 55 miles northwest of Iliamna, it's beautiful country, and a great place to keep in mind if you want some top notch guiding for fish and game.  Good people, good food, good times.

Supercubs ready for action.  Fuel runs were made every couple days.  Alec, me, Loni. 

Loni and I play around on some hills near camp

 

Alec winds up the 90 inch prop

This was a fun spit of land.  The glassy water made for an interesting, if not a little disorienting, touchdown just before the sandbar.  Lined up for takeoff with my tailfeathers in the bushes.

Rain showers over Iliamna Lake.

This little harbor seal was the sentinel scout, and brought more friends a few minutes later.  Coastline of Alaska Peninsula.

Loni, Alec and I stop for no reason at all.  Seems like a good enough reason in a supercub.

Cool one-way canyon landing with a waterfall at the end.

Alaskan Bushwheels has their new 35 inch light weight tires certified now...   Hmmm...

Aleutian chain of mountains stretches a long ways down the peninsula.  Mountains, ocean, beach, river, and this lone wolf tractor-beam my lens into position.

Entrance to Merrill Pass from the west side of the Alaska Range.  In 1927, Merrill became the first pilot to cross the Alaska Range and fly over the Kuskokwim River area. He made an attempt to cross Rainy Pass, further north, without success, so cut this swath further south for a more direct route to the Kuskokwim area. Later that same year Merrill received a Signal Corps radio message to fly to Ninilchik and airlift a schoolteacher, near death from a gunshot wound, to Anchorage.  Merrill, upon returning in the dark to Anchorage with the teacher, found the pitch black a formidable barrier to seeing his landing spot.  When people realized he couldn't see well enough, they set bonfires around the field and used automobile lights to illuminate the strip. Merrill brought it in with a landing, and make the first night landing ever in Anchorage.  In September of 1929, Merrill departed in his plane for the last time.  Some fabric from his plane was found in the Cook Inlet a month later.  Four years later, Anchorage's first airport became named after Merrill, which is where my cub lives when I'm not out roaming about.

Some glaciers have ice-caves.

Loni and I pull our chances on the groaning ice cave.  The odds favored us.

HIll hoppin'

Clams beware of bear

Comments

[Bryan]

What can I say, each chapter of this epic is more incredible than the last!

[Susie Davis]

Oh thank you Mr. Lunt you have proved with your glorious pictures that Alaska is even more beautiful than I have always believed it to be. What a gift you have bless you for sharing it with all of us.

I dream of the day I will get to fly my cub to Alaska. If you use your photographs in a book I sincerely hope I will be able to afford it so please keep us posted. Of course, every one would want calendars and cards depicting your Alaskan Adventure

[Ron]

Hey Shaun,
Don't know if I will ever be able to get to Alaska, but your awesome pictures are almost as good!! Still looks like you are having a great time.

Ron

[Dick Gower]

Worth a book Shaun - utterly spectacular!

And from a pilot perspective I can't believe the rocks you land on; then there are the water ski landings.

Thanks.

Dick Gower
Melbouerne
Australia

[Alan Wilson]

Excellent photos, a great return to memory lane of Airstreak & 150+hp fun while in a galaxy far away ... will definitely bookmark ... thanks to a good friend for emailing, and particulary to you for putting together the flight-log. Safe hops.

[Richard Warner]

My dream is to fly my Cessna 180 to Alaska one day. Thank you for posting these beautiful pictures.