Fairbanks!

Departure from Whitehorse, YT was not what most of the pilots envisioned. Dad and I had seen this before, but not quite this low. We delayed our departure by about an hour after receiving a PIREP (pilots report) of 300' ceilings. On departure we took off in the opposite direction of this picture and then turned left, went around a hill to the right of this picture and then around to to what would be the front of this picture and the ceiling began to lift. I would suspect we were 500' off the ground. This is the way people fly up here, we even had to watch for traffic. As the ceilings lifted we had more room to enjoy the views as shown in the second photo. Dad and I dropped down by the Alaskan Highway to look for moose, but the only thing we got was comments from the rest of the group to not get mud on our prop.

We cleared customs in Northway where they serve a cheeseburger that is probably one of the best ones around. The price is a little high, but there is nothing around for miles and miles. This airport gets 6 to 8 planes a day for customs, so they got a real treat having 12 at once. We spent 4 hours longer in Northway than expected due to an airplane issue, but left after it was resolved. Ironically, as it got later, some in our group began to get concerned about daylight and become much more calm after I informed then it was light until about midnight and then only dusk until about 4 am.

We made the final leg into Fairbanks, loaded up our rental cars and went to the hotel. Everyone was so tired that we ate bar food, had some drinks and went to bed. We did not have a big birthday dinner for Dad, but maybe we can have one tonight. Today we will sightsee and relax.