Well, in truth, only one helicopter, but it was great! I've been in on the Safari Spirit for the last week bringing the boat up to Alaksa for the 2011 season, but on our way up we were tasked with setting up a remote wilderness kayaking station on Lake Patterson, which is connected to the Patterson Glacier (near Petersburg, AK). Our mission was to hike 5 miles into moose, bear, raging bull, and Kooshtika territory and clear a spot for a helicopter to drop our kayak rack and 8 kayaks, and return safely. We won. In fact, we won to such a degree that instead of hiking back from the lake on the last day, the pilot of the sexy little MD500D gave all three of us a ride back to the boat! I had noted that in the past 6+ years in Alaska, I have never stumbled upon the opportunity to take a ride in a whirly bird, or even a float plane - but low and behold, a turbine rotorcraft ride was bestowed upon me in my last few weeks before I head back to Seattle! Anywho, I've got a couple more weeks of work left, but here are the photos from the trip....
