
This is the fifth post from the 2022 Alaska Flying Trip.
It was well past dinner time when we arrived at May Creek. The sun was up so high it didn’t feel late. We found the larger cabin. It was hidden back in the woods along an ATV road. While carrying our gear to the cabin, we had to step around several piles of scat. Our stuff was all dry despite the floor boards in the Bearhawk being wet from days in the rain. I set about making dinner with the last of our clean water, Isaac unpacked the steeping bags and pads, and Tyson headed down the runway to May Creek to fetch water.
While waiting for our freeze dried meal to cook, I poked around at the cabin instructions: don’t leave food in the cabin or it will attract critters large and small; a map to May Creek for water. The guest book had a variety of pleasant reports. One note from a month ago said there was water much closer if you tuned left on the ATV road. [We later learned an even better water source.] Dinner finished cooking. To keep our mind off the food, we walked out to the runway. There was no sign of Tyson. Isaac worried a bear had gotten him. We retreated inside away from the mosquitos.
Isaac and I ended up eating dinner on our own, and Isaac was headed to bed before Tyson showed up. His GPS said he had hiked three miles round trip fetching water.
GPS track: return from May Creek and route to water the next day:
Thursday was forecast to be too rainy for flying. The cabin would keep us dry overnight and we could explore an old mining camp upstream.
In the morning, before hiking up to Chititu camp, we needed to fetch more water. Tyson declared we should all go together in case it was another half day hike. This time we tried going left.
We immediately found a fresh red glop of bear poop. Evidently, the bears had a good supply of berries nearby. We dodged scat the whole way to water. The lead person would warn the person behind, then the middle person would echo when they spotted the hazard and to warn the last person, and finally the tail person would echo that everyone was safely past. One accidental spoonerism turned the call and response into a silly game. The most common hazards for the day were “pear boop” and “poose moop”.
The ATV track faded into a narrow trail with wet grass and bushes plastering our pants. At a half mile, we found Chititu Creek. It was a raging grey tumult of glacial silt. By the time we got back to the cabin, our pants were soaking wet. Isaac voted for staying at the cabin the rest of the day. Tyson acceded to more hiking as long as we first changed into our spare dry pants and put on rain pants over top. The rain gear would also defend us from the mosquitos.
The main hike:
Two guys landed in a Cessna 180. They headed straight up the trail to the mining camp. They carried some sort of tall frame. The one thing we learned from their presence was the location of the tie downs anchors. Unfortunately, we couldn’t make use of it because they had tied down using half of each pair.



Most of the hike wasn’t that interesting. We followed the old road through the woods and up the valley. The ground was carpeted with bunchberries. Alaskans call them dwarf dogwood. We found ripe raspberries. Another common plant had a long red berry that I didn’t recognize.
Our guidebook had warned of blowdowns. It wasn’t too bad, but we contributed to trail maintenance once with our pack saw. The trail bed was in good condition except one spot on a steeper hillside. The ground itself had opened up in glide cracks, like a snowfield. Some of the cracks were deep enough for Isaac to stand in.
On a less cloudy day, there might have been a few views on the way up, but we didn’t see anything interesting until the trail and Chititu Creek entered a steep walled valley. That was about half way up to Chititu Camp. We paused to let Isaac try to float sticks down the rapids. Shortly thereafter we found an old storage shack with abandoned mining equipment. We never made it to the camp proper. It was still quite a ways farther and on the other side of the stream. Isaac was sure the hike was pointless. Tyson’s feet were soaked. And I thought the creek looked impassible.


The clouds were starting to lift when we returned to the airstrip. A Super Cub was even doing training landings. They alternated between landing uphill and downhill. Before the plane was quite stopped, they would take off again.
The clouds were supposed to continue lifting over night, so tomorrow should be a good flying day. After that the weather was questionable again. Tyson’s soggy feet were about done with Alaska. And after another freeze dried dinner, Isaac was antsy for real food.
Continue reading: Alaska Day 15 : Nikolai Pass, Nizina Glacier, Peavine
All photos
- Tyson collecting water -- Comments (0)
- Chititu Creek -- Comments (0)
- Unknown fruit -- Comments (0)
- Looking down May Creek Airstrip -- Comments (0)
- Red squirrel -- Comments (0)
More ...
- Isaac, Tyson and a visiting 180 -- Comments (0)
- Mushroom and bunchberries -- Comments (0)
- bunchberries -- Comments (0)
- Raspberries -- Comments (0)
- Old road to Chititu Camp -- Comments (0)
- Trail maintenance -- Comments (0)
- One tree making a forest -- Comments (0)
- Glide cracks in the hillside -- Comments (0)
- Isaac in a hole -- Comments (0)
- View? -- Comments (0)
- Flower -- Comments (0)
- Tyson in a wet spot on the old road -- Comments (0)
- barrel -- Comments (0)
- purple flower -- Comments (0)
- Isaac by Chititu Creek -- Comments (0)
- Looking upstream -- Comments (0)
- Mining sleds -- Comments (0)
- Fireweed by a raging Chititu Creek -- Comments (0)
- Runners from a sled -- Comments (0)
- Storage shack -- Comments (0)
- Contents of storage shack -- Comments (0)
- White flowers -- Comments (0)
- Mushroom -- Comments (0)
- Clouds lifting towards the Nizina River -- Comments (0)
- Super Cub practicing touch and go’s at May Creek -- Comments (0)
- May Creek mail cabin -- Comments (0)
- Clouds lifting more -- Comments (0)
- path to the cabin -- Comments (0)
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Your photos are a great companion to your prose. Thank you for both.
This whole series has been a great learning experience for me about cross-country flying and the Canadian and Alaskan outback.