An Old Woman’s Memories, hopefully somewhat accurate.

                        Written by Ann Grimshaw Hughes

                        August 2021

TRIP TO ALASKA

June 12-24, 1970

 

Carol Blackburn and Grant Wrathall dreamed up a trip to Alaska, and Peggy Steel and I were lucky enough to be included. One of Grant’s friends (also a pilot) was going to go but didn’t. The four of us had known each other from attending church together and going on lots of single’s activities for the past year.

On the day of departure, we were hurrying but running late. Peggy arrived at my place (a cottage I was living in that summer) with her boyfriend and dropped off all her belongings—as she had just moved out of her apartment. We then drove to the Watsonville, CA, airport, arriving a few hours late.

(Photo from Peggy)

I had all of my items in little bundles. Sleeping bag, clothing, netted head covers to use against mosquitos in case we crashed, etc. I was supposed to weigh everything, but didn’t, and just guessed the amount. Grant was not pleased when he found out, and we got a lecture because it’s important to know how much weight is in the plane during take-off.

I think we flew generally at an altitude of around 10,000 feet. Between the scenery looking very much the same all of the time and the high altitude, I was often drowsy and had lots of naps.

Grant instructed us to suck in while eating snacks so we wouldn’t leave lots of crumbs in the airplane. His plane was a Cessna twin-engine and very nice. He was a pilot for United Airlines and was older than I was, and I was older than Carol and Peggy. He lived in Aptos, CA, with his parents. The rest of us lived in Watsonville, CA.

The three of us girls had just completed our first year of teaching. Carol had gotten engaged and would be not be coming back. We had all flown with Grant once before on a trip to Utah.

Thank goodness we had taken lots of snacks along because we didn’t get a good meal for a few days. At the restaurant at Whitehorse, I ordered a glass of milk with my meal and it was really expensive—as was all the food.

Staying at Carol’s dad’s cabins was quite an experience. Everything was rather primitive and rustic. We ate and socialized at the main cabin but slept in a smaller one down the trail. We got to our cabin by sitting in a small wagon pulled by a 4-wheeler.

There were two pilots and a maintenance man with two helicopters staying in small cabins there also. They were part of a firefighting crew. The rest of the crew were Eskimos (about 30) and their camp was a mile or so down the river. One of the pilots had a woman staying with him, and she had a puppy. We were given a helicopter ride and got a good look at the area from the air. The cabins were located on Lake Minchumina, and on a good day we could see Mt. McKinley.

One day, we took a boat ride up the river with Carol’s dad. We never left the cabin without first spraying ourselves good with OFF. There were a dozen cans on the cupboard next to the door.

There was a box in the ground that served as a refrigerator. You just removed the lid and I remember them taking out several heads of lettuce. The outhouse was interesting (I’d used them before). There was a can of lye that you sprinkled in the hole after use.

One day, before we left, the woman staying with the pilot took me aside and asked me to call her family in Milford, Utah, and tell them where she was and that she was OK. I had worked with her brother at Zion National Park for several summers. Later that summer, I went to Zion and met her younger brother and told him about her. He said she ran off and left her husband, who was studying at Utah State University, and also left their five small children.

It was cold at Barrow. It’s as far north as you can go on land in Alaska. We stayed with Carol’s aunt and uncle and her brother who was there working that summer. Carol’s mother, who was Eskimo, was from there, but had died many years earlier.

The bathroom in their home was interesting. The toilet was lined with a large, black plastic bag. There was no plumbing due to permafrost. Everyday, the honey wagon went around and collected the bags and took them some distance from town and dumped them in the sea.

We had arrived in Barrow in time for a picnic, which was held on the beach. It was evening, a strong breeze was blowing, and the temperature was about 32 degrees F. A few wind breaks had been set up and surely helped some. 

All the women were there with colorful plastic dishpans to collect their share of whale blubber. Everyone was given a small cube of blubber to chew on. It looked like coconut but tasted rather fishy. Ugh!!!

Duck and caribou soup was served. Mine had a few small fathers in it. We ate it all because that was dinner. This was a special occasion. A whale had been caught and therefore many traditions were being followed.

 After the blanket (skins) toss, we went into the school gym for talks, singing and dancing. My eyes got really droopy, and finally we went to the house and to bed. It was two o’clock in the morning and the sun was shining in the window.

Carol stayed in Barrow to visit relatives and when we got to Anchorage, Peggy’s sister La Nor joined us. She was teaching school there. She and others took us site-seeing; I remember a cemetery with colorful grave sites. 

The group we were with must have been their Stake singles’ group because much to my surprise, my cousin Ronnie Grimshaw was with them. He had gone to Alaska years earlier to farm.

We were headed to Sitka when all of a sudden, Grant got upset and pulled out a big map and had us try to help him find where we were. The rudders (?) on the wings had frozen up and he needed to drop elevation. I thought it would be really sad for the Steel family if we crashed because two of their three daughters would be gone. It wouldn’t be so bad for my family because they’d only loose one of nine children.

Anyhow, at a lower elevation the wings thawed out and all was well. It had been pretty tense for a while though, the only time on the whole trip.

Seems like we landed at Ketchikan for a while—maybe there was a small problem with the plane? The houses were partly sunken into the ground. Probably warmer that way, or maybe that’s what permafrost causes them to do over time.

I don’t remember much about the rest of the trip except we were like a horse headed to the barn and we were all ready to get back to our busy lives.

I immediately started teaching summer school (remedial reading and writing), something that came up at the last minute, for about six weeks. Then, I drove to Utah with my Austrian missionary companion Gaby, who was working as a nanny in California.

(Photo from Peggy)

The trip to Alaska was a very special and broadening experience. Grant was a very patient, kind and understanding person to put up with us all that time. I’m sure he also paid the largest share of expenses. Thank you, Grant, Carol and Peggy, for the trip of a lifetime for a young, single girl fresh off the farm. What an adventure!