An Alaska Tundra Adventure

Matt carried the duffel bags to the Cessna and stowed them behind the seats with everything else he was taking. He had food for them both for seven days plus another seven days just in case, two changes of clothing for himself, a rod, reel, and some fishing tackle, and one firearm. The Marlin 1895 Trapper in 45-70 caliber was in case they did happen to encounter a bear. It had happened to Matt before and the blast of the 45-70 had been enough to scare the bear away, but if he had to shoot, Matt wanted enough rifle to put the bear down hard.

He usually took the fishing tackle on every flight. Sometimes it was something to do while his passengers got everything off the dock at the fishing camp, and sometimes it was just because he liked fishing. If he could manage to catch a few fish, that would vary their diet from the canned and dried foods he'd packed.

Getting all that into the Cessna had necessitated removing the back seats, so they were sitting in Matt's office when he locked the door. After packing everything and helping Amanda into the right side seat, Matt climbed in, started the engine, and while it was warming up, he called the terminal for clearance to take off. When he got clearance, he stepped out of the Cessna, untied the ropes that held her to the dock, and then got back in and taxied out to the narrows. The wind was coming from the west, so he opened the throttle until the Cessna was up on her steps and then eased the throttle back down enough to keep the engine from overheating but still keeping the plane on the steps.

When he reached the end of Lake Spenard, he made a turn and started increasing the engine rpm. When the Cessna reached takeoff speed, he eased back the yoke and they were flying. Matt turned toward the northwest and started the climb to four thousand feet. That was high enough to clear the Revelation Mountains and would save the fuel required to climb higher. Once the altimeter showed four thousand, Matt dialed the course to the airport at Nome into the autopilot and because most of his clients had enjoyed some conversation, he turned to Amanda.

"So, what made you decide to become an archeologist? I thought most of them were men who wore thick glasses and were bald."

Amanda chuckled.

"Well, that's what my professors were, but it's changing. There really isn't such a thing as a job in archeology unless you're a full professor and teaching somewhere. It takes at least eight years to get a PhD, and you have to have a pretty great doctoral thesis to get hired by a college. Most guys don't want to wait that long to start having an income so they go into fields where they can get a job with a bachelor's degree.

"The money isn't all that great either. It's not bad, but a guy can make more in finance or journalism. The result is more and more, the colleges who teach archeology are full of women.

"As for what steered me into archeology, I've always been fascinated by history and the older the better. I started out as a history major, but changed after I took a class in Native American history. It wasn't much of a class, really. It just took us through the recorded history of Native Americans, but I got to thinking. In the class, they said it was generally agreed that Native Americans came from Siberia over the land bridge that's now the Bearing Straits. I thought if that was the case, there should be evidence all over the place in Alaska and the Northwest that could prove when they came and how fast they migrated. That's when I changed my major to archeology.

"The more I learned, the more I liked it. I went on a dig every summer and ended up writing my master's thesis on the migration of the Sioux from Minnesota to the Plains. My doctoral thesis was about the actual ancestors of the Alaskan Native American tribes. It was during my research for the thesis I discovered the spear point I told you about."

It was then that Amanda decided she'd told him a story that probably satisfy his curiosity because he wouldn't know any better. It was time to change the subject. If she continued, she might make a mistake and he'd know she wasn't looking for any Native American camp.

"Don't you have to fly the plane? You're just sitting there with your hands in your lap."

Matt grinned.

"If it makes you feel any better, I can put my hands on the yoke, but no, I don't have to fly the plane. The autopilot is doing that by keeping us on course and at the right altitude and airspeed. You don't think the pilots on commercial jets really fly those jets, do you? They do the takeoff and landing, but once they reach altitude, they set the autopilot and let it do the work. They could actually let the autopilot land the plane, but they do it because of liability reasons.

"Actually, the autopilot is saving you money on fuel because it's only making small corrections as needed. I'll take over once we get close to Nome."

Amanda then asked him why he became a bush pilot.

"Why did you decide to make a living out of flying people to places most people would never want to go. I mean, Anchorage was pretty nice, but from what I've read, Alaska doesn't have many big cities. They only have little towns spread out all over the southern part and a few in the northern part. I don't think I'd ever want to live that far away from people."

Matt smiled and told Amanda the story he'd told a hundred other passengers.

"Well, I knew I wanted to fly airplanes after I finished my aviation merit badge in Boy Scouts. Call it a quest for glory or just a way to be different, but it's what I wanted to do. Once I got in a plane for the first time and actually got to fly it, I knew there was no other job for me.

"Flying is sort of a way to be free from everything. It's hard to explain any other way. It's just you and the plane and the sky. You can go up or down or any other way you want to go and there's nobody around to tell you it's wrong or that you can't do that. Now, if you do the wrong thing, it could turn out pretty bad, but as long as you know your plane and yourself, it's just like floating along in a dream.

"I've always liked mechanical things too, so I got my Airframe and Powerplant license so I could work on planes when I wasn't flying them. I got a job flying cargo, and that was pretty cool, but then I decided I wanted to fly people. I like flying people around. Maybe it's like Jack says. He says people look at a pilot like they look at the old white hunters in Africa. He says because we can do what most people can't, they're attracted to us.

"I think Jack likes thinking like that because the women he knows seem to think that way too. Let's just say he doesn't have to look very hard for a partner for the night. I'm not that way. I just like people and I like flying, so the two go together really well.

"The bush pilot thing started after I'd overhauled an aircraft engine and took her for a test flight. I had another pilot with me who talked me through that first takeoff and landing, but after it was over, I realized that flying was feeling free, but flying into the bush was even better. I like the challenge of landing on small lakes or on a runway made of packed snow at some little village somewhere. The people need me to get them from one place to another or to bring in the supplies they need to survive. Sometimes they need someone to fly them to a hospital and if that flight doesn't happen, they'll probably die. I can't think of a much more rewarding job than that."

Amanda chuckled.

"You must not be home very much. What does your wife think of that?"

Matt smiled.

"You aren't thinking like Jack says, are you? Well, because you asked, I don't have a wife or a girlfriend, and just so you know, I don't mix business with pleasure. That doesn't ever work out well."

During the rest of the flight to Nome it seemed to Matt that Amanda never ran out or questions for him. She wanted to know where he grew up and then asked him to tell her about the flights he'd taken in Indianapolis and in Alaska. She finally stopped when he picked up the mic for the radio and called Nome to ask for landing clearance.

When Nome responded, Matt said, "Time for me to go to work again", and then took control of the Cessna. He went through the landing checklist including raising the rudders on the floats because he was landing on asphalt at Nome. Then he started the glide slope down to the runway.

When he landed, Matt taxied the Cessna over to the FBO hangar, went through the shutdown checklist, and then shut down the engine. He turned to Amanda then.

"I need to get a tie-down rented for the night and then get the plane tied down. Why don't you call the Naxapaga Suites and ask them to send a cab to pick us up? I made two reservations for tonight. Oh, and tell me which bag you need for the night. I'll bring it when I come to the desk."

Dinner was at Pingo Bakery. It wasn't as fancy a place as Matt figured Amanda was used to, but he'd eaten there before and the food was always great. Amanda was pretty quiet through the meal and the walk back to the hotel, but Matt figured she was pretty tired. A little over five hours in the Cessna would make anybody tired from the constant drone of the engine.

Before they turned in for the night, Matt said they'd meet in the hotel lobby at seven and walk down to Bearing Tea Company for breakfast. It was probably the best place for coffee and breakfast in Nome, and Matt thought it would be nice to have an actual breakfast before starting out. The rest of their meals were going to be pretty plain.

After breakfast they went back to the hotel at eight and checked out, then took another cab to the FBO. Matt did his pre-flight while Amanda sat in the plane, and when everything was OK, he called flight control for clearance to take off.

Once they left Nome behind, the scenery changed. They were flying over the Alaskan tundra now. Matt had flown there in all the seasons, but fall was his favorite. In winter, the tundra was just an expanse of white dotted here and there with small trees. In spring and summer, it turned green as the ground cover woke from its winter sleep and frantically struggled to grow, bloom, and spread its seeds before winter.

Fall was when the tundra turned into a myriad of reds, yellow, and oranges as those same plants and trees prepared for another winter. It always made Matt smile when a passenger who'd never seen the fall tundra before looked down at the ground. Amanda was no different.

"God...I always thought Alaska was just trees and mountains and lakes. I never dreamed it would have colors like it does. It's beautiful."

Matt chuckled.

"Well, I think the tundra is pretty any time of year, but yes, fall is probably the prettiest. In about another month, all you'll see is white snow, but now is when everything is changing to fall colors just like it does back in the lower forty eight. We might also see some animals taking advantage of all those plants before they head south for the winter. The caribou should still be up here for a while, so we might see a few. Wolves and foxes will be hard to spot, but they're down there too.

"The only bad thing about the tundra in fall is the top surface will have melted enough some places will be a little wet and anywhere there's water, there will be mosquitoes and black flies. They'll eat you alive if you don't have a good insect repellant. If you didn't bring any with you, I have more than enough for us both. I also have some bug veils that'll keep them away from your face."

The flight to the lake took only about an hour. Once Matt spotted what he thought looked like the lake on the map, he checked the GPS unit for the coordinates and then said, "That looks like your lake up ahead. I'm going to fly over it a couple times to see how big it really is."

Matt dropped the Cessna down to about a hundred feet and flew a couple passes over the lake before he decided he could take off if he landed there. It would be a pretty short takeoff, but the Cessna wasn't loaded very heavy and he didn't have any trees he'd have to clear once he got off the water. He swung around, lined up into the wind and started gliding down to the water close to the north side of the island.

He was close to the island because the surface of the lake was flat and mirrored the sky, and that made it almost impossible to tell where it really was. More than one bush pilot had crashed into a lake because he thought he was higher off the water than he really was. The shoreline of the island gave him a reference point to watch.

It was something he'd done a hundred times before, but Matt was still tense until he felt the pontoons touch the water. He eased back the throttle a little more and the Cessna settled down on the pontoons. Once she was down, Matt steered her toward the little bay where Amanda wanted to go.

When the pontoons gently touched the shore, Matt shut off the engine, waited until the prop stopped spinning, and then got out to see how shallow the water was. Some of these small lakes had pretty steep banks, but this one had a bottom that gradually sloped off for about five feet. After that, he couldn't see the bottom anymore, but it would be pretty easy to haul the Cessna out onto the shore so a stray wind wouldn't blow her out into the lake.

He stepped back to the door and said Amanda could get out, but to stay on the pontoon and hold on to something until she was on shore. Then he got a rope from behind the seat and walked back on the pontoon toward the tail. He tied the rope around the tail and then walked back and stepped onto the shore.

The mosquitoes and black flies had found them by then and Amanda yelped when a black fly bit her on the back of her hand. Matt pulled his small bag from the plane and handed her a bottle of insect repellant.

"Put this on any exposed skin you have, including your face, and use a lot. It won't keep them away, but they won't bite you."

Matt smeared himself with insect repellant from another bottle, put one of the veils over his head, and then watched Amanda.

She was being sparing with the insect repellant and she was slow. She yelped again and then slapped her chest. The black fly that flew out of the open neck of Amanda's shirt made him smile. Black flies seemed to know where you were the most tender.

"Amanda, you need more repellant on you than that, and remember what I said about any exposed skin. Mosquitoes and black flies will fly inside your clothes if they can so you need to put it on anywhere they can get to you."

Matt kept watching Amanda until it looked like the mosquitoes and black flies were leaving her alone. Then he handed her a veil.

"Put this over your head and pull the drawstring up so it's snug around your neck. That way you won't accidentally eat a mosquito."

When Amanda finished, Matt said they had to haul the Cessna up on shore or she might blow out into the lake. He handed Amanda the rope and told her not to let go no matter what, and then gently pushed the Cessna back out into the water.

It took a few minutes to coax the Cessna around and then to pull the tail up to the shore. Matt told Amanda to pull while he lifted the tail of the Cessna up so that she'd slide up on the shore. As soon as the pontoons were a couple feet out of the water, Matt went back and helped Amanda pull. Half an hour later, he had the Cessna tied down with ropes on the tail and wings secured to long, steel stakes he drove into the ground.

When he walked back to where Amanda was sitting, she asked if they were going to make camp now. Matt chuckled.

"I'm not much for camping on the tundra. There are too many bugs and it gets cold at night. You can sleep outside tonight if you want, but I'm going to sleep in the plane so I don't fight the bugs all night. It'll be a little cramped, but there's room for you too because I took out the back row of seats. Why don't you get started with your search. I'm not sure what to look for, but I'll help you all I can."

Amanda said she first had to confirm where they were.

"I have a portable GPS unit in my stuff. I'll go get it and then we'll walk around until we find the place my grad student thought was the location where the point was found."

They walked from west to east around the lakeshore and then back until Amanda said they were at the right longitude, then they walked from the shore south until she stopped.

"This is it, this is where my grad student says the fisherman found the point."

Matt couldn't help but be a little skeptical. If she was off by even one second in latitude, she'd be off by a hundred feet or so. If her error was in longitude, she'd be off by eighty feet. He didn't see how some grad student looking at Google Earth would be able to pinpoint the location at all, let alone with that kind of accuracy. He didn't say anything though. His job was flying the plane.

Amanda asked Matt to stay there while she got her tools from the plane. When she came back, Matt was skeptical about the whole reason they were there. Amanda had a shovel and a small trowel, both of which he expected. He didn't expect her to have a metal detector, but she did.

"Amanda, as far as I know, the natives up here hadn't even heard of metal before the Russians sailed to Alaska. Why do you have a metal detector?"

Amanda frowned then.

"I suppose now is as good a time to tell you as any since we're already here. I was afraid if I told you before, you wouldn't bring me here. Just don't judge me until I'm done, OK."

Matt nodded and Amanda continued.

"I'm not a professor. I have a degree in education with a major in history. I was working on my master's thesis and my subject was the change in Russia from the rule of the Tsar Nicholas II to the formation of the USSR under Lenin. You probably know the story. A group of Lenin supporters took Tsar Nicholas and his family to Yekaterinburg and then killed them and one of the servants they took with them.

"What you probably don't know is that the Tsar's four daughters and son did not die after the first shots. That was because they had diamonds and other precious gems sewed into their clothing to hide them. The diamonds and gems deflected the bullets so they were only wounded. A maid also survived the first shots because she was clutching a pillow also stuffed with diamonds and precious gems.

"The daughters, son, and the maid were ultimately bayoneted multiple times and then shot in the head. All the bodies were then taken to an abandoned mine shaft and stripped of their clothing by the execution squad. Based upon the later accounts of the soldiers who stripped the bodies, each had about a little over a kilogram of diamonds and precious gems in their clothing.

They turned the diamonds and gems over to the leader of the group, one Yakov Yurovsky. The bodies were then dumped into the mineshaft and sulfuric acid was poured on them so they couldn't be identified. After a couple days, Yurovsky was nervous about the location. He went back with a group of soldiers, retrieved the bodies, burned them and then put them into a different mine shaft as well as in a grave dug in an unused road.

Yurovsky then went to the Romanov mansion and ransacked it for anything of value. Those items were taken to Yurovsky's residence for safe keeping. What the records show is that Yurovsky gave the valuables from the Romanov home to the Russian government, but I could find no reference to what happened to the diamonds and precious gems. It was like they just disappeared into thin air.

"I kept researching into Yurovsky and learned that after the assassinations, he was given a position as the head of the newly-formed Cheka, the secret police of the Lenin government. The Cheka was the organization that started the Gulags for political prisoners, and as the head of Cheka, Yurovsky was also in charge of the Gulags.