THE DAILY

You're trying to get to where?

I was trying to get to Juneau, Alaska since Friday…but a thick layer of fog engulfed the Juneau Airport for the better part of three days, allowing only a handful of flights to land.

I left Squamish at noon on Friday, made it across the border no problem and caught the flight out of SeaTac at 6PM. A ‘’direct flight” from Seattle to Juneau on Alaska Airlines means a stop in Ketchikan to pick up more travelers and continue on…no big deal. We got back in the air heading north…but this is when we got our first taste of things to come. The pilots circled around Juneau for a good hour trying to get clearance to land, but the “minimums” were too low (pilots have to be able to see at least a half-mile (1.6km) to land commercial aircraft). We continued onto Ketchikan, landed, everybody disembarked, ready for a sleep over in this small fishing village.

Next morning it was back on the plane, hopefully with the chance to land in Juneau. We made our way into the air, landed in Wrangell to pick up more passengers. We got back into the air, landed in Petersberg to pick additional people and baggage. After they loaded everybody on, the pilot came over the intercom and said Juneau still wasn’t looking too good and we’d wait on the runway in Petersberg until a break in the fog rolled through.

After waiting in Petersberg two hours, we departed headed towards Juneau on a slim chance we could pull it off…another hour in a holding pattern above the city got us no breaks in the clouds so we continued onto to Anchorage. So, a nice night in Anchorage was now upon us. I rebooked for the 4PM flight the next day hoping it would happen! By the way, everybody’s checked in baggage is nowhere to be seen now…it’s officially lost.

I made the best of an Anchorage evening, morning and afternoon over at a local market that offered an assortment of delicious foods, so that was a bonus. Back to the airport (it’s Sunday afternoon now) to try the Juneau landing one more time. We get on the flight, made the first stop over in Cordova, were on our way to the second stop when the pilot came over the intercom and said fog had rolled into Yakutat and they couldn’t land, so they would proceed to Juneau and go into a holding pattern. If we couldn’t get that landing in order, we’d continue onto to Seattle…oh man!

Not two minutes later the pilot came back on the intercom and said Juneau was seeing a break in the clouds! The biggest “hiphip hooray” erupted throughout the cabin because there was actually a chance to land in Juneau. The plane pointed it directly to Juneau and we were able hit the runway during the slimmest of breaks in the fog…by the time I walked outside the airport after landing, you couldn’t see 10 feet (3 meters) in front of you…fog was back!

I made it and so hyped to be off that airplane! Now it’s time to wait for my bags, hopefully they’ll show up this afternoon on the flight from Anchorage, where our filmer Travis Robb is currently stranded. Travis has been on the same rotation as I was, trying to get from Seattle to Juneau, but he’s on day number four!! WOW! Hang in there Travis! Blotto