March 25, 2007
Adak Island to Anchorage via AKN
Anchorage to Fairbanks
Alaska Airlines Economy Class
737-200 N742AS Flight Time: :2:27 / :42 / :41

Although this Trip Report starts in Adak, my travels actually began earlier in the day when I boarded N742AS, one of two remaining 737-200s that Alaska Airlines still flies. Alaska won’t be flying them much longer, however. Thursday, March 29th will mark the final revenue flight for Alaska’s 737-200s. After that, it’s off to storage in the California desert until some third world carrier returns them to service or they get scrapped out for parts. The “Baby Boeings” or “Mudhens” as Alaska crews affectionately call them have provided reliable freight and combi service to rural Alaska destinations for nearly thirty years. My first flight on an Alaska 737-200 came in 1984. Since then I’ve logged thirty-two flights aboard Alaska’s models, only once in a pure passenger configuration. I’ll be sorry to see this little workhorse go, but happy to know that at least three or four of Alaska’s fleet are young enough to escape the scrapper’s torch for at least another few years.

As I exited the Boardroom and headed down toward gate C-8, I thought I heard someone call my name. Nah, it’s probably just the voices in my head, I thought, and then paused briefly to double check the flight departure time on an airport monitor. I heard my name called again – this time distinctly. I turned around and lo and behold, there was FlyerTalk’s very own eastwest, come along for the ride to Adak and back. I’d emailed him about my passing through Anchorage and possibly getting together but as I hadn’t heard back from him before I left for Anchorage yesterday, I figured he couldn’t make it. Well, I hadn’t seen eastwest in about four years and at first didn’t recognize him since he’d grown his hair out a good quarter inch, but it was good to meet up again, especially under these circumstances. I’m generally a solo traveler, but it’s always fun to meet up with friends enroute, especially on a plane when it’s unexpected.

Anyway, let’s flash forward to Adak where, following a brief stop in King Salmon, we landed on a fairly decent day by Aleutian standards. The Aleutians are known for some of the consistently worst weather in the world. Many a plane has crashed on their rugged peaks and many a ship has foundered off their rocky shores. Joining us on today’s flight into Adak was a salvage crew come to tow a recently damaged ship out to sea and sink it. The ship had struck an undersea rock just off the coast of Adak and was deemed a wreck.



On the ramp at King Salmon



Windblown remnants of a sign at Adak Airport


With about an hour and forty-minutes in Adak to look forward to, eastwest and I decided to go out and explore the “town” of Adak. Adak has an interesting history. Following the Japanese bombing of Dutch Harbor in 1942 and the subsequent invasion of Attu and Kiska in the western Aleutian islands, Adak was built up as a military base. At its peak, 90,000 troops were housed here to turn back any Japanese invasion of Alaska.

After the war, Adak became a strategic military communications and surveillance post. In 1995, the Base Realignment and Closure Act resulted in the closure of Adak as a military facility. At that time, the population of Adak was over 6,000 military and support personnel and their families. By the time the 2000 census was completed, Adak’s population showed a total of 316 residents. I’ve recently read however that now the permanent population of the island has dropped to about seventy people.

I thought it pretty interesting that Adak is on the books as Alaska’s newest incorporated community. Incorporated, you say? That’s right. The title of the military property and facilities officially changed hands from the US Navy to the Aleutian Development Corporation in 2004.

These days, Adak relies primarily upon fishing for its livelihood, though occasional groups of well to do birders will also stop in. I say well to do because Adak is one of the most expensive places in the world to fly to. Thank goodness for Alaska Airlines’ great instate mileage awards or I’d be paying over $500.00 each way to get here – this despite the fact that the government subsidizes Alaska’s twice a week service from Anchorage.

As we walked into what looked like a 1980s suburban housing area from outside Fargo, North Dakota, I was reminded of a scene from the Andromeda Strain when these scientists walk into a town that looks perfectly normal but it’s not. All the people are dead. Or gone. Walking through suburban Adak delivered the same eerie feeling, particularly since you could still see furniture and lamps visible in the windows. Children’s swings and slides sat abandoned in the yards and the cold wind whistling amongst the houses was the only sound to be heard.




Suburban Adak



Suburban Adak


Eventually, we came across The Store, aptly named since it is the only store on the island. It was stocked with a surprising variety of sundry items and foods, though it was a bit light on the fruit and vegetable selection. Laundry and shower services were also available along with Internet access for only $15.00 per half hour!




Now that is expensive internet!


The temperature was a brisk 36° but the weather was otherwise fairly decent with a mixture of clouds and sun. Interestingly, it was sunny when we’d walked into The Store, but when we exited five minutes later, it was into a totally gray world of wind and snow with visibility diminished to about fifty yards. It was a miniature blizzard! Ten minutes later it was sunny again.

Further wanderings about town took us to the impressive looking buildings that housed Adak’s High School, gym and library. We went inside and discovered that Adak’s Housing Authority was also located here. Adak has neither hotels nor B&B’s, but it is nonetheless possible to rent via the Housing Authority some of the suburban townhouses for just $175.00 per night single occupancy. Two or more people can rent them for $225.00 per night. They come fully furnished and include such luxuries as cable TV and dishwashers. One can also rent four wheeled ATVs for just $125.00 per day or an old Navy car for just $90.00 per day. As one might imagine, there are not many roads on the island and the local Native Corporation, which owns much of the land, frowns upon ATV use across its lands. Also, there’s the issue of unexploded ordnance left over from the Navy days. All this notwithstanding, I’d love to come to Adak for a month with a box of books and assorted projects to keep me busy. There’s an attractive desolation about this place that I really like.




Adak High School, Library and Community Center


A quick glance at our watches told us that we’d better start heading back to the airport. If we were to miss the flight back to Anchorage, the next one out wouldn’t be until Thursday, four days hence. Eastwest’s status as an Alaska Airlines employee cut him no slack with Adak’s Housing Authority, either. There were no discounted airline industry rates on those townhouses.




Adak Airport as seen from "downtown" Adak


Adak’s airport terminal is functional and comfortable, but otherwise bereft of any services other than a Coke machine along one wall. In one corner of the terminal is a nice collection of couches that I dubbed “The Boardroom”, and there we sat until boarding was announced at about 2:45pm.




Relaxing in the Adak Airport "Boardroom"

With only two commercial flights a week, it’s hardly worth providing Adak with two full time TSA employees, especially considering the cost of housing. So what happens is that the two TSA agents from King Salmon join us for the flight out to Adak and back. While in Adak, they inspect the cargo that arrived on the incoming flight, then inspect passengers and cargo heading out of Adak. An Alaska Airlines mechanic also joins us for the roundtrip from Anchorage just in case anything of a mechanical nature should go wrong.





N742AS Awaits on the ramp at Adak


Eastwest and I were amongst the last to board and as we entered the airplane, we were assaulted with the distinct aroma of dead fish. There were perhaps thirty people flying out of Adak this afternoon and I would guess that ninety percent of them had just come off the boat. Like any locker room however, it wasn’t long before we got used to the smell and by the time we became airborne it wasn’t an issue.




Taxiing out to the runway at Adak



Lining up for takeoff



Climbing away from Adak


Flight time to King Salmon was announced at one hour and fifty-three minutes, substantially faster than the 2:27 it took us to fly out to Adak. Gotta love those tailwinds! The climb out of Adak was quite pretty and I spent the first ten minutes of the flight snapping picture after picture of the rugged snow covered islands passing beneath us.



Enroute up the Aleutian Island Chain to King Salmon



Water, Ice & Currents make great art off King Salmon


The 910 mile flight from Adak to King Salmon may be the only flight in Alaska’s system where a complimentary meal is still offered to all passengers. Our Flight Attendant Patty treated eastwest and I like royalty, plying us with ice cold Alaskan Ambers followed by hot turkey and cheese sandwiches accompanied by delicious Alaskan made potato chips. Eastwest was also pleased by the many bags of Spinzels bestowed upon him by Patty and myself. I’ve never been a big fan of pretzels and forgot to bring my usual ration of almonds. Thankfully, there were plenty of chips and sandwiches to go around, so many in fact that we were all offered seconds.




Lining up for final into Anchorage International


We arrived back in Anchorage on a pretty spring evening. I had about an hour layover for my connecting flight to Fairbanks and offered to “buy” eastwest a beer in Alaska’s Boardroom. Unfortunately, he had to decline since, as an Alaska Airline employee, he’s not allowed in the Boardroom, even as a guest. I suggested one off those plastic Groucho Marx nose and glasses get-ups but he’d have none of it. We parted ways in the concourse, hopefully to rendezvous again someday sooner than the four years that separated our last meeting.

I had one free day in Fairbanks before continuing on with my journey. I spent that afternoon at the Ice Park looking at the entries from this year’s World Ice Carving Championships. Check out the photos!




Russian Dancers



Frozen Mantis



Mountain Sheep



Mountain Goats