Chris' strip and Ptarmigan hunting

Ptarmigan are amazing birds, notice how well their heads blend in, however this time of year they are in the middle of changing over to their winter outfit (pure white) so they are easier to see now until it snows.
Coyote Tracks - doing the same thing that i was....
Lichen

There is a story behind this post that goes back aways. The plane that i fly now used to belong to Chris, after he died I bought it from his wife Mary. She was kind enough to hold onto the plane till i could come up with a way to pay her for it. Chris loved to hunt out of this strip and he just loved to spend time up there, it's easy to see why. After Chris died Mike and Bill build a concrete memorial for him on the strip similar to mike's fathers at his cabin and since then it's always been known as Chris' strip. I had the chance to fly in there with mike in his plane when i was younger and this was my first trip in by myself in my plane, or Chris' plane as it were. It's so hard watching friends pass before their time, but it brought me great solace to bring Chris' plane back to his strip and have as much fun there as he would have had. His memorial is doing great, enduring the weather well. As I was roaming around below the strip looking for Ptarmigan it started to snow the slightest bit and the temperature never rose above 35. The fingers of clouds reached out just beyond the strip to the east and beyond that, the day was crystal clear. As i sat by Chris' memorial eating a late lunch and getting ready to take off, an eagle flew by, coming from the Chakachamna river valley, headed up toward Beluga lake. He rode the slight thermals rising off the end of the strip and dipped a wing down toward the valley, it's hard not to think Chris was flying by to check on his people and make sure I was treating his plane well. I hope to spend much more time there, but time seems to be running short with winter sneaking up on us. For those of you not up here, you're missing out on a great fall,

hope all is well