AOPA Turbine Pilot Magazine - August 2022 - 70

also preventing slips on treacherous wet docks and
seaplane steps. Xtratufs are the footwear of choice in
this soaked part of Alaska that gets more than 12 feet
of annual rainfall, and they're also handy for differentiating
tourists from locals, and locals from each other.
" Anyone wearing worn-out Xtratufs is almost
surely a local, " DeFreest said. " Shiny Xtratufs are new
arrivals. And no Xtratufs are visitors. "
DeFreest shuts down the Skywagon's idling
Continental O-470 engine and glides to the dock at the
U.S. Forest Service's " southeast " cabin, one of two on
this lake. Maggie, the DeFreests' Labrador retrieverinfluenced,
mixed-breed dog, barks incessantly in the
back of the airplane.
" She loves this place, " DeFreest said. " Probably as
much as we do. "
He steps out the left-side door to the small, floating
dock, then secures several lines to it. There are no
cleats on the dock, and some of the woodwork itself
is loose, so DeFreest takes care to make sure the lines
and bumpers are attached firmly. Squalls, storms, and
high winds can pop up quickly, and there's no guarantee
that today's benign weather will last.
A light rain is falling as we carry our supplies up
the steep steps to the cabin itself. AOPA Director of
Photography Chris Rose asks whether anyone has the
key to the cabin, and DeFreest chuckles.
" There aren't any keys because there aren't any
locks, " he says. " They're open all the time in case
anyone needs shelter. The ability for people stuck
in the woods to use the cabins on an emergency
basis can save lives, and it's yet another reason to
keep them. "
70
AOPA PILOT / August 2022
Trout habitat
There's an unwritten etiquette for cabin life, and it
aligns well with the Girl Scout credo of leaving every
place " a little better than you found it. "
The previous visitors at this cabin did just that.
The floor is freshly swept; there's dry kindling and
split firewood by the stove; extra cans of food and
mosquito repellant are stacked neatly on the shelf, and
even the cabin chess board has all its pieces in place
for the next game to begin.
Forest Service employees stack a large supply of
firewood and an ax at each cabin every spring, and it's
up to visitors to split what they need for a wood stove
that can be used for both cooking and heat. The cabins
don't have electricity or running water.
DeFreest notices the remnants of burnt firewood
in a stone ring outside the cabin and disapproves.
" Cut firewood shouldn't be wasted on bonfires, " he
said. " It's meant for the stove. Driftwood is for bonfires. "
The main cabin accessory Rose and I care about is
a metal skiff. The boat is near the dock, and we drag
it there and hook up the 2.5-horsepower motor that
DeFreest brought.
We grab a few fishing rods and a tackle box and
head out onto the water. A light rain comes and goes,
and the lake surface is mostly glassy. A river flows into
the south end of the lake, and it seemed like ideal trout
habitat when we overflew it before landing.
A few black-tailed deer watch us approach in the
skiff and keep grazing.
We catch and release a few small rainbow and dazzlingly
colorful cutthroat trout, but the far larger salmon
and steelhead are still a few miles away in the ocean.
AOPA Turbine Pilot Magazine - August 2022

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