Halibut Fishing and Hanging Out
Seldovia, only accessible by boat or airplane, is a really fun place to fly to. The gravel runway is mildly challenging (for me) at about 1,800 feet long. At the north end of the runway is a lagoon, so it is pretty straight forward to fly over the lagoon for approach or departure.
However there are trees and rising terrain straight ahead off the south end of the runway that are quite intimidating when you first look at them. When the wind favors a runway 16 takeoff, the strategy is that if you can’t make the climbout, you can take a right at the end of the runway and fly down a slough to the boat harbor. I’ve seen a Cessna 207 from the local charter Smokey Bay Air, obviously fully loaded or perhaps beyond. They took off, struggled to climb, turned into the slough, no more than 40-50 feet off the ground, and then disappeared around the corner.
We visited Seldovia twice on this trip. One time Betsy drove the van onto the Alaska state ferry to Seldovia and then we parked it in a campground just a mile up the road from Seldovia. A quiet and lovely campground with tons of salmonberries, blueberies and a bluff looking out over Kachemak bay. I flew because I was flying friends in and out of Seldovia.
The Halibut fishing out of Seldovia is worldclass, without the chaoas and cost of taking a boat out from Homer. There are a couple of charter operations from Seldovia. What a fantastic time with family and friends. A special thanks to Jeff for taking us out on his boat.
Seldovia has now cemented itself as one of my favorite places.
West Coast Flying Adventures 