The Iditarod dogsled race is an annual end-of-winter event in Alaska, and in 2009 I spent a week following the race in a Cessna 206 on skis. There were four of us in the party. Alice Rogoff put the expedition together; she owns the airplane and uses it to travel around Alaska in connection with the Alaska Native Arts Foundation (alaskanativearts.org). Writer Christopher Buckley and photographer Sydney Lockhart were on the trip to write about it for Forbes magazine. I was along to make sure nothing bad happened, which basically meant making sure that at no time would this unwieldy skiplane get stuck. It had all the ingredients of a good adventure, and the plan was to follow the trail wherever it led, which presumably would be Nome.
To read the rest of Burke's story, you'll have to pick up the January/February issue of Water Flying. But you can check out the blog run by the Sea Planes Pilots Association (Water Flying's publisher) here.
And you can read Buckley's hilarious account of his time with Burke here.