Bob Adkins always knew he would visit Alaska. Raised on a farm in southwestern Michigan, he’d read through sporting magazines that routinely showcased adventures all over Alaska. After earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees in education from Western Michigan University, he set his sights on the 49th state. So began his journey to becoming a Panhandle Pilot.
Falling in love
“I didn’t have any ties to Michigan, so I figured I’d finally get the fishing and hunting thing out of my system,” says the Wesley at Tehaleh resident. “After four days in Alaska, I knew I wasn’t going back to the Lower 48.”
Bob applied for a position teaching math with the Sitka school district. He met Aleta during new teacher orientation. They dated for 3 years before getting married.
“Aleta was new, too. She’d grown up in Ocean Shores and studied at Central Washington University,” he recalls. “I took her on a hike on the Indian River Trail the following weekend. That was over 50 years ago.”
Flying high
In the summer of 1966, Bob attended an NDEA Institute workshop in Fairbanks. The trip would change his life. It wasn’t because of the curriculum; it was because of a sign he saw attached to a small plane at the airport. The sign read, “Flight Instruction – $10 an Hour.”
“I stopped the car to look more closely at the airplane. The pilot appeared, asked me if I wanted to fly and we took off,” said Bob.
Bob says the sense of freedom he appreciated so much in Alaska, a vast territory with few people, grew exponentially with access to the skies. To gain hours, he would fly along the Yukon River to Mt. Denali National Park. He’d land the plane to have his logbook signed and return to Sitka. He would repeat the same pattern, flying into the wilderness to have his logbook signed at regional airports throughout Southeast Alaska.
“I’d received my private pilot’s license in 1967,” he says. “After living in Anchorage, we moved to Haines. In 1981, a friend of mine named Ernie Walker started Haines Airways. He said if I earned my commercial pilot’s license, I could compensate my school year salary flying tourists around in the summer.”
Adding photographer to his resume
Bob would fly clients in Piper Cherokee 6s and Cessna 207s as far east as Whitehorse, Yukon, and as south as Petersburg. He developed his photography skills to take advantage of his access to some of North America’s greatest wilderness. His images would appear in TWA Magazine, Parade Magazine, Sports Afield, Wild Bird and many others.
“I guided for a local photography tour operator for several summers,” Bob says. “Haines is the eagle capital of the world. I have a large eagle print hanging in my Brownstone apartment. Haines Junction in the Yukon is easily the best place to photograph ptarmigan, the chicken-like bird that changes plumage from deep browns in summer to snow white over winter. It was common to see 20 to 100 ptarmigans at a time.”
Chronicling the life
Bob also began chronicling his aviation adventures, like the time he and two other pilots were returning rafters from Dry Bay outside of Yakutat to Haines.
“We were scud running because weather had enveloped us from in front, from behind, from below, and from above,” he recalls. “Fortunately, we spotted an emergency strip on the Haines Highway where we landed the three planes.”
The series of essays was compiled into Panhandle Pilot: Twenty Years of Flying in Southeast Alaska. It is still in print.
Not every story is harrowing, Bob says. There are plenty of brilliant moments, like the time he landed near one dozen brown bears that were feasting on a whale carcass.
“They had absolutely no interest in us,” he says. “I’m looking at a three-foot-by-five-foot photograph of Fort Seward framed by mountains right now.”
Moving to Washington
Like Alaska six decades ago, Bob and Aleta arrived at Wesley at Tehaleh sight unseen. Their daughters, who live minutes away, had scouted the Brownstone and thought their parents would fit right in, which they have.
“We got off the ferry and drove straight here,” he says. “It was an adjustment after Alaska, where Aleta and I would drive 30 miles for a hamburger and see two cars. But we are very satisfied and find everyone is very friendly. I love the woodshop where I like making little clocks and other small objects.”
Bob says his memories of Alaska are always with him. A 30-point caribou bull among fall foliage that he photographed in Denali remains his home screen.
“I will always miss Alaska,” he says. “However, in my town, it is currently 10 degrees below zero with 35 MPH winds.”
So maybe he doesn’t miss it too much.