On our way back from the cruise, we flew from Seattle to Sitka in the dark.  On our return from Minnesota, we had full daylight all the way home.  Alaska Airlines operate several “Milk Runs” between Seattle and Anchorage.  In the early days there was a milk run that stopped at most major (a term of art I think) communities.  The newer, more fuel efficient 737s 700s don’t like so many ups and downs, landing and takeoffs, pressurizing, and depressurizing.  So different Alaska Airlines milk runs stop at different cities.  The milk run towns between Seattle and Anchorage are Ketchikan, Wrangell, Petersburg, Sitka, Juneau, Yakutat, and Cordova.  Flight 67 is Seattle, Ketchikan, Sitka, and Juneau to Anchorage. 

Milk runs used to be more common than they are now.  When I went to college, I took the Northwest Orient Milk Run from Newark, through Detroit, and Milwaukee to the Twin Cities.  When it left the cities it stopped at Fargo, Jamestown, Bismark, Billings, Butte, Missoula, and Spokane on the way to Seattle.  (I’ve done that leg a few times as well, to save money.)  In the 60s it was on a prop jet Electra.  In the 80s the western part, the “Montana Milk Run”, was still operating on Boeing 727s.  I went to my job interview from Minnesota to Juneau on the two back to back milk runs, the Montana run to Seattle and the Alaska run to Juneau.  It was horrendous.  We couldn’t land in Seattle so we diverted to Portland.  I got an overnight bus to Seattle airport, which had reopened, just in time to catch flight 65 stopping at EVERY town on the run, Ketchikan, Wrangel, Petersburg, and Sitka on the way to Juneau.  I went right from the plane to the interview with no time to freshen up at the hotel.  I got the job.  

Once on the Montana Milk Run, we lost cabin pressure and made an emergency landing in Jamestown then flew back to the twin cities on the same plane never going over 5,000 feet.  It was either that, wait a day, or take the Greyhound.  Only one couple opted for the Greyhound.  That was my last flight on the Montana Milk Run.  They put us on a non-stop from MSP to SEA and we got there just slightly later than if the milk run had been able to continue. 

The milk run gets its name from the dairy trucks in rural America that picked up milk at every farm on the way to the creamery.  If you have an Alaska Airlines flight with a two digit number starting with a 6 or 7 you are probably on a milk run.  It’s the essential lifeline for our coastal communities not connected to the continental road system. 

This milk run took off from SeaTac and flew over Seattle with good views across Lakes Washington and Union to the Magical Kingdom of Kirkland (home of Costco.)  We caught a glimpse of downtown Seattle as we turned west across Puget Sound, over the Olympics and then turned north and flew up the spine of Vancouver Island, over Queen Charlotte Sound between Haida Gwaii and the mainland, into Ketchikan.  (Even in airplane mode I could track us on my Garmin Navigation phone app.) 

In Ketchikan I got a glimpse of our mothballed ferries and even of the Malaspina, docked in Ward Cove, housing seasonal tourism workers.   Someday, if we can get rid of our “rhymes with bass pole” governor and his red veto pen, we may see more of them in Sitka again.

Up from K-town we flew over the South Baranof Wilderness fjords and into Sitka.  I took a picture of our house, circled in blue, as we glided in.  Our friends Dave and Janet met us and we had dinner at The Nugget, the airport restaurant.  By the way, the pies are back and the snow is finally gone!