Pre Trip
In early January of this year, Don and I filled out the information to be put on a list to hopefully be drawn for a permit to go to the McNeil River State Game Sanctuary. On March 15 we were notified by Email that our names had been drawn and we were given the dates of July 17-July 20. It was suggested that we fly out the day before the permit started and get a flight out the day after our permit. It also recommended that we secure flights asap. We had just come off the Arizona trail so the timing was perfect. We were immediately on the phone to several of the air taxi carriers only to be told that some of the days that we requested were already full. We finally got a flight with one carrier that could take us to McNeil 2 days before our permit started and another one that would return us to Homer. First though we had to get permission from the AK Fish and Game Department. Thankfully they gave permission and our flights to and from McNeil River were secured. With the paperwork signed and our permit fee sent all we had to do was wait for our departure day of July 15. The permit fee for Alaskans was $250.00, non alaskans was 500.00. Round trip to McNeil would be around $1000.00 each.