McCall Air was nice ride while it lasted

McCall Air is leaving Sandpoint in October, after only a four-month run of round-trip service to Boise and Seattle.

To the small airline I have to say: So long, and thanks for the memories.

I understand the decision to close shop, with planes averaging only a quarter full, but I’m sad to see McCall go. The company provided me my first view of this region from the air. The company’s service also saved my vacation plans from going awry.

I had plans to squeeze in a visit to family in the Bay Area before a rafting trip down the Middle Fork of the Salmon River. When my rafting partners decided to leave earlier than expected, I needed a way to get to them, on the river, after returning from California. I called people I knew whose families have planes. I called charter services.

Then my husband called McCall Air and discovered the company offered direct air service from Sandpoint to McCall, Idaho, then from there directly to the backcountry airstrip on the river near where my group planned to camp. In fact, my flight delivered me to camp just as dinner was served.

Presto! Instant vacation! (Just add water.)

No eight-hour drive. No worrying about directions. No planning for my car to be shuttled here or there.

Sure it cost a bundle – about $450 total – but for my purposes, it was worth it, and not much above what we’d budgeted. My other option was to drive down to Salmon, Idaho, and fly in from there, which would’ve required paying for a car shuttle and a shorter flight.

And if landing a permit on one of the most coveted river trips in the country wasn’t special enough, the flight took my breath away. I was like a little kid at Disneyworld, trying to see all the attractions simultaneously, straining against my seatbelt to see out both sides of the airplane at once.

This wasn’t a jetliner soaring miles above the ground. It was a 10-seater Cessna, cruising over the air currents only a few thousand feet up. But the flight’s half-emptiness was a sign of what was to come. Out of eight available seats, only three others were taken – by a couple from McCall, just up in Sandpoint for the day, and by a woman from Boise, returning after a trip.

I loved McCall’s low-key, personal nature. A black cat stretched in the sun on the waiting room couch. The pilot himself gave me the safety briefing. And I watched as a crew member carried my bag from the Cessna to the smaller plane that took me from McCall to the river.

“Just the river bag, Alison?” he asked. No worries about lost baggage there.

Upon my request, the pilot gave me a topographical map to follow along. As we headed south, I saw Lake Pend Oreille pass below with the Pend Oreille River curving out to the west. Then suddenly we were over Hayden Lake, whose perimeter I have ridden on my bike. Then the spiny arms of Lake Coeur d’Alene, where I live, stretched out before me. I scanned the lake’s shores to pick out Beauty Bay, where I’ve hiked, and Wolf Lodge, where friends live. I saw where the new and old stretches of Interstate 90 cut through Coeur d’Alene.

My eyes darted between the map and the land below me, trying in vain to pick out spots for future camping trips. But it all passed so quickly, I worried what I was missing. I saw the curves of the Clearwater River and the confluence of the St. Joe and St. Maries rivers.

Seeing the contours of the land gave me a better appreciation of the area’s history and how settlement grew up around the lakes and rivers. I saw the main fork of the river I would soon be rafting and its south fork, which I’ve already run.

After a decade of exploring the wilderness here, the flight was a rare opportunity to put all the pieces of the puzzle together. I’d never been to McCall, but I won’t soon forget that it’s on Payette Lake, just south of the beautiful Gospel Hump Wilderness. I’m already thinking of a hiking trip there next summer.

When we landed, the pilots wished me a good vacation.

I don’t think they realized they’d already delivered the icing before the cake.