Source: 2013 Q1 Beartracks, Dave and Laura Lenart
Alton Bay seaplane base (B18) is a public use seaplane base on the finger bay of Lake Winnipesaukee, on its south east side known as Alton Bay. However, in the winter the lake freezes over and enough ice is formed to drive trucks on, put out bob houses for ice fishing, and, for the last 30 years, land airplanes on. Alton Bay ice runway is an FAA and New Hampshire DOT approved facility for the duration of safe operations, the only one in the U.S. south of Alaska, so I am told. The runway can be finicky, some years not open at all and others open one day and closed the next due to a big snow storm, extended warm up leading to thin ice, or melting overflow. Sometimes it is unusable due to stress cracks and fissures in the ice. The runway is situated roughly north-south following the bay and uses the runway designations of 01 /19. The day we flew in the runway was reported at 2500 feet long and 75 feet wide with no taxiways, rough ice and a note to avoid the runway edges due to melting snow banks causing standing water along the sides of the runway. The preferred use runway is 01 as it leads out to the open lake and in case of an unexpected go around there are miles of open flat country to maneuver. The reverse direction requires a steep climb to clear the several ridges surrounding Alton Bay. A unique aspect of the ice runway is that it is maintained entirely by a small force of volunteers interested in keeping this classic attraction open and serving not only the pilots in the area but also the local community. Paul LaRochelle, who heads up the airport operations, says the ice runway is an important part of the local flavor of Alton and adds to the local economy as a flying destination for pilots from all over New England and beyond.
Laura and I took the opportunity of beautiful flying weather on Valentine’s Day this past February to make the 45 NM flight from our home base at Lebanon NH to B18 in the Bearhawk. It’s been one of my ‘bucket list’ things to do for the last two years, which saw thin ice one year and a slushy mess the other. Last year I flew over to Alton and looked down on a runway marked out with orange cones but not a flake of snow anywhere in sight, the runway must have been like a hockey rink and I didn’t feel like being a puck. I saw that while the center of the bay was frozen, apparently enough to open the runway, the edges of the bay were liquid out 10 or 15 feet from the shore line – I chickened out and made my way north over Mount Washington.
This year things were different, plenty of ice and lots of snow. In fact just a few days earlier the area received 36 to 40 inches of snow from winter storm Nemo. Not sure why we are naming snow storms now, never used to but that’s the name given to the good dumping we got earlier that week. Due to the snow the runway was NOTAMed closed until Thursday morning as the crew of volunteers was able to bust through the thick snow with a fleet of trucks on Wednesday afternoon, according to one of the volunteers who also owns the general store on the bay. This guy was a character originally from south of Boston who ‘gave up making money’ when he relocated his family to Alton to run the old store – he’s a lot happier now though living a simpler life. While Laura and I were standing there talking to him a call came in from a regular customer apologizing for not getting down to the store today to settle her bill, he kindly told her ‘no problem, tomorrow will be fine’. After hanging up he told us her bill totaled a whopping one dollar.
The flight east out of the upper Connecticut River valley was beautiful, one of those days you could see forever. Mount Washington and the green and white mountain ranges are easily viewed to the north and west, Killington behind us, Mount Sunapee ski area off our right wing, the big city of Concord to the south as Lake Winnipesaukee comes into view. The winds at Lebanon were dead calm, but as we neared the lake and crossed just south of Laconia airport I checked the ASOS and discovered why my ground speed was 120 knots with the motor loafing along at 18 inches and 2300 rpm – winds 270 at 15 gusting to 22. It gave me some concern with an unfamiliar runway situated north and south and made of ice, but I decided I could always go around or wave off so on we went to make a standard left pattern approach down the valley for runway 01. The winds were squirrely but as always the Bearhawk took good care of us and we settled onto the ice without much drama at all. The ice was rough and had almost no snow on it, so I stayed off the brakes and came to a stop with plenty of runway in front of me. We back taxied to the park area and got out to a cold and blustery Alton Bay. We took a walk through town, got a hot cup of coffee and talked with some of the locals about the Alton Ice Festival that was coming up in a few days. For anyone in New England this certainly is a worthwhile destination for a hot cup or lunch at the local restaurant as well as some spectacular scenery and local flavor. As we climbed back into two victor tango the skies were clear and crisp and the winds were dying down, it was a good day spent together checking off the bucket list.