Ted, Jean, Brian & Mark…a family that is blessed with a true love of adventure. Starting with a camping trip (where I forgot the stove) before we got married, to hikes from Colorado to Alaska, our family continues to seek out adventure and spectacular scenery. We love to visit unique places, hike to out-of-the-way places and live life to its fullest extent. We all like to camp and, while our family is certainly not “extreme” we will take multi-day camping and hiking trips when the opportunity presents itself.

Since our initial “cold food” hiking trip, Jean has hiked up several Colorado 14,000’+ peaks, camped and hiked on the Kahiltna glacier in Alaska and accomplished rugged hikes in Montana, Wyoming and British Columbia. Jean’s a real “trooper” in hanging in there when the going gets tough and the weather decides to not cooperate!

Brian and Mark both earned advanced belts in Taekwando while still in grade school. They both love to 4-wheel in Colorado as well as the Moab, UT area. The boys are great hikers and campers, with numerous long hikes in Colorado, Montana and the Teton’s to their credit.

It’s fair to say that Ted is an adrenaline junkie—one who lives for the next adventure. Ted’s rock climbed in Yosemite, climbed Denali in Alaska, Mt. Rainier in Washington and hiked up all of Colorado’s 54 peaks over 14,000’. He regularly climbs ice in Colorado’s winter and continues to stay in shape by mountain biking. Flying is yet another hobby begun at an early age.

Flying

Ted Waltman started flying at age 15, soloed on his 16th birthday and received his private license on his 17th birthday. Ted fell in love with Alaska during his first climbing trip to Denali in 1980. Since that trip, Ted dreamed of someday flying his family to the “last great frontier” so they can all see many of the sights that are typically unavailable to your average car or cruise-ship tourist.

Ted realized one just doesn’t get his private license and immediately take the family to the rugged country often found on the route to Alaska. Knowing that a tailwheel plane would be ideal, Ted got checked out in an Aeronca Champ, and then purchased a Maule M-5. With the Maule in hand, Ted proceeded to take a 5 day mountain flying course in Idaho. This formal course really teaches a pilot to respect the vagaries of mountain weather as well as the unique demands involved with landing at high-altitude mountain strips.

With 3+ years and 400 hours in the Maule, our family was simply outgrowing the plane’s capacity. Something larger was needed, both for family trips to the Midwest (to visit relatives) and for the hoped-for Alaska trip. The Murphy Moose seemed to offer the best in the way of safety, capacity and performance. Ted was lucky enough to find a recently completed Moose and purchase it in May of 2004. Again, Ted knew it would be wise to get some experience in the plane, so he flew it for a year, visiting places as diverse as Chicago, Illinois and Mineral Canyon, a backcountry strip near Moab, Utah.

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