Originally Posted by Monguse

I took this video in the summer of 2006 from the shoreline of Nunavagaluk Lake, about 12 miles west of Dillingham Alaska. The Albatross had come in and beached at what was then the Crystal Creek Lodge which has since moved to the Naknek River east of King Salmon.

Anyway, the pilot put the landing gear down after coming to a very slow taxi, but because of the soft mud/gravel bottom close to the shoreline, the plane was pretty much stuck after it got turned around.
Many of us, including the pilot, took turns for about an hour digging trenches under water in front of the mains.

The pilot made a few tries with engine power to get unstuck after each group effort with shovels and finally was able to motor off the beach. The plane had several people aboard and had sat on the shoreline for a couple of hours. It apparently shipped a fair amount of water into the belly area. You can see it after takeoff and is still streaming out on his fly by.
YouTube - Grumman Albatross takeoff and flyby

From Alaska flight operations and Alaska Flying