Day 65, 29 July 2015
Kenny Lake to McCarthy 90 miles
We parked Rocky at Kenny Lake for our Jeep trek to McCarthy
in Wrangell-St Elias National Park. It’s about 30 miles from Kenny Lake to the
park entrance at Chitina. Then 60 miles on McCarthy Road through a hole in the
rock carved out for the old railroad that was built from Cordova to Kennecott
to haul out copper ore. This was some of the roughest road we’ve traveled to
date - lots of potholes and washboard, and mostly rocks on mud. Glad we had the
Jeep for the trip. Most of the road is
the old railroad bed, including the one-lane bridges over the gorges. From
“Base Camp” – a parking area at the end of McCarthy Road, one crosses a footbridge,
then takes a 5-mile shuttle to the Kennecott complex being restored by the
National Park Service. It all started in
1900 when prospectors were exploring the area of the Ahtna people who collected
native copper, working it into art, utensils, and arrowheads. They found what
they thought were green pastures turned out to be one of the world’s richest
concentrations of high-grade copper ore. With financial backing from
Havenmeyer, Guggenheim, and JP Morgan, an east coast mining engineer named
Stephen Birch formed the Alaska Syndicate – later reorganized as Kennecott
Copper Corporation. From 1905 to 1938, Kennecott grew to over 100 buildings,
including bunkhouses for the workers, cottages for families, a school for the
children, as well as dairy barn, recreation hall, refrigeration plant, power
plant, general store, post office, saw mill, machine shop, and concentration
mill. The tour through the copper mill was fascinating. 1200 tons of ore per
day was processed by a series of grinding wheels, shaker tables, and leaching
and floatation processes to extract copper and silver, which were bagged and
loaded onto railroad cars for processing in Tacoma, WA. It’s amazing what folks
did in in the early 1900’s to recover $200 million worth of copper (and silver),
with half that in profit (over $1B in today’s money). After exploring the town,
we hiked up the Root Glacier Trail to the Kennecott Glacier and back. We were
told the “best food in town” was at the Meatza Bus, and it was great.
We shuttled down to McCarthy about a mile from the
footbridge – funky little town with about a half dozen buildings, including the
Golden Saloon – the only bar in town – where we had a brew and watched the
locals at the bar and the tourists, many international, having dinner. Walked back
across the footbridge to our cabin facing the end of the 27-mile Kennecott
Glacier. We could see the Kennecott complex in the distance through binoculars.
Awesome location.
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| Beaver house in pond on the McCarthy Rd |
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| Railroad bridge over gorge |
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| Our cozy cabin in McCarthy |
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| McCarthy base camp |
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| Foot bridge in McCarthy |
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| Kennicott Copper mine |
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| View of power plant from top of mine |
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| Nice view of glacier moraine from top of mine |
McCarthy to Tolsona
Woke up to a beautiful view of the Kennecott Glacier. Breakfast
at the pizza bus across the McCarthy Road - Green Eggs and Ham breakfast
pizza. Somewhere along the 60 miles back
on the McCarthy Road, we stopped at Spawning Grounds for ice cream – right in
the middle of nowhere. Met Kayla, the owner and an artist who was getting
married Saturday. And the ice cream was really good (Fireweed and Honey,
Raspberry Truffle, Coconut, and Mint Chocolate Chip). We celebrated our
successful trip without a flat tire or other incident at the Chitina Hotel and
Saloon. Picked up Rocky and went fishing on the Klutina River. Camped at our favorite
spot at the Tolsona Wilderness Campground by the creek. The fire alert was
lifted, so we made 'smores over a nice campfire.
Tolsona to Sheep Mountain 60 miles
Met some nice folks from Michigan who were just starting
their Alaska adventure – Karl and Cynthia. Shared some travel suggestions over
potluck breakfast - an egg thing, cantaloup, mango juice, and rhubarb crisp –
yum. Drove the Glenn Highway to Sheep Mountain Lodge. Hiked down to the nearby Caribou
Creek for some gold panning – found some tiny flakes that might be metal.
Saw some rafters and ATVers. Basil crusted
halibut dinner at the lodge after soaking in the hot tub – doesn’t get any
better than that!
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| ATVer on Caribou Creek |
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| Enjoying fresh Alaskan halibut at the lodge |
Day 68, 1 August 2015
Sheep Mountain to Talkeetna 247 miles
Lots of driving today, but what a beautiful day! Sunshine,
blue sky, and clear.
We stopped at the
look out for the Matanuska Glacier. It was so clear, we could see the whole
valley – awesome. There was some commotion at one of the outhouses – turns out
a porcupine was hiding behind the toilet. One of the girls almost sat down on
it. We enjoyed lunch at Humdinger’s Gourmet Pizza in Palmer and met the owner.
His restaurant was voted “best in the valley” for the last two years. The
Walmart in Wasilla is the largest in Alaska, and they hold the distinction of
having sold more duct tape than any other Walmart in the world. On the
Talkeetna Spur Road, just before the town of Talkeetna, there is a pullout on
the West side that offers great views of the mountains, but, alas, McKinley was
still hidden in the clouds. Set up camp and walked about the town of Talkeetna.
At the general store, we discovered Stubbs – an 18 year-old cat who was elected
mayor in 1997 when folks were not happy with the two humans on the ballot. And,
of course, we had to sample some of the craft brews at the Denali Brewing
Company.
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| Porcupine in outhouse |
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| Matanuska glacier |
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| Owner and staff at Humdinger's |
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| Mayor Stubbs |
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| We finally saw a bear! |
Day 69, 2 August 2015
We took a morning walk around town and heard that Mt
McKinley was visible. This was the highlight of our day – Mt McKinley finally
came out of the clouds. For quite a while we admired the mountain on the bank
of the Susitna River at the end of Main St. Just awesome. In the afternoon, we
hopped on the train to Hurricane Gulch. This is one of the last remaining
flagstop railroads in the country. The train takes folks to their cabins and
fishing destinations. It stops when hailed, like a cab. We, of course were just
touring, and the conductor made it fun, pointing out bears, moose, swans, some
awesome views of Denali, and some settlements from homesteaders. At Hurricane Gulch, the train stopped on the
296 ft high bridge and let us take photos from the open doors of the baggage
car.
Day 70, 3 August 2015
Talkeetna to Anchorage 112 miles
Day 71, 4 August 2015
Relaxing day walking around downtown Anchorage, shopping and
having lunch at F-Street Station, another popular watering hole with pretty
good food. We enjoyed a tasty celebratory farewell dinner of fresh, wild,
Alaskan King Salmon from 10
th and M, then took Bob and Joan to the
airport. Great friends, wonderful people - we really enjoyed traveling with
them. Later (in the middle of the night) we picked up Pam, our daughter, and
Sam and Chloe, our grandchildren, who will spend a week exploring Alaska with
us. Really looking forward to that.
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| Farewell dinner with Bob & Joan |
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| Welcome to Pam, Sam & Chloe |
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