We woke up and I made wild blueberry pancakes for breakfast as Robi made a game plan for packing up the tent to keep it as dry as possible. I of course ended up giving the winning suggestions to make the whole ordeal a little bit more organized. Silly boys, they think they are so swift. ( He is now lecturing me about how I have no idea about his plan and that men are far more superior to women in the whole planning of tarp taking down processes ) Typical.
We got on the road as quick as possible; out of the rain and on our way to Kennicott Mine and the tiny village of McCarthy. Chitina was the last small town to check out before hitting the gravel road to this remote village in the Wrangell-St.Elias National Park. With its 13.2 million acres of untouched & untamed land it is America’s largest national park and is home to the Kennecott Copper Mine, a National Historic Landmark.
The McCarthy Road is nothing we weren’t ready for or used to by now. 60 miles of potholed, muddy, rut ridden rough winding road. It is now the early autumn in Alaska and the scenery was beautiful with specs of yellows and reds across the vast mountain faces. There was also a few old railroad trestle to explore about halfway, of course we got out and took some pictures and stretched our legs.
After two hours we made it to the end of the road where we would have to park, cross the Kennicott River on a footbridge and catch a shuttle to the mine itself. It felt so secluded and almost wild, there were no sounds; of cars passing, radios blaring or anything really, just silence. We grabbed a pizza from the only place to grab a bite and sat and looked over the moraines of the Kennicott Glacier and were in complete awe of the authenticity of this little hidden jewel on a dead end road.
After watching Robi eat five slices of pizza I cut him off and we started to explore the mill town. There was so much to see and we only had a few hours before the last shuttle back to the footbridge. We travelled back in time and began our self guided tour through the old buildings and tried to imagine what life could have been like there in the early 1900’s. Of course as navigator, I have been nothing but reading and I must sometimes forget to tell Robi all the cool facts about all these places because he’s always asking questions to which I have the correct answer or same answer as the Park Rangers. Oops.
After touring the buildings, most of which were amazingly restored, we decided to take a walk along one of the trails that leads us to a viewing point above the mill. There was a small foot bridge over a small waterfall and rock staircases wandering through berry brush and I of course stopped to pick some raspberries, my favorite. We had the complete intent of finishing the loop trail, yet when we got to the top of the mill we stumbled across this…..
Someone else must likes berries too… we quickly began our way back down the path we came from and started out familiar karaoke routine to make sure we were well heard by our little friend who couldn’t have been very far away.
By the time we made it back down to the main part of the town the sun was beginning to set and the last shuttle to McCarthy would be showing up soon. We took a few more pictures and gazed over the glacier one more time, listening to the distant sounds of it melting away under the rocks.
McCarthy was only four miles away and made a great stop for some old time pictures of trucks and buildings. History itself sat settled in these tiny towns and it made an amazing way to spend our last day in Alaska. It was the true feeling of the “Last Great Frontier” and the untouched piece of Alaska we had been searching for. I stumbled across a line from one of the pamphlets from the mine which I feel compelled to share because it really summed up the visit for me.
Robi and I decided that we wanted to at least get off the McCarthy Road by nightfall so we once again set off on the grueling gravel. It was 10 pm by the time we were off that road and either of us were anywhere close to tired since we slept in that morning. We made sure there was a 24 hour gas station on our route and decided to keep on truckin. We were making great time and had made some coffee at a wayside so there was no chance of tired being an option. We then passed by a van in the ditch with about 15 people standing around it scratching their heads. We looked at each other and knew we had to turn back and help them out. They must not have thought we were very useful at first because they almost refused our help until the words “ten thousand pound winch” came out of Robi’s mouth. After a few minutes of set up and trying to explain to the maybe not so bright driver on how to maneuver himself, we had them pulled out and back on track. Everyone clapped; they were so glad that we had come to the rescue. This time four ice cold Budweiser’s were inserted into our fridge and we giggled as we drove away.
GOODBYE ALASKA!!
IT WAS FUN.
<3
