Alaskan Adventure 2009

Yet again we've had a great summer adventure exploring in Alaska.

We were originally supposed to spend the week in Valdez fishing with friends however their plans fell through and we were on our own, which lead to pleasantly unexpected discoveries!

It takes us 1 full day in the truck to get out of the Yukon and we make alot of stops to break up the drive. This time we had some great stops in White River (how can you pass up all these old Army trucks???) and Beaver Creek (check out this church).

After a very long day we camped out just past Tok (http://www.tokalaskainfo.com) on our way down to Valdez.

Day 2 started out with a family bike ride on the bike path outside Tok and then back in the truck headed south. Back in White River we had heard that the Salmon were running in Copper so we checked things out at the Glenallen visitor's centre and learned more about this. Next stop was the Klutina River to check out the fishing... We arrived just in time to see some guide boats pull up and show off their catch - KING Salmon - and they were King's! 40lbs of Salmon is HUGE. They also had smaller salmon known as "copper river reds" which we had never heard of - in speaking with people along our journey, it seems that there is such thing as regional salmon (vs just Alaksan salmon) and that copper river is the best you can get.

After an hour of fishing with no luck, and with some reluctance we headed back to the truck to continue our drive to Valdez. A favourite stop along the way is the Worthington Glacier - a great little glacier that is also a state park so there is easy access and short walks. We came prepared with a harness and rope for Hunter and lots of energy to explore.

Our last visit to Valdez was 3 summers ago and it was short lived (about 30 minutes) due to rain, cold and fog. The weather this time was about the same - welcome to coastal Alaska - and we found ourselves longingly thinking about that sunny, warm interior weather we had experienced at the Klutina River. The "pinks" - i.e. Pink Salmon were not running in Valdez yet (they were late this year) and we determined that Hunter is not ready for a full-day of Halibut fishing, therefore there was not alot left to keep us in Valdez. After a quick re-stocking at the grocery store in the morning, we packed up and headed back up the road.

At the visitor's centre in Glenallen we had noticed this amazing photo of a huge red building and it turned out to be the Kennecott Copper Mine in Wrangell-St Elias National Park (http://www.nps.gov/wrst/historyculture/kennecott.htm). It looked intriguing so this became our new destination. It also helped that it was within a National Park and that meant that Hunter could do the Junior Ranger program and continue his fascination with Park Rangers (a carry-over from last summer's visit to Glacier National Park).

Kennecott is at the end of the road - literally. You leave the Richardson Highway and head 30 miles down a paved, windy road through Alaskan farm land (settled during homesteading times) to the town of Chitina (http://www.chitinachamber.org/), which sits alongside the Copper River, home of the Copper River Red salmon. The road then changes to gravel and is 55 miles of slow driving - 1.5 cars wide and built on the old rail bed from the copper railway that ran to Kennecott, the road defines your travel time and definitely takes a toll on both people and equipment (we had a jar of strawberry jam come unscrewed in the fridge and spew itself everywhere due to all the shaking from the washboard).

When you first cross over the Copper River you see this huge field of fishwheels - what a site! It was a combination of tail gate party and mass long weekend camping -RV's scattered everywhere, people zipping around on ATV's and this massive row of fishwheels churning away. In Alaska, Alaskan residents are allowed to fish for salmon with poles, dipnets or fishwheels vs in Canada where only Aboriginal people can use devices other than poles. The fishwheels are owned by people and then they typically sell of "shares" to others. There is a 500 fish maximum per fish wheel and they are for personal consumption (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fish_wheel). When the runs are really good, you can catch 100 fish in a 12-18 hour period.

After 2 hours on the gravel bumpy road we reached the footbridge at the town of McCarthy. McCarthy was founded shortly after the mining town of Kennecott (which was a company town with strict guidelines) and it became the service, support & "fun" enabler for the 600 residents of Kennecott - it had the saloons, hotels etc. Kennecott and McCarthy both shut down in the late 1930's when the mine shut down and the Kennecott Copper Company pulled up stakes (literally - the company took all that they needed, put it on the last train out to Cordova, and then pulled the railway tracks out a few years later and donated the rightaway to the State of Alaska as long as they used it to build a road to the area). McCarthy developed into a small alternative lifestyle community in the late 1970's and is now a comfortable small town (winter population of approximately 35 people, summer of around 250) that is subsistence focused and also supports the tourism opportunities for the area (approximately 35,000 people a year come through to see the National Park and explore the wilderness).

The town of McCarthy sits on the other side of a passenger bridge - which means that all visitors must leave their vehicles and walk across (http://www.mccarthylodge.com/townstoday.php - be sure to check out the video clips at the bottom). There are shuttle vans that will drive you from place to place however most of the locals use ATV's for transportation around McCarthy and between McCarthy and Kennecott (a 5 mile road). Lucky for us we had our ATV along in the trusty trailer and it became known as our personal shuttle van! We camped at the edge of a parking lot at the base of the passenger bridge alongside the Kennecott river - other than being in a parking lot, it was a great location - amazing views looking up at the glacier, running river right along side for background noise and lots of rocks for Hunter to play with.

The other interesting thing was that a forest fire started up about 3 miles away just before we arrived due to a lightning strike. For a fire centric 5 year old, this was an interesting thread that ran through our entire time in the area...

A key site for our entire visit was the McCarthy/Kennecott fire station - conveniently placed just outside McCarthy on the road to Kennecott, which meant that we passed it many times a day. In front of the fire station was a large sign with Smoky the Bear and they kindly had all of their fire trucks parked out front. To many, this could have been a "nice to see" the first time they drove by - for us it became a mandatory stop and explore every time we travelled near by. Hunter could have provided a full inventory list of their equipment by the time we left!

Friday morning we hopped on our trusty shuttle ATV and went off to explore Kennecott and all that it had to offer - glaciers, old mines etc. We went on a great personalized guided hike of Root Glacier with Mike Murphy from Kennecott Mountain Guides (http://www.kennicottguides.com/) and everyone had a great time exploring the ice, water and scenery.

Friday afternoon we joined the park rangers for a history tour of the town and learned all about life in Kennecott back when the mine was open (1908-1938). The technology that they had, and that they invented, for a remote location at that time was impressive. They were the inventors of using ammonia leaching to get more copper out of the rock and maximize their finds.

After our dusty day out in the sun we ventured back to McCarthy where they were holding a "block party" for the night before the 4th of July! As we were sitting down enjoying our ice cream a small grass fire errupted across the road and this had everyone scrambling - people came out of the wood work with buckets and shovels. It also brought the volunteer fire department and their trucks! Needless to say, we were there for a while watching all the activity.

Saturday was the 4th of July and McCarthy was a great place to experience the holiday. From noon until 5pm there was non-stop community activity, starting with a parade down main street (short enough that they do the route twice) followed by all sorts of fun games - pie eating, nail hammering, paper airplane throwing, slow bike race, tug-of-war and finally the egg toss. Hunter and Tim participated in a few events and everyone had a great time! The night ended with fireworks - we woke Hunter up and all sat huddled under a blanket, beside a glacial river, watching fireworks in a hazy sky with the Root Glacier as the back-drop - WOW.

Both Saturday and Sunday were scorching hot, sunny days and we made the most of them by hanging out at the local swimming hole. Yes, this was water right off the glacier. It was also shallow enough that it was refreshing but not freezing. Another great community asset where kids and adults alike came to play.

Double click on the picture to see all the happy swimmers...

Sunday we took the ATV out exploring to check out one of the mine's. A 5 mile drive up a hiking trail was possible due to all of Tim's time spent driving the trails around our place. Yet again, the scenery was amazing - lush green folliage, sparkling white glaciers and old historical tramways and mining buildings.

Much to Hunter's dismay, we left McCarthy on Monday morning and headed back down the road with the goal of catching some salmon on the Klutina River. We made it there by late afternoon and Tim spent much of the following 24 hours out on the river learning the intricacies of King Salmon fishing - it's done with a large pole, at least 50lb test (big fish plus rushing river current) and a hook with a piece of green, red or orange string tied to it (yep - it's that simple). It's also a combination of fly fishing and regular fishing. The season on this river is traditionally mid june to mid july however this year the run was a little earlier so we were definitely at the tail end of things.

No fish for us to bring home but agreement all round that we will be back next year - both to the Klutina and to McCarthy for July 4th weekend!