Almost Home/Kenny Lake to McCarthy and Back (7/8/2017)

Day 25
1964, the Plan: Duluth, MN to Chicago, IL.
1964, the Actuality: On Monday, August 10, the Explorer Scouts were almost home.

Saturday, July 8, 2017
We departed from our B&B after a self-serve breakfast of homemade donuts, yogurt and fruit. The refrigerator also had eggs, bagels and cream cheese, breads and jam, and milk and juice. There were boxes of cold cereal and a Keurig machine.
We continued on Edgerton Highway/AK-10 to the east.

Tibetan yaks at Circle F Ranch

Liberty Falls

Fishwheels at work in the Copper River

It was a rainy foggy day

Home in Chitina, AK

Chitina, AK was a boom town from about 1910 when the railroad arrived to 1938 when the railroad pulled out. It was a crossroads of sorts, connecting the Kennecott Copper Mine to the port in Cordova, and by road to Fairbanks. Now it is the hot spot for dipnet fishing and the gateway to the Wrangell-St Elias National Park and Preserve.

Former Chitina Emporium (c. 1915)

Wrangell-St Elias National Park and Preserve Chitina
Ranger Station in historic Ed S Orr Cabin (1910)

We had been searching for moose at beaver ponds and along rivers,
but where do we find one? In the town of Chitina!

Dipnetters in the Copper River

Although July is dipnetting month, it wasn't really the season of salmon runs where every time you dip the net, you catch a bunch of fish. Dipnetting is only open to Alaska residents, and is limited to location and time. Copper River is known for its red salmon.
We left Chitina, the end of Edgerton Highway, and crossed the Copper River to follow McCarthy Road. McCarthy Road is a gravel road that follows the railroad right-of-way. You used to have to beware of old railroad spikes, but hopefully over time, those are all gone.

Looking back at the notch cut through a granite outcrop,
originally for the railroad tracks, and now the road

Boreal forests and beaver ponds with beaver lodges

Misty view of Kuskulana River Bridge (1910),
236 m/775' long, 4.4 m/14.5' wide, 72.5 m/238' above water

Now we are driving across the Kuskulana River Bridge

We never got above 35 mph on the potholed and washboarded road

Trumpeter swans

There were a couple cleared areas alongside the road: airstrips

Gilahina Trestle (1910), which we did not have to cross

Someone had just removed a spruce tree that had fallen across the road

We parked out muddy car at the end of the McCarthy Road, for $5

To reach the town of McCarthy, you have to cross the
pedestrian bridge (1997) on foot; previously there was a tram
on a suspended cable that you pulled across by hand (KSS)

Mist on the Kennicott River

The shuttle van had arrived, so we went ahead and paid $10 each for the round trip to Kennecott five miles away. The van was old and decrepit, and Kent noticed it had over 200,000 miles on it.
Kennecott Mill Town was a copper mining town established in 1907. Copper was "discovered" (the Ahtna people had been using it for generations) by Tarantula Jack Smith and Clarence Warner in 1900. A syndicate bought them out in 1907 and built the railroad that reached the mines in 1911. A clerk misspelled Kennicott, and so the town and Mining Company were ever after called Kennecott. The mine was active until 1938.

Kennicott Glacier Lodge (1987) offers lodgings
and a restaurant in a replica 1916 Staff 5-plex, which
was five townhouses for management and families (KSS)

General view of Kennecott Mill Town

Hospital (housed Alaska's first X-ray machine and also served the
Native community), East Bunkhouse and National Creek Bunkhouse
(men from several countries lived two to a room and
single women stayed above the hospital) 

Concentration Mill, with the railroad siding and power station below,
is an amazing 14-stories tall, and was connected by trams to five mines

Chutes to fill railroad cars (KSS)

Remains of a mine tram, with
warning signs about unstable explosives

Another view of Concentration Mill; it is so fogged in,
you have no idea you are surrounded by snow-covered mountains!

Several small cottages housed management with families,
and a couple are still in use

Power Plant (rebuilt in 1924 after a fire), had two
diesel generators, a Westinghouse steam turbine, and
a Pelton waterwheel to provide power and steam heat

Inside the power plant (KSS)

Leaching Plant and Sacking Shed; as the mines produced lower grade ore,
new techniques were needed to remove the copper, such as the
ammonia leaching process and the flotation in oil foam process

West Bunkhouse and Refrigeration Plant

Cold storage room in the refrigeration plant

One of two schools, which not only taught children,
but also taught English and citizenship classes to adults

In the distance is Root Glacier, and in the foreground are
the tailings/waste ore from the mining operation

We took the van shuttle to the town of McCarthy, which was established in the 1900s to provide entertainment (drinking, gambling, etc.) to miners living in the dry town of Kennecott.

Ma Johnson's Hotel, a former boarding house

Former hardware store, now the Wrangell Mountains Center,
"connecting people with wildlands through art, science,
and education in the Wrangell Mountains"

McCarthy street scene

Ford Model A (KSS)

Fence and gate made from found materials, in McCarthy (KSS)

McCarthy General Store (KSS)

McCarthy Air. this tiny town has an airstrip and air service for flightseeing

We had lunch at Potato, with rain-drenched locals and tourists, including the hostess from our B&B taking her guests to Kennecott.

The McCarthy-Kennecott Museum is in the former McCarthy Depot.

Kent with the hand tram once used to cross the Kennicott River
to reach McCarthy and Kennecott

We walked the 0.6 miles to the pedestrian bridge back to our car.

? - these two were huddled next to umbrellas
covering their backpacks and contents

A truly makeshift auto, a "bush-truck" nicknamed Rigor Mortis,
was built by a young man who arrived in McCarthy in 1953;
after building himself a house and starting a family, he built himself
this vehicle out of "road-tested" parts

You know those signs warning of rocks in the road?

A bald eagle sighting

Halfway back along McCarthy Road, our tire pressure imbalance light came on again. The tire wasn't obviously low yet, so we continued driving, although more carefully. But after checking a couple more times, it was obviously losing air. We knew calling AAA was impossible, so we buckled down to change the tire. Because it was raining, we moved everything from the trunk into the front and back seats to get the spare tire. The few people who passed asked if we needed help. We just needed to know of a place to get the tire fixed, and they didn't have any answers!
We had 60 miles to go to the B&B, 30 miles on McCarthy Road and 30 miles on Edgerton Highway.

The colorful yurt of Alaska's "Yurt Lady"...

Our car with the temporary spare tire

Our B&B host helped us find someone to repair the flat tire on a Saturday evening. A guy in Glennallen would "stay open" until we arrived. So we were back in the car to drive yet another 40 miles up Richardson Highway!
EGM Automotive and Towing appears to be open 24/7, for which we were grateful. They repaired the tire and placed it back on the car, and put the spare tire in the trunk along with all the tools. No bolts this time, just a hole in the tire
By the time we returned to the B&B, the rain had let up to allow us to re-pack the trunk.
Tonight we shared the duplex with another threesome, and a father and daughter pair.