Alaska - part the second

On the road back up to Anchorage I decided to turn left on a road to Hope, the guide book makes it sound nice, there is a road so, off I go. Around half way to Hope I came over the brow of a hill and could see 3 cars travelling in different directions all badly parked with their doors open, I thought there must have been an accident so went forward very slowly and carefully, then I realised everyone in the road had a camera and were all looking towards the trees on the right, it wasn’t a bear ‘cause you stay in the car for a bear, so clutching the camera I walked around the parked cars - it was a Moose with her baby, nonchalantly eating the trees, the baby was quite unperturbed by the audience and attention they were getting, both just carried on munching the baby getting quite near, there was then a rustling in the bushes, out popped a 2^nd baby they were twins!! Everyone got very excited, the little family were there ages and were still munching when all the spectators left, I am sure more followed us.

Hope itself was just beautiful, with a wonderful view of the Cook Inlet and surrounded by snow-capped mountains, the best historic “down town” with old and very quaint log homes, shops, restaurants even a library and post office. I am told again it is a gold rush town but here even more then Talkeetna very little has changed. I would love to have stayed here a couple of days, the RV Park is at the very edge of the water - people were fishing from the beach. Near the library, well in the same parking lot, there is a coffee/muffin stand (very old caravan) a second hand book shop and a local artist’s gift shop. First I went to the book shop and did a book swap had a chat with a really nice lady, then I went to the gift shop which was empty had a little wander round there were 3 rooms the door bell rang I thought there were more customers when I got back to the counter it was the same lady from the book shop, she ran all 4, the library which she had started herself for the local people, coffee shop, second hand book shop and the gift shop, she said it is a very short summer and long winter! She had been born in Hope and lived there all her life, still in the house she was born in and had raised her own family in the same house, I thought that was lovely. She also told me when she was a little girl she believed “Goldilocks” was written about her and that all children had bears in their yards/gardens. nice little story.

Back on the highway I spent the night near Portage Glacier, I never get tired of looking at glaciers they are so very beautiful the colours are amazing.

I arrived early on the 10^th July at Charlie and Martha’s Les had gone to a garage and would return later, Charlie fitted my reversing monitor and gave me home made Clam Chowder for my lunch, spent a couple hours chatting and left theirs around 3pm stopping out side a Laundrette in Palmer, after doing our washing we spent the night it was a good stop.

JULY 11^th 2008

We are heading for Valdez. To get there we must travel along some of Alaska’s most jaw-dropping drives, it has just been declared a National Scenic Highway, this is really our main reason for taking this route and going down as far as Valdez. We also plan to visit “Copper Centre” and “McCarthy and Kennecott” all of which sound most interesting.

Unfortunately there is a lot of low cloud particularly in the morning. We do get the amazing view of “Matanuska Glacier this is one of Alaskas' most accessible ice tongues nearly licking Glenn Highway, it stretches some 27 miles from its source in the Chugach Mountains. We had some really good views from the road and could very clearly see the ice below the moraine, I think it is the first time I have seen it so clearly, we still managed to have some amazing views of snowy summits, panoramic passes, gorgeous gorges and of course gigantic glaciers, we have to come back along the same road - with luck we will have less cloud, what we have seen so far is mind blowing!

Our first turn off is to Copper Centre a pretty little town situated on the sockeye-salmon rich Klutina River, this area was long used by the Ahtna Indians but at the turn of the last century was a pit stop for thousands of prospectors stampeding to the Klondike and Fairbanks goldfields. There are now only around 400 people living as permanent residents. There is a very interesting museum inside a couple of old log cabins with Russian religious artefacts, Alaskan native baskets, mining memorabilia from Kennecott and the gold rush, the lady attendant was a resident born and bred, she knew a lot of stuff and was very eager to share her knowledge, interesting little visit.

Once we turned left from the main high way toward McCarthy and Kennecott we had some spectacular views of the Chgach Mountains we also crossed the mighty Copper River where there are dozens of fish wheels working, we took a walk to get a little nearer to them, there had been a very bad flood a couple of nights before which had done a lot of damage to the wheels, one guy spoke to us who was really fed up. There were several guys, their wheel looked to us a total wreck, but he said they would repair it tomorrow! A lady came to look at hers she spoke to us for ages, it was a shared wheel from where she worked, there were 10 people, she said last year they had lots of fish to share, their wheel was ok but the walk way to it was broken down, she rang her husband to bring some waders.

To accommodate the hordes of people who come to look after the wheels and dip net for Red and King Salmon it is possible to camp free along the whole river bed there were loads of people camped looking after their wheels, so we just joined them! Some have boats and go out fishing I am not sure if they were dip netting, I watched a boat with 6 guys coming in with their catch, all had large freezer boxes they cut and divided up the fish at the side of the river, the gulls were going crazy!

July 11^th 2008

The road up to McCarthy and Kennecott is dirt and rough. As there are only 2 of us I suggested we both go in my truck. The road was not so bad apart from 1 spot where I hit a large hole which I did not see, but missed it on the way back.

The McCarthy Road starts at Chitina by passing through a single lane notch blasted through a granite out crop, from here we traced a 60 mile route along the Copper River and Northwest Railroad bed that was used to transport the copper from the mines, the dirt road has just been laid on top of the railroad bed in places the sleepers can be seen very clearly. Apart from the dust and pot holes the drive was very beautiful.

The road ends at a foot bridge from where you can either walk the mile or so to McCarthy and then the 4.5 miles to Kennecott or pick up a shuttle (5$) which will take you first to McCarthy and then on to Kennecott. We took the shuttle!

Kennecott was the biggest copper find in history at the beginning of the 1900’s, the prospector who found it had broken his leg and was looking for a place to lay up, looking up the mountain from the ice field he saw what he thought was a green meadow, when he and his mule got there is was the green copper rocks just laying on the surface, this mountain contained some of the richest copper deposits ever uncovered. The syndicate first built the railway 196 mile through wilderness it reached the mine in 1911. Then a company town was built, this included bunkhouses, very nice homes for the management, a school, company store, recreation hall and of course the Mill. Everything that belonged to the company was painted red; there was no alcohol or ladies! As in other boon towns hence McCarthy 4.5miles away where the guys would go if and when they had the time and the money, the mile was in operation 24x7x363 the only holiday the workers had was Christmas day and Independence day, July 4^th everyone went to McCarthy for a grand parade and party, this tradition is carried on to day 1000’s come for July 4^th in McCarthy.

From 1911 to 1938 591,000 tons of copper had been got out of the mines at a profit of more then $100million. In November of 1938 the mine was closed, the workers were given less then an hour to collect there belongings and catch the last train. In consequence the memorabilia left behind was colossal, a lot had been lost but there is still an awful lot of very interesting stuff to see.

At the very edge of the mine and other building is the Kennecott Glacier which has retreated a lot since 1938. There is also a smaller glacier higher up the mountain which we were able to see.

I wished we had our own trucks I would like to have stayed over night there were a couple of hikes I would like to have done.

We had a lovely meal in the hotel which was the bunkhouse for managers the walls are covered in interesting memorabilia.

Great day. Our drive back was good the views were stunning I missed most of the holes I hit in the morning. We spent a second night at the river bed.

JULY 13^th 2008

I go in Les’s truck for our trip to Valdez, the journey there just gets better and better with Spectacular views of the Chugach Mountains, Bridal Veil and Horsetail Falls to name just a couple of the stunning waters falls we passed along with what seems like glaciers at every turn a Magnificent drive.

I had rung a head for a boat tour we had decided on the Columbia Glacier Cruise this is a 7 hour trip leaving at 2pm and cruising through Prince William Sound we hope to see wild life, the Columbia Glacier is the last of Alaska’s tidewater glaciers to go into a retreat this retreat started in 1978, by 1983 had moved off the terminal moraine, there is approximately 18 miles to go before reaching bedrock on shore.

We get there in time for an enjoyable lunch before we needed to board the boat, there will be an evening meal served on board.

Valdez was and still is a fishing village, until 1977 when the first tanker of oil issued forth from the Tran Alaska Pipeline Terminal across the bay, Valdez became an oil town. It was here in March 1989 that the tanker Exxon Valdez against port regulations, with its captain tippled grounded on a reef spilling at least 11 million gallons of oil into the Sound! The residents still claim to be able to collect oil from that spill nearly 2 decades laterL

Our trip was awesome my very favourite the Sea Otters, they are so cute, when they are not eating they float on their backs grooming and resting with their front paws/hands crossed on their tummies. We also saw Orcas and Humpback Whales, Horned and Tufted Puffin they are so beautiful, Cormorant, Kittiwakes, Murre and Bald Eagle also Harbor Seal and Steller Sea Lion.

The company on the boat was good and interesting, our tea was lovely and I only felt a little bit sick! But I do have to sit down a lot; its looking through the binoculars I think makes it worse.

The Glacier was amazing as always there were lots of Iceberg’s I have not seen a Tide Water Glacier before, we did not see it calf, but you can’t have everything!

Our ride back to my truck was even more amazing going later in the day and in the opposite direction. Fabulous!

JULY 14^th 2008

We are now heading for Canada and leaving Alaska, I have loved it, it is so different and so very beautiful, we leave through Tok. The road is magnificent Snow capped Mountains, Raging Rivers, Terrific Trees Awesome.

By the time we get to Tok I discover I have a shock absorber broken from its bracket. I am able to get this fixed in Tok. Nice young lad who lives in Tok year round the coldest it gets is -70c can you imagine that, they do not go out when its that cold the schools close -50c he said -40 or -50 is ok but you must cover your face eyes will freeze your spit freezes and your snot UG!!!

Sadly I leave Alaska, may be I will come back some time!!