Alaska Day 12

Considering we spent another night in the car, I slept decently. But I did wake up feeling as if I was gasping for air. I think it was because of all the recycled air from the three of us breathing. As soon as I opened the car door, I could breathe again, but I couldn’t keep it open long because the mosquitoes, sensing warm bodies, started to swarm. When Kati woke up we drove to the parking lot near the footbridge. The mosquitoes weren’t quite as bad there so after parking we ate breakfast. I prefer my instant cream of wheat to overpriced eggs.

On Wednesday, we did an ice climb on the Matanuska Glacier. Today we are going to explore ice caves beneath the Root Glacier. The tour company would have picked us up at the footbridge at 12:30 for our 1:00 tour, but then we would have had nothing to do all morning. There are a couple of historic buildings in Kennecott we can go into without a tour so I wanted to get to Kennecott early. Yesterday, we had been so focused on the glacier hike we didn’t have time for anything else. However, it pained me to have to pay another 10 dollars for the shuttle. Therefore, I gave Kati my ticket and I set out to walk the five miles into town. I like to walk so it’s not at all a big deal. The tour company should bring us back to the footbridge this evening.

It’s a semi clear day. There are a few clouds in the sky but thus far none are threatening rain. It’s warm but a comfortable temperature to hike. And of course the scenery is pretty. I could walk all day with views like this. It took me just under two hours to walk to Kennecott at a leisurely pace. There were mosquitoes but a few squirts of bug spray kept them away. I am now sitting in the shade waiting for the shuttle that will bring G3 and Kati into town.

When Kati and G3 arrived we went to a ranger talk about the Kennecott Mill. The mill was built on the side of the mountain to capitalize on gravity. It used 1000 gallons of water per minute and like every other mill and mine in history, the owners did not care about how much they were polluting the environment. The mill ran twenty-four hours a day every day of the year except Christmas and the Fourth of July. It was the first mill in the country to use large scale ammonium leeching to extract copper. Throughout the years of production, ninety-eight percent of the copper was extracted from the ore.

According to the ranger, the National Park Service acquired the mill and much of the surrounding property in 1998. Some property was independently owned at that time and that property remained privately owned. The tour company that currently runs tours of the mill was there running tours before it came to be owned by the National Park Service. They now have a contract with the park to keep running tours. Not only that, but the national park will not volunteer much information about hiking on the glacier or even the cave hike—which we did today—because it would interfere with business for the tour companies. This is one fabulous example of how our government puts the wants of businesses before the needs of the people. The National Park should advise visitors as to what is available in the park and provide more detailed maps than they do so that people can explore the park without being bled dry by the tour companies. At the very least, the national park should cap the price of the mill tours or require discounts for people who have national park passes.

Perhaps nothing will compare with the ice climb we did on Wednesday, but going inside the glacial caves was fun and interesting. We hiked out on the same trail G3 and i hiked yesterday but we only went about halfway. From there, we slid as much as we walked down the steep dusty slope to the Root Glacier. It was very precarious with loose rocks making traction difficult. Once down the slope there were three caves we got to go into. We have been in many caves throughout our travels, but these were our first ice ones. It was fascinating looking at segments of earth’s history frozen in time. The ice had a pretty bluish tint and we could see all sorts of sediment suspended in the ice. There were even some fascinating etchings in the ice. Some looked like a mosaic. Others looked like jellyfish. The roof of one looked like a dinosaur’s spine. None of the caves were deep or dark but some of the walls seemed to have a slight glow due to the sun’s light reflecting off them.

Kati’s knee was in excruciating pain as she climbed back up to the trail, but she made it. G3 was very considerate and helped her where he could. In total, we probably hiked about three miles. It wasn’t the distance that killed her knee, it was the steep incline on uneven and unsteady terrain. As much as we enjoyed the caves, we did not need a guide. All we needed was a sign directing us where to turn off the trail, a sign that would be very easy for the national park to install if it broke the stranglehold of the tour companies.

For dinner, we ate at a food truck in Kennecott before the tour company drove us back to the footbridge. By the time we got to the car it was 6:45. We are now heading to the Kenai Peninsula—where we have lots of rain to look forward to. Our ultimate destination for tomorrow is Seward which is nearly nine hours away. We obviously won’t get there tonight, but the current plan is to drive until we get tired and then pull over to get some sleep.

The McCarthy Road is very dusty today making it difficult to see. Cars pass and we are engulfed in a thick cloud of dust. About seventy-five minutes into our drive a pickup truck belonging to a construction crew lost a bin with screws and tools. As we were driving we saw a man emerge from the dust cloud waving at us. While he explained what happened we saw another guy racing to pick up the mess. The guy who waved us down told us he was going to grab a magnet and go over the road to make sure he got all the screws. We only had to wait a few minutes but we greatly appreciated their diligence. A flat tire would have detained us a lot longer.

Towards the end of the McCarthy Road we encountered many little rabbits in the middle of the road. They were not very good about running away from the car. At one point, Kati came to a dead stop to avoid running over them and they momentarily looked up at her—as if confused—before hopping away.