After the long trip up the AlCan we chose to stay 3 days in Tok and take a breather. I had planned to go down into the northern part of the Wrangell St Elias NP and camp there, but it was a small campground with only 10 sites down a long dirt road. We opted instead for comfort and relaxation, and threw in a trip to Chicken! We also took some time one day to wash off the bikes and rode out to the Tok River to get some good exercise after all those days of driving.
Jon drove us up to Chicken and we spent a day being total tourists – gold panning, saloon, ice cream and all. Chicken is a funny little town that was going to name itself Ptarmigan for the birds in the area, but the residents couldn’t agree on the spelling, so Chicken it became.
When in Chicken, gold panning is on the agenda, so we all gave it a try in the creek. Nothing successful to report, but it was fun to try. And it gave me even more appreciation for the many thousands of folks who came in the Alaska Gold Rush to seek their fortunes.
Between Tok and Valdez we had four days to fill. Two of them were planned to be at Kennicott Mine, so we looked for something to do between Kennicott and Tok. And there was Copper Center, the junction where there are three feeder rivers into the Copper River. If you know anything about delicious salmon, Copper River is on the top of the list. These fish work so hard to get up that river, they’re super fatty and strong and delicious.
I found a charter fishing place (won’t use the term resort) that had availability for both the trailers for two days and a fishing day with a raft and guide for the four of us. When we pulled into the campground we were surrounded by Alaska license plates, so we knew we had chosen well. It worked out perfectly, and we had a fantastic day. They drove us 14 miles up the Klutina River, the fastest flowing navigable river in America, and dropped the raft in. I will say that none of the four of us were feeling anything but nervous about getting in that raft. It had been exceptionally hot, so the glaciers had massively melted and the river was running as high and fast as it ever would.
Our guide Iggy from Michigan did a fantastic job teaching us how to “floss” for fish. It’s shoreline fishing in the current. Unfortunately only Rob managed to catch one in the mouth, which meant it was a keeper. But fortunately we made an absolutely delicious meal out of Rob’s fish. The raft trip was fun, Iggy was totally in control. The weather was perfect, although a little buggy. All in all it was a super fun day.
The next day we headed up to Kennicott Base Camp, near McCarthy and Kennicott mine in Wrangell St. Elias National Park. I knew the trip would be ugly, and it was 50 miles of crap road. But you just don’t realize how long 50 miles of bad roads are until you’re in them.
When you read about taking an RV to Alaska, many recommend two spares for the trailer tires and two for the truck (because of course they’re different tires). Nobody really has room for four spare tires plus all the crap you bring for 3 months of camping. We hadn’t been off road yet and flats had not been an issue. But sure enough we arrived at camp with a flat on the trailer. We chose to change it right away, in the rain, because we didn’t want to deal with it later.
Good news was that when we pulled in there were two camp spots right on the river with a fantastic view. The next day the sun was out and this was where we enjoyed our happy hour.
We took the shuttle up to the mine and toured around for the day. The park service has bought many of the buildings and is restoring the site into a very interesting destination. There is a big hotel and air strip for those not interested in 50 miles of crappy driving. The story of the copper mine is interesting – it was one of the biggest copper deposits discovered in the early 1900’s when America was desperately needing copper for wiring and plumbing infrastructure. The mine owners ended up making $100 million by the time it ran out of ore and closed in 1938.
There is also a nice hike beyond the mine out to a spot where you can walk on top of the glacier. It was 2.7 miles each way, and relatively flat. But it was challenging enough that we didn’t feel we had quite enough energy to make the last bit down and up onto the ice, then back up again. We have two other opportunities to hike on glaciers later in this trip, so we saved the ice spikes for another day.
Pix from this leg are here