We woke up at 6 this morning to bright sunlight again and enjoyed a delicious breakfast before venturing out on America's birthday. A young recent college graduate chatted with us from the front desk, and she was kind enough to shuttle us from the hotel in Kennecott to the small town of McCarthy. This saved us a dusty 5 mile hike.
I didn't expect the local McCarthy Museum to be open on the holiday, but when we walked up the volunteer told us to feel free to take a look around and ask him any questions. The town with less than 30 permanent residents was featured in a Discovery Channel show and after exploring the pictures and artifacts, and hanging out and talking to a couple of residents, I could see why. These are very rugged, self-sufficient people.
We were told to find a dirt path behind the museum where we could walk about a mile one way through (primarily) the woods to reach the "foot" of the glacier. The brush was pretty dense and we talked loudly to scare away any curious large wildlife. Last night, I borrowed a canister of bear spray from the front desk, and today we unabashedly brought it with us. We didn't find any bears, but a thick cloud of mosquitoes kept us company. We had sprayed ourselves with bug spray before leaving, and good thing because they didn't bite us. The sun was also quite intense, as we are at a very high latitude, so we also lathered on the sunscreen and kept having to reapply.
As we approached the glacier, we heard it crackle, groan, and creak. Suddenly, a sound like thunder erupted from the mass of ice, and large rocks tumbled into the glacial lake in front of us. Once we enjoyed the view and threw our own pebbles into the water, we headed back through the woods toward the main road again.
McCarthy consists of a couple of silty, unpaved roads containing one small hotel called Ma Johnson's, one Saloon, and a couple of very small restaurants. It looked like we had stepped back in time a hundred years.
Around 12 noon, a decent crowd of maybe 200 lined the muddy road to wait for the parade. I say muddy because the lone fire truck had come by with a light sprinkling of water to get the dust down. Each business in town created a float and they also included the town ambulance and fire truck. It was hilarious. There were maybe 10 floats.
Luckily, we got the first shuttle back to the hotel. We relaxed in the shade on the cool porch in front of our room and had a delicious lunch...sweet potato apple ginger soup with a tuna melt for me, a french dip with a turkey soup for Chris, and the same for Jackson. Delightful and all homemade.
By 3:30 we ventured down to catch the history tour of the mine and mill. Our guide was fabulous and it was even better than I expected. The pictures we took looked like postcards.
After the tour, we headed in to shower off the day and get ready for dinner. By the time we had finished eating, we were so pooped we headed to bed. Jackson, too. I'm writing this under the covers as Chris is snoring. Good night and sweet dreams!
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