The Moose Stewed

Susan and I returned prematurely from our trip to the largest National Park in the US, part of the largest wilderness area in the world.....yep, the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. The weather was hot and smoky, just like an opium den, but the drug was the breath-taking mountains and huge rivers that had exotic Ahtna names that I'd never heard.

On Monday, we left about noon and drove to Chitina, taking turns with the driving and passing Delta Junction, Paxson, Glenallen and Kenny Lake. Traffic was light all the way and it took about 6.5 hours. We stopped only for the bathrooms and at the Glory Hole to check for salmon (none visible) and our egg salad sandwiches. We also did a quick walk along the Klutina River to see the best fishing river in the area although the fish weren't running and it was empty.

The Chitina House B&B was a renovated bunkhouse from the Copper River Railroad. Carla and Mike fixed it up beautifully- it was clean and comfy. We did a walk-about to the Chitina Hotel for dinner, then down the road to the bridge over the Copper River where we could see the confluence of the Chitina River. The water was so high that the fishwheels were in the middle of the water instead of the edge where they could easily be checked. Carla said that people were risking their lives to wade out or canoe to pick fish from them. Then we took a ride down the road to O'Brien Creek, the jumping off point for dipnetting Kings and Reds. Kings were closed for dipnetting and no one was getting anything except the guy who went all the way down to Haley Creek. Word on the trail is that the fish are holed up downstream waiting for the current to subside.

In the morning, we had homemade muffins and good conversation with Carla about her turkeys and dogs with personality, her B&B business and Chitina in general. The 2 hour 60 mile drive to McCarthy on the dirt road was a pleasant surprise. It was in lots better shape than people said and that we remembered from our long ago "last trip". We got out to hike back to the bridge over the Kuskulana River and also back to the railroad trestle bridge farther along.

We camped beside the raging river that had peaked that morning. It was roaring and even a five minute time span provided the entertainment of big chunks of shoreline dropping into the torrent. Imagine my disgust to discover that the tent I threw in was missing the rainfly and had a broken zipper. Susan and I sewed the zipper shut and the weather helped us out by not raining. The campground guy was friendly and helpful, but we were cautious and survived in spite of the rapidly eroding shoreline.

We spent the day exploring Kennicott by crossing the footbridge and paying $5 for a dusty, slow ride up the hill to the old copper mill town. The National Park Service bought many of the buildings in 1998 and are in the process of renovating and stabilizing. We ate lunch at the Kennicott Glacier Inn ($10 for a chicken salad stuffed tomato) overlooking the miles of glacier. The smoke from the fire in the Chitina Valley limited the view, but the gravel covered glacier was still an amazing site. The NPS historical tour took us into the power plant, the ammonia leaching plant, an administrator's house and along the main road of the town. We continued on another mile or so to get views of the town from a higher perspective and then the busride back for a quick look and ice cream in McCarthy.

The walk to the bridge was an easy mile and we got back in time for tuna roll-ups and teddy grahams for supper. Two crazy kayakers launched under the bridge so we got to watch one of them capsize in the icy river, but disappeared from sight as the other guy was effecting a rescue.

We stumbled around stepping on "Einsteins" to find a hunk of glacier ice for the cooler. We went to sleep under the midnight sun to the roar of the river. The cooler temps made for a great night's sleep and the sewn zipper kept the carnivorous bugs at bay.

In the morning, the river had calmed down. We hiked down the West Glacier Trail, through the woods to a terminal moraine rockpile where we sat and listened to the crash of ice calving off and dropping into the lake.

On the trail, we were startled and disappointed to see a 2 year old moose bull about 50 feet beside us in a clump of willow. As you know, a moose, even a 2 year old is about 7 feet tall at the shoulder and equally as long- a sizeable adversary. His ears were up like a donkey's and we sped on by. Thanks, Susan, for reminding me that more people are killed by moose then bear. On the way back, he was still there and we retreated into the trees by the edge of the trail to encourage him to leave. He didn't seem impressed with our loud exclamations about how we love moose meat and we hate willow, how we might be moose's main predators but we personally were unarmed, how we didn't mean to disturb him and if he'd get going, we'd be on our way. He didn't seem at all intimidated and took his good old time (maybe 10 minutes) getting far enough away for us to continue past. He'd look over at us as if to say, "I'm leaving because I want to, not because you tell me to- and you better not touch those willows".

On the way home, we went on by the turnoff to MacLaren River Lodge, part of our original plan because of the lack of rainfly. We stopped at the Kenny Lake Cafe for coffee ($3.54/gallon for gas-no, thanks), the NPS Wrangell-St. Elias Interpretive Center, the Ahtna Corp for Susan to pay $75 for use of trails on their land, the Hub for gas ($3.40/gallon) and in Delta Buffalo Restaurant for a quick dinner.

A rock imbedded itself in one of the tires and a zealous young man changed it for us in Delta.

It was a great trip and had us thinking about next year when we'd like to fly into Chisana (pronounced Shoos- sana) in the northern part of the Park.

What we learned:
The 193 mile railroad from Cordova to Kennicott was completed in 1911 and shut down in 1938 when the mine shut down due to running out of copper.

The Nabesna Glacier is the longest in Alaska.

The Collins family farm on Long Lake was established in 1961 and had the best lawn in Alaska.

There is no ice or gas for sale in McCarthy.

The footbridge across the Kennicott River is free, but locals can pay to use a private bridge for vehicles.

The Visitor Center on the Richardson Hwy is the best developed visitor service for the entire Wrangell-St. Elias National Park.