Wrangell-St Elias, Kennecott Mine & Mill Area – July 4

 A parade was slated in the town of McCarthy at noon today, but we were much too burned out on that slightly obnoxious and very rowdy town with its red-neck beer-drinking rowdy party crowd, so we headed once more for the beautifully quiet and intriguing ghost town of Kennecott deep in the Alaskan interior.  First we pedaled uphill for 5 miles along a muddy rugged dirt road, then we explored more of the reconstructed as well as dilapidated structures left from the boom that made millions for Kennecott Copper.  This place is so unique and so mesmerizing; it was with some chagrin that I finally moved on.

 We spent the afternoon hiking with just a few other intrepid souls along the Erie Mine Trail which is perched along the lateral moraine of the Root Glacier we hiked out on yesterday.  The trail provided stellar views of the glacier from a high-ground perspective as well as the Stairway Icefall further up the valley.  Some few folks walking on the glacier looked like ants, and most vulnerable ones at that as the glacier is melting in the warmth of the long summers producing trickles, then streams, then raging rivers as it plunges downhill.  Was another stellar day in the Alaskan wild, but alas, it was also time to leave Kennecott and Wrangell-St Elias and start making our way towards Anchorage and The Kenai Fjords.