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This morning was an early start, so up and across the road to grab a coffee or two and then await the bus to take us up to the glacier for our morning hike. The bus arrived and we boarded, interestingly people who had booked on the trip decided that they were too tired and did not join us.
So we were with the St. Elias Alpine Guides for a half day glacier hike http://www.steliasguides.com/alaskaday_1glacier.htm#rootglacier with the cancellation we had a guide to ourselves for the hike. The hike involved walking to the glacier and then we sat down to learn how to put crampons on and to walk on glaciers. The walk was interesting as we started up the glacier we found that the crampons were fairly easy to walk with and so we started up and across the glacier.
The weather was not great although we were spared any real rain or snow and the walk was reasonably strenuous but there was no real dangerous bits. We did get to look down into holes in the glacier were water had drilled down into the ice to the ground 500ft below. So after a lunch on the glacier we walked back to the spot where we climbed onto the glacier. Shoeleh was able to fill her water bottle with some of the running melted glacier water to have and drink.
After exiting the glacier, we hiked back to the office. We missed seeing a black bear that was foraging on the path, which would have made it a really fantastic hike. So we finished up a little tired but ready to do our tour of the mine processing plant later that day.
We had decided to bring forward the mine tour to today so as we could catch an earlier flight to Chitna the next morning as we would have been arriving at 17:30 in the evening and that would have made it difficult to do to much more.
So we headed up to the Kennecott lodge for a coffee and to warm up between the tours. Kennecott, Alaska - Historic Mill Tour http://www.steliasguides.com/alaskaday_6historic.htm
Kennecott, Alaska is a ghost town frozen in time. When the Kennecott Copper Corporation abruptly abandoned the town in 1938 they left behind their equipment, their buildings, and their personal belongings. However, their stories of discovery, perseverance, and ingenuity live on. Come see what it was like to live and work in this remote wilderness as you tour the town site with one of our knowledgeable guides; listening to tales of lucky fortunes, tenacious frontiersmen, and tragic endings. And, you'll even be able to explore inside historic buildings such as the 14-story Mill Building...
The tour was fantastic from my perspective, it showed all the best of ingenuity and ruthless capitalism, the mine operated without any of the environmental or safety standards we expect of mining today. And when the company was done they packed up and left no make good or clean up.
While waiting for dinner we bumped into some people who were on a Get up and go - camping and accommodation trip. These seem to be designed for people who want to do tours a bit more roughing it than the standard bus tours.
After the tour we headed back to the lodge to get ready for our dinner at the McCarthy Lodge http://www.mccarthylodge.com/ we had booked into the 4 course culinary selection. On arrival at the restaurant we were greeted and offered seats near the window and told of the culinary delight that we were to receive. From memory it was something like this - shrimp with mushroom and soybean; cod with green beans and pancetta; beef shredded with vegetable, gnocchi and goats cheese; chocolate sponge with cream and spider-web sugar. It was an amazing meal and really well presented.
Fully sated we headed off to bed
Animals Spotted: not much today, missed the bear by that much…
Day Forty six- comments