HELLO!

We're back in civilization. "Cannot tell a lie" - it was a bit unnerving for both of us to be 3 days without phone or internet. The big joke with the people working for Wrangell/St.Elias Park is "Internet? What's that? Some newfangled invention?" Verizon just installed a new tower so you can get spotty phone service in McCarthy/Kennicott, but we have AT&T -that's what is available in Valdez. During the trip we received two radio stations intermittently - NPR and Christian Radio. Sometimes nothing changes even in the middle of nowhere.


The drive was wonderful. Two hours on The Richardson Highway past glaciers and fantastic rock faces to The Edgerton Highway to Chitina and then The McCarthy Highway, 60 miles of dirt/rock/dirtier/rockier road to a footbridge across to McCarthy and Kennicott. I have no idea how to describe where and how the people live - 5 hours to Valdez, the "big city" - almost 2 hours to GlenAllen with a good grocery store, and about 8 + hours to Anchorage. We never heard a complaint - this is just their lives however winters seem to find most of the inhabitants in much warmer climates - New Orleans, Mexico, Southern California - funniest thing.


We stayed at "Currant Ridge Cabins" - I cannot imagine a better place. There are 6 cabins the owners built - the pictures will tell the story and we'll tell their story to anyone who wants to know it. Everything is recycled in one way or another - compost pile, chickens, fat dog, etc. The owner was a story unto himself - to be told later. They provide most of the electricity with solar panels and a back-up generator. They have a huge beautiful garden. 


The gourmet tasting meal in McCarthy lived up to the hype, and The Kennicott Copper Mill was all about "The Company Store" and/or insurance claims,  1 Hand = $25, 1 arm = $50, death (unmarried) = $250, death (married) ~$1000. Marriage was not allowed for the common workers at the mine. Only the upper level management were allowed to marry.  So a town, Kennicott,  with 600 men and about 30 women (teachers, nurses, wives of upper echelon employees) was dry, celibate, and the "common" man lived in austere conditions (whole floors of bunks had 2 toilet areas). Well, guess what? McCarthy - 4 miles away - was not dry or celibate and became the place to "see, be seen, and be engaged for the night". 


So our weekend story begins with a stop at Worthington Glacier. I decided to use the restroom (Unisex outhouses but a little more civil than they sound) and walked in on a biker guy (he said the door didn't lock). Now we are best friends - lots of laughs with his biking buddies. As we are leaving we notice their license plates are NC - they are from Charlotte! Another man was there during the whole "walk in on" moment, and we got to talking and laughing about the embarrassing situation. Off Jeff and I go to Chitina and guess who was at the same hotel for lunch? Not the biker guys, darn, but the other man and his wife. Her comment to me was, "Oh, you're the woman my husband was talking about." They were so much fun to be with - Blake and Jan - and we ran into them a few more times over the weekend - McCarthy/Kennicott is NOT a big place. 


I know this is a lot of talking, but ... when you see the photo of Hotel Chitina - I talked to the female half of the hotel owners. The bought the hotel a couple of years ago after it was abandoned for 30 (thirty!) years. They literally had to shovel debris out of the place. Then the state came through and said the hotel was on the highway "right of way" and made them move the hotel back 8 feet just because the state wanted to put in a sidewalk! They could have moved the road with no effort at all, but they made these people move this old hotel - and they did. I don't know if the photos will show the extent of the renovation, but they -themselves - retrofitted bathrooms into the bedrooms, took down the moldy old wood inside the building, planed, sanded, restained it all. They rehabbed or found time period fixtures, etc. The wife of the couple said it took 8 eight hour days to refinish the floors in the dining room - that's how gross they were. I'd say the couple is in their late 40's, early 50's. Not only that, the food was really good.


                     The restroom that started the weekend .......

                      The Chitina Hotel

                 Chitina lawn decorations

On the road to McCarthy .. The narrow gap was once a railroad tunnel, but it was abandoned because rock kept falling on the trains.

Currant Cabins .....

                      Even the cabinet hardware is perfect.

                             
                                  They are "green"

These are just a few of our photos. We took so many and not just mountains! Over the next few days we'll organize them - hopefully - and give you the choice to be bored or not.