1. The 4th of July at McCarthy.
2. The Kennicott Mine
3. Traveling with a family with five kids. (I kept thinking of Tea and her nine kids)
4. How to get to McCarthy and what's there
I also got to read a couple of chapters of the John Dean book Broken Government and have lots of thoughts from that. Let's see what I can squeeze out in the next few days.
Meanwhile, here's a map (with help from Google-Earth and Google Maps) to show you were Wrangell-St. Elias is. It's about 250 miles from Anchorage to McCarthy, just inside the Park. And a video I did around 5pm on July 4th in downtown McCarthy, a small town inside the park. We were camped across the pedestrian bridge from McCarthy. Double click the map to make it bigger.
The music in the video was recorded on the street in front of the McCarthy Lodge.
Funny you mention me, Steve-- we went to Eklutna this past weekend. WE were spread out over about 100 feet as we traipsed through the paved wilderness, kids darting into the bushes to surprise each other, one walking in a manner that reminded me of Gollum, another pretending to be a bear, a dog dashing off for the lake any time he felt slack on his leash, me in sandals due to a skin problem and not being able to wear closed shoes (so I was not really able to run,) the adult with the food backpack swimming along the edge of the lake with the pack on, a two year old who kept wanting to be held, a four year old son obsessed with why boys can't have babies. . . and I wondered how you'd film us if you saw us! (Really, I did!) Just the site of us clambering and clamoring out of the SUV had a couple from Florida cracking up!
ReplyDeleteNo doubt you saw the humour with the family of five kids that you were with and I look forward to your posts on McCarthy, but also on your observations of this family!
McCarthy looks like Talkeetna used to look!
Well I bet those national parks are approximately as big as Hungary. I am not the best at geography but it is my estimation.
ReplyDeleteThe video makes me miss hanging out in AK so much! I can't wait for all those blog entries!!! Get typing! Rumor on the e-street (facebook) is that Andrea and Meadow are going to host a camping trip/reunion next summer!
ReplyDeleteTea, I've got a little video that captures a bit of the magic of these kids and the family as a whole. Lots of pictures, but the video says a whole lot more. Patience.
ReplyDeleteRopi - The brochures says, "Wrangell-St.Elias, Kluane National Park in Canada, Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve [in Alaska, near Juneau], and Tatshenshini-Alsek Park in British Columbia are together a World Heritage Site - at 24 million acres the world's largest internationally protected area" It then goes on to say that Wrangell's designated wilderness is more than 9.6 million acres.
Hungary is 93,030 sq km (35,919 sq mi). One square mile = 640 acres. So, Hungary is 22,994,560 acres. More than twice the size of Wrangell. Hope you feel better now.
Jessica, patience. Yes, we were pretty close to Cordova. The road from Chitina to McCarthy (about 60 miles) is the old railroad track. From Chitina it goes on to Cordova over the million dollar bridge. That's how all the copper got from the Kennicott mine (near McCarthy) to the world.
Why didn't they ever repair the million dollar bridge? Do you know the story behind it? I had a minister use the story in a sermon and it was fascinating from any perspective-- not just the Christian one that he was using it to illustrate.
ReplyDeleteI have been out there and the Copper River was the biggest river that I ever crossed-- is it big by other river standards or is it small? Is the Mekong in Thailand wider? (I have a friend who crossed it as a 12 year old to get out of Vietnam and I always imagine the river being that wide.)
I love McCarthy and the Kennicott region. Absolutely beautiful, though I could do without the swarms of mosquitoes.
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