This morning we awoke to cloudy skies but we drove into the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park on the McCarthy Road. This is a 60 mile road- all dirt, wash boards and pot holes. But the scenery is spectacular-mountains, rivers,and lakes. The road ends just before entering McCarthy. Larry, the driver of the day, parked his truck and we then walked across a foot bridge and waited for a shuttle ($5.00 one way per person) to pick us up to go to McCarthy or Kennecott.
Being lunchtime we went into Kennecott and Had a nice lunch at the Kennicott Glacier Hotel.
The Kennicott Glacier was seen from the hotel but unfortunately there were lots of low clouds. The Kennicott glacier and river are spelt with an i but the town and mill are spelt with an e (Kennecott). As we finished eating it began to rain steadily and we had not come prepared for rain. Kennecott Copper Corporation had built a mill for the mining of copper and tours are available.
Because of the rain we opted to return to the parking lot to start our return trip.
While in Valdez we had met up with a woman that had encouraged us to visit this area as she and her husband lived here and had a “Bed and Breakfast”. She had also talked to us about diamond willow walking sticks. Diamond willow grows in this area and we had thought we might be able to get some to make our own walking sticks. Well, we looked but unsure of what we were really looking for. We had seen the road into her house on the way to McCarthy because of the sign about the “Halfway House B & B” so we decided to drive back into her place.
She (Kayane James, as we learned today) was in the yard and seemed glad to see us. When we mentioned that we were looking for diamond willow she invited us to walk back into the wooded area and help us to find some willow for the sticks.
It was not raining in this area at this time. Kayane and her trusty dog, Mack,
along with the 4 of us trudged into the woods and got the willow needed for the sticks. She showed us around the property and into the guests areas and then invited us into her house so she could give us a quick lesson in finishing the willow sticks- peeling off the bark carefully, cleaning the diamond areas and then finishing with sand paper and lacquer. These walking sticks are pretty pieces of wood when done well- sure hope we can do a good job. Kayane and her husband have lived here for 3 years. Living in Michigan, her husband lost his job when the automobile industry went sour. So they eventually were able to sell their house and make the move to Alaska to start a new life. Her husband works during the summertime but wintertime, both, she and her husband run trap lines which they attend on snowshoes taking 4 to 6 hours. We had such a nice visit with this woman. I feel certain that anyone staying as B & B guests would be given super treatment.
On our travels today we did see some wildlife. This morning before getting into the town of Chitina there were 2 moose calves near the side of the road eating.
Then on the McCarthy Road this morning we saw a black bear in the road and then quickly climbed up the wooded side of a hill.