After over a month in the northern latitudes I’ve learned to appreciate how well these summer days fit my late riser tendencies. There was no advantage in waking up early and rushing to leave when the sun will keep shining well past my exhaustion point. We didn’t pack up and leave until about 10 am, and regretted nothing.
We stopped for breakfast at Tolsona Lake Lodge, which was a great representation of the best kind of establishment here in the north. All wooden, filled with vintage frontier knickknacks and stuffed animals, bottomless coffee, free WiFi, mostly devoid of people and nothing else for over an hour in either direction. After tax it was $22 for an omelette and a coffee per person. I suppose locals can afford that, because if they need money they just sweep under the bed, and the resulting dust is at least 14 karat gold. I’m not complaining, but I’m filling up my thermos to go with that hot coffee.
Today’s destination was Kennecott mine, also known as McCarthy. It’s a casual 300 km trek, 100 km of which was on a dusty gravel road. It’s a reasonably popular spot, so we frequently faced dust clouds picked up by RVs and vans traveling in the same direction. We lowered the tire pressure so we could travel pretty fast on this road, to pass these vehicles efficiently and breathe clean air again, for about 3 minutes, until we catch up with another slow rig. Salvation came when we reached Kennecott river. The bridge over this river is specifically made narrow to keep away anything wider than a small ATV.
It was Saturday and I wonder if that’s one reason it seemed so busy. Alex was a bit annoyed at the crowds, but I figured it’s fair trade. They have no less right to be here enjoying the sunshine at the glacier overlook than us. We’ve been out of sync with them long enough, not really caring about days of the week. The sun was so warm and it was easy to feel a bit lazy.
After getting to the main area of the site, where the majority of the old mining buildings were located, we spent some time enjoying the glacier view from a high vantage point. Following that we went to check out some roads and trails that ventured further into the old mines. One such road, a pretty steep and rocky affair named Bonanza Mine Trail, turned out to be a private road which only local residents were allowed on. We only realized that once we met forest service people a few miles up the road, but they were fairly understanding about our confusion. Pinky swear, I did not ride anywhere that explicitly said private property or no motor vehicles. Unless I missed the sign. On the way back down Alex’s front brakes overheated, which made for an extra exciting descent.
Dinner of champions was Nutella with bagels. Chocolate is full of antioxidants, we do what we can to keep a healthy lifestyle. The dessert was a ride to the edge of the glacier, where we set up one of my all time favorite campsites. What looked like rocks from the distance turned out to be dirty ice. We sat on one side of a small glacial lake, triple checked that we were in fact on land and not glacier, and the ice kept calving and falling into the water on the other side, making loud splashy noises. The constant breeze off the glacier kept the mosquitos away. It was a surreal experience watching the afternoon light fading over snow covered Wrangell mountains, the wind blowing through backlit arctic cotton, and listening to the falling ice as we slowly drifted into sleep. It felt so exposed, yet so peaceful. None of the crowds of the main town had any inclination to come here.
The next day we bid farewell to Alaska, and crossed back into Yukon. The roads were gorgeous, but long and lonely. Upon our arrival into Canada we had just missed the rain, but made it for the rainbow. We rode for over 800 km, and called it a day due to exhaustion more than anything. We got very lucky as another epic campsite awaited us at Kluane Lake. I’m not sure how we could top these last couple of days in terms of camping with a view.
