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Anchorage, AK → McCarthy, AK 310 mi (498.9 km) |
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I’ve many miles of tricks and trials ahead, everyone!
Once more at the helm of my own ship, I’m back on the road, eastbound to adventure! This was going to be a full day of transit, so I figured I’d best pause along the way to see what I could see. From Anchorage, I journeyed up through Eklutna (Idlughet), the last of eight Denai’ina villages to survive construction of the Alaska Railroad with 800 years of history and plenty of wild stories.
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One of those wild stories surrounds the Eklutna Hydroelectric Project tailrace. This half-mile channel out of the old Eklutna Power Plant is one of the area’s most popular fishing spots, against all odds, because the original Eklutna River was almost completely drained dry by dams that channeled water into the power plant! While salmon could no longer spawn in the Eklutna River proper, hatchery-raised salmon were stocked in the water of the tailrace, so it was, technically the right water in the wrong place! Fortunately for all salmon, the lower dam did come down in 2018, reopening miles of natural spawning ground for these important fish!
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Also, the jetty that forms one side of the tailrace is built on old cars! This wasn’t part of the original design, though. Most of these cars were dumped here in the 1950s through ’70s, whether by dissatisfied owners, thieves, vandals, or demolition derby participants at the nearby Alaska State Fair! The jetty here built up around them, and for better or worse, it helped slow erosion as the high-pressure water flowed through the tailrace and into the Knik River!
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It was kind of creepy walking among these husks of former cars, peering in through windows and open doors to the grassy seats and corroded seatbelts that will never have to worry about holding anyone in place ever again. They were like fossils of a bygone era, and it made me wonder how future paleomechanics would try to render them artistically!
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In any case, this was a funky photo spot for musing about garbage dumps and nature’s amazing capability to reclaim them, but it was adjacent to the glassiest, most pristine fishing spot I’ve seen in a long time! I could have lazed around here for hours, but alas! I have many miles to go before I sleep!
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On the way out, I stopped by that Eklutna Power Plant, just up the road, still standing, though it only produced power for Anchorage from 1929 until 1956 when the city’s needs surpassed this plant’s capabilities! It was the pet project of none other than Frank Reed of the Anchorage Hotel, who got the license and raised funds then handed them over to the newly formed Anchorage Light and Power Company! The plant ended up towering 61 feet and featured both a 1500 horsepower Pelton water turbine and General Electric standard 2300-volt generator!
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Anyway, the time had come to really put in some miles, so I loaded up on mocha at Purple Moose Espresso in Palmer, then headed into the Matanuska Valley, where I nearly ran into a real moose! Overhead, the clouds rolled and swelled but didn’t seem to be ready to rain, at least not while I took a break by the Matanuska River near Chickaloon. I was glad not to be traveling in the rain, but I hoped it wouldn’t be too far behind. There was a lot of smoke mixing with the clouds around mile marker 128 as an armada of planes did battle with the 3,000-acre Nilchina Fire! Gosh, no matter how far I go from California, I just can’t escape wildfires!
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The Glenn Highway was very pretty though. I almost took a detour to see the Matanuska Glacier up close, but I didn’t have two hours to spare for the tour. Instead, I kept right on, past Glenallen, down through Willow Creek (not to be confused with Willow Creek), and to a brief stop in Chitina, former depot town for the Copper River and Northwestern Railroad. Here, two giant googly eyes stared out at me from the renovated, nationally registered Chitina Tin Shop, once the center of all metal working for the massive region surrounding the Copper River! Here, before the railroad collapsed in 1938, Fred Schaupp made stoves, pipes, and other household essentials while repairing guns, wagon wheels, and even cars! I wonder what he’d have to say about the cars of the Eklutna Tailrace!
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The south end of Chitina marked the start of McCarthy Road, which I’d been hearing about for a long time as being arduous, difficult, and uninsurable by most rental companies. That’s because it’s made up of sixty-two miles of dirt road practically dumped on top of a 1909 railway with historic railroad ties still sticking up through the dirt in some parts! With a storm building overhead, was I really ready to start this journey solo?
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I hesitated. The entrance was one lane between two cliffs, and it was very intimidating! I’ve been on some scary roads before, so I decided to take a little pause by Town Lake with its remarkably China-like cliff backing and rhythmically swatted mosquitoes as I psyched myself up for the long crossing. Okay, here goes!
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Right off the bat, it was chaos! The Copper River by Chitina is another major fishing destination, and not just for humans! A fish head dropped right out of the sky in front of me, and I was just lucky enough that it was the fish, and not me, which got snatched back up by an eagle, one of three squabbling over it! Furthermore, the rain had started, making me very nervous about the miles ahead, but surprisingly, quite a few miles of McCarthy Road were… paved? I wasn’t expecting that. Nor was I expecting the potholes in the pavement, which were so much worse than when it became dirt!
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About 17 miles in, I took my first, and only steps in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. Ugh, just like Katmai and Lake Clark, the most accessible parts of this complex are in the Preserve, and the most remote—and expensive—parts are in the Park. So behold! My time in the Park proper would be walking down next to the famed, cantilevered, 238-foot high Kuskulana Bridge, built in only two winter months in 1910 to support full-on ore trains! Now that’s an impressive feat of engineering!
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After a few hours on the road, I realized I had traveled much scarier roads than this one. McCarthy Road was very long and did have the occasional pothole and bumps from old train tracks to dodge, but it sure was pretty! I even saw a couple of trumpeter swans out on a lake, and they were enormous!
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Still, it was a long time to be on a remote dirt road, and I sure was glad to see signs coming up that told me McCarthy was getting closer. I’d heard this tiny community was unique for new arrivals, even after braving the Road, and sure enough, a sign assured me I was not mistaken! Google Maps was apparently directing everyone to the wrong place to park, which was embarrassing, because I use it for a lot of navigating! Anyway, I’d passed enough campgrounds and outfitters to trust this sign more than “Hysterical Landmark” back in 2012. I was going to follow this one to the end!
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One does not simply drive into McCarthy! To minimize dust and maximize calm, all non-residents must park across the Kennecott River, cross a footbridge, and navigate the mile of road separating the parking lot from the town center! There is a phone for calling a bus, but after a long day behind the wheel, I didn’t mind walking one bit!
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Just across the bridge, I got at peek at the kinds of trucks that used to motor around McCarthy, like Jim Edwards’ one-of-a-kind, hand-assembled, hodge podge of a 1955 “bush truck,” which he lovingly named Rigor Mortis! Rigor Mortis was practically the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang of McCarthy, mostly a freight hauler but also a passenger vehicle and a power generator for everything from grinding wheels to ice cream machines! Parked here as a display since the 1990s, Rigor Mortis was still running when it was retired!
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The walk into McCarthy was very peaceful, an easy dirt road lined with fire weed and blue bells, and ice cold ponds where folks were nonetheless swimming! Across one, I saw a tent city which turned out to be where all the summer outdoor guides stayed during the high season!
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The walk didn’t exactly leave me tired, but I didn’t mind taking a shortcut. Besides, it looked like there was a ton of cool stuff down this little path! Dodging mosquitoes, I hustled down the little trail and over a muddy stream until I walked right into central McCarthy!
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Named for miner and philanthropist, James McCarthy, this little community is far from, well, pretty much anywhere! It started as a railroad turnaround stop on the property of homesteader, John Barrett, but when the nearby Kennecott Mine opened up with strict rules about vice, McCarthy stepped in to fill the need for a party town!
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Today, McCarthy isn’t a party town in the same way, but there was quite a lineup of musical performances at the Golden Saloon and a speaker series at the nationally registered McCarthy General Store! The town has been painstakingly restored to hold on to its historic charm, including period-authentic lodging like Ma Johnson’s Historical Hotel, also the main meeting point for outdoor adventures! With plenty of friendly dogs roaming the streets (a far cry from American Samoa), I could tell right away that I was going to like it here.
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I wasn’t checking in to Ma Johnson’s, though. All the rooms were booked well in advance! I got lucky with AirBNB though and booked myself a tiny cabin! How tiny was this cabin, you might ask? Was it built out of Lincoln Logs? Was it a cabin for ants?
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It definitely was built from logs but not the Lincoln kind! This was once a trapper’s cabin, which made me a little uneasy as a beaver, but it was the most unique place I’ve spent the night in a long time! It had a lovely yard facing the mountains, surrounded by gardens and berry bushes—not quite ripe yet. Inside was a warm and welcoming room, equipped with all kinds of footwear from slippers to flip-flops. Rather than a kitchen, the tiny cabin had a rack of bowls and utensils, a two-burner stove, and a tank of water that drained into a basin, which worked as a sink! This was thoroughly stocked with granola, coffee, and tea complemented by a cooler full of milk outside! Why such an unusual setup? Well, it turns out it’s very difficult to maintain plumbing in a place that gets so cold in the winter, but the Alaskans who stayed in McCarthy long after its mining days were over really made it work!
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And you know what? I didn’t even mind that the bathroom was an outhouse, well equipped with wipes and a photo book about other outhouses. For me, after a week in the wilderness, it was a luxury just to know exactly where I was going to do my business in the morning and not be on the lookout for bears!
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After settling in, I dined at McCarthy’s most celebrated restaurant, The Potato, where they were were serving Midnight Sun beer, all the way from Anchorage! As I learned from my host, Tamara, once a week, someone from town goes on an “Anc Run” and brings back a ton of food, which keeps prices down, despite McCarthy’s remote location. The food was really tasty too. I can’t wait to see what else the area around McCarthy has in store!
Follow me, my friend, to glory at the end!
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Total Ground Covered: 348.5 mi (562.5 km) |
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