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McCarthy, AK → Kennecott, AK → McCarthy, AK 17.4 mi (28.0 km) |
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It’s Erie out here, everyone!
Well, sort of. I mean, I walked out of my tiny cabin into a super gloomy and wet day. This did not bode well for my hike to the remote Erie Mine, so remote that Edward actually joked yesterday about some crazy person who’d signed up to scramble the whole precarious way up there. That crazy person was me! The rain made me nervous when I got to St. Elias Alpine Guides HQ at 9:00, though, because I did not actually know what Class III terrain was, or whether I’d ever tackled it (I had)! That was all moot, though, as today’s guide, Josh, said last night’s rain made the Erie Mine trail way too dangerous. If I was okay with it, we’d try another mine instead: the Bonanza Mine! Since that was the mine that kicked off the whole copper-ation I toured yesterday, I said “Okay!”
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We started off on the Root Glacier Trail but where the trail split by the last outhouse, we turned right instead of left and started up what was a steep trail from the get-go! It rose gradually, more like a road at first, with very few switchbacks. The rain settled down, but it left things very misty and humid. Looking out, we caught sprawling views as far as the Chugach Range in the south. Looking down, we saw more fresh bear poop than on my entire trek through Katmai!
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The trail was wide and completely walled in by foliage, making us wonder how many bears—couldn’t be zero—we were walking past. Hopefully they were too busy eating soap berries tot pay us any mind. It’s good to hike with someone in bear country because your conversation lets them know you’re around so they can clear out! Josh and I chatted about our different adventures around the globe and how Alaska was such an amazing place that he’d decided to move here all the way from Newton, Massachusetts each year to be a guide! He’d been captivated by Erie Lake near the Stairway Icefall, and conquered Porphyry Peak. He was brainstorming what trail to take his dad on when he visited later in the year! The only trouble was, his dogs were back home and he’d had a scare when his friends who were watching his things for the summer broke up! These are the chances one takes when leaving home a while, which is why every adventure requires some degree of serenity!
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But when we travel, it’s for good reason, and Josh liked spending time in McCarthy. The folks I’ve met so far have been really nice and really down to earth! They’re so into the earth that when Josh pointed out an old building in the shadow of an old tramway support, I was surprised to hear that, once a summer, the townsfolk would throw a party all the way up here in this building! I was starting to like McCarthy more and more!
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After this lookout, the trail got even steeper, but it was still well maintained and did not appear like we’d be doing any rock scrambling. It was surprisingly hot and humid, so we took a break just under the cloud line where another old tramway support teetered on the edge of the slope, tram-less now for 87 years! In our last clear view of the morning, we really got a sense of how far this tramway had stretched from the Kennecott Mill, and we were still barely halfway to our destination!
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Almost immediately, clouds engulfed us. It was chilly and damp, but after building up so much heat hiking the first half of the trail, it was a real relief! Even the snowbanks covering the steadily narrowing trail felt like a cool slush as we tromped through them. I was surprised that there wasn’t any wind, but Josh said the shape of the mountains blocks a lot of wind from hitting this valley. Most wind comes in as katabatic currents moving down the glacier, but up here, it was still, and yes, kind of eerie!
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We stopped at a small waterfall to load up on hydration. This, Josh said, is exactly what made Alaska hands-down the best place to be a guide. Being so high up on a precarious mountain, with little reason for most animals to trek this high, this is the safest, freshest water you can drink! After holding my face under the cascade for a long gulp, I certainly agreed with him! That water charged me up for our final ascent!
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And right away, there were signs we were getting close. Barely a few yards after the waterfall, we spotted the first pieces of the Bonanza Mine, which had spent decades loosening and tumbling down the rocky slopes into this ravine. Since I’d only looked at photos of the Erie Mine when I was booking my trek, I wondered what kind of condition the Bonanza was in. I had no idea what awaited us uphill, nor did I imagine it would take us another half an hour to get there!
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As the trail grew thinner and even steeper, there were more kinds of avens (Dryas) in full bloom, whereas they’d gone to seed down by the Root Glacier! They added some cheer to some pretty gloomy surroundings, which only got denser and denser the higher we climbed. Believe it or not, we actually spotted a couple of hikers making their way down, though they were far above the thin, crumbling trail we were navigating and didn’t even seem to notice us. I started to wonder if they might have been ghosts, when suddenly, I got distracted by some green in the scree: malachite!
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It was malachite that had drawn Clarence Warner and “Tarantula” Jack Smith up these precarious slopes in 1900. They’d seen what looked like grass, where grass had no business growing, so once they confirmed what it was, they staked their claim and called this the Bonanza Lode! They worked their claim for seven years until Stephen Birch bought it up and kicked off what would become the Kennecott Mines Company! Nearly a century since folks stopped living and working here, as boards loosened and fell and clouds danced around he ruins, I was lost for a moment, as though I’d been transported thousands of miles away to the monasteries of the Himalayas! It felt very mystical to me!
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That gave me an idea! After Josh and I ate our remaining snacks on a platform overlooking the mine, I put together one mystical character who I knew would appreciate taking in these gradually clearing views. Señor Castorieti had never seen through malachite before, nor sniffed through azurite! He said he felt expensive and set out to collect more beautiful gemstones, but as he trained to pick up a huge block of malachite, he lost his balance and tumbled right down the mountain in a storm of green and blue pebbles! Poor Señor Castorieti!
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Despite the constant tragedy that is Señor Castorieti, I couldn’t have asked for a better hike, even after diverging from the day’s original plans. The Bonanza Mine was made incredible by its altitude and remoteness, but also by the weather, which started as an obstacle and ended as a highlight. We made it back down in record time, observed Josh, and that night, I joined the residents of McCarthy at their weekly Friday night softball game, very, very carefully. I like to imagine my size wasn’t what caused my team to get trounced, but no one seemed to mind. As a visitor, it was really cool getting to play on the most amazing field with fun folks on the last night of my Alaskan adventure!
Back to summer heat and shorter days!
P.S. I stopped for a bit at Anchorage Pride the next day and thought it was really cool! Compared to Los Angeles, the booths were a lot more diverse (gardeners, rockhounds, environmental activists), and instead of protests, there were churches trying to recruit! Plus, the show was hosted by a drag king! Then, the rain settled in, the festival was over, and I made my way back to the airport for an overnight flight back to the land of the setting sun!
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Total Ground Covered: 373.5 mi (602.7 km) |
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