Re: Jim and Lyndi ZR-1 Road Trip 2019 - Back to Alaska
 

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Re: Jim and Lyndi ZR-1 Road Trip 2019 - Back to Alaska
 

Yeah, WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Re: Jim and Lyndi ZR-1 Road Trip 2019 - Back to Alaska
 

Simply epic!

Re: Jim and Lyndi ZR-1 Road Trip 2019 - Back to Alaska
 

I'm gonna call you "Pathfinder". Ami and I are deciding where to take a vacation, once my "ball joints" are fixed. AK is @ the top of the list, thanks to you two😊

Re: Jim and Lyndi ZR-1 Road Trip 2019 - Back to Alaska
 

Day 21: At Kennicott Lodge

Our agenda for the day was to explore the mine buildings and take a long hike to see if we could reach the "ice wall" further up the Root Glacier.

The weather was great again but there was a little bit of haze in the air that affected visibility of distant views. The haze is probably a result of several forest fires in Alaska this summer. The temperature of interior Alaska has been 85 to 90 degrees while we have been here.

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Most of the buildings that remain from the Kennicott Mine Company now belong to the National Park Service. Some of the "important" buildings have been restored to exhibition condition and are safe to enter. However many of the buildings are decayed and will take significant effort and cost to stabilize and restore.

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The Kennicott mine extracted copper ore from the mountain. In it's day the Kennicott mine was the highest producing copper mine in the world. The buildings seen here contained the processes for ore extraction, milling to gravel size for high grade ore and also elaborate chemical separation of copper from lower grade ore. The copper ore was then loaded on rail cars for transport to Cordova, AK. The ore was transferred to ships and taken to Seattle for final processing to copper. During the life of the mine about 900,000 tons of ore were produced.

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We set out for a hike to the ice wall on the Root Glacier. The trail was in very good condition and we enjoyed revisiting some of the same trail as yesterday.

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We had to turn back before reaching our destination because Lyndi did not want to aggravate a twisted ankle from yesterday.

On the way back to the Lodge we saw a moose with a calf cross the trail going up the mountain. The brush was taller than the moose and we did not get a useful photo but we were happy to have finally encountered a moose in the wild.

Jim

Re: Jim and Lyndi ZR-1 Road Trip 2019 - Back to Alaska
 

Any concern for crossing paths with a Griz? Pepper spray?? (45-70??)

Re: Jim and Lyndi ZR-1 Road Trip 2019 - Back to Alaska
 

Day 22: Leave Kennicott and drive to Tok, AK

On Saturday morning we bid farewell to Kennicott:

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On the flight back to Chitina we got some more fabulous scenery:

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The southern end of the glacial moraine shows the melted ice and more glacial run off:

https://i407.photobucket.com/albums/...C_0268%202.jpg


Another glacier:

https://i407.photobucket.com/albums/...C_0283%202.jpg


This picture shows the terrain after a glacier melts and the process of plants recovering on the rock surface:

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In the distance we could see all the way to the Chugach Mountains:

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to be continued......

Re: Jim and Lyndi ZR-1 Road Trip 2019 - Back to Alaska
 

Jim,
Your epic journey reminds me of this old Johnny Horton song
https://youtu.be/b3tAJS0wpRY


Sent from my iPhone using ZR-1 Net Registry

Re: Jim and Lyndi ZR-1 Road Trip 2019 - Back to Alaska
 

After we landed at Chitina, we drove north on the Richardson Highway toward Tok, AK. We stopped at the B&B we stayed at three days ago to see how the house move was coming. Well, the house was not moved. They had raised it some more then quit for the weekend. The owners were very upset because they had expected to be back in their house in three days but now it was 8 days.

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We stopped at the Wrangell - St Elias NP visitor center on the Richardson Highway and took a hike out to see the Copper River Valley. After about a mile, we found a sign that we decided must be advisory in nature and continued on:

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We turned on the the Tok Cutoff for the rest of our trip. One of the plants that we have been enjoying in Alaska is Fireweed. It grows along the road side and is one of the first plants to regrow after a forest fire:

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We stopped to eat lunch and for another view of the Copper River Valley:

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In Alaska, one of the trees that we have seen a lot are Aspens. There were a lot of the Aspens along the Tok Cutoff:

https://i407.photobucket.com/albums/...C_0911%202.jpg


Jim

Re: Jim and Lyndi ZR-1 Road Trip 2019 - Back to Alaska
 

You are right Phil, that should be our theme song for this trip.

Jim