How is it almost July?

 



























































































How is it almost July?  Almost two weeks ago I went out on a successful fishing trip on the ocean.  I’ve done two in the past, Hawaii and the Cook Islands with no luck.  We headed about 70 miles out of Valdez and ended up putting about 150 miles on the boat.  There was also a fellow LEO on the boat from Marquette PD.  Small world, I did an internship there in college.  


We primarily targeted Halibut and I fished with a salmon head trying to get a big one.  Long story short, I lost a few fish that felt decent compared to the ones I kept.  We did get our limit of Hali for the boat and also easily picked up our Rockfish limit.  They are like a saltwater largemouth bass, very aggressive and tasty like halibut.  Captain Lloyd worked hard to get us our fish and I had a good trip.  We also saw humpback whales, Orcas, seals and all sorts of sea birds.  


The last work week was pretty busy and we also dealt with a black tank issue where it wouldn’t drain properly.  We hooked up and took the trailer for a drive into town, then came back and gave it a good flush.  All is better now.  We had a big bonfire on Sunday after working for 4 days on a new playground.  It was a nice hangout with team one.  I can see a few more of them this season.  


Monday we hitched up and left pretty early.  We made the drive to Chitina and realized they don’t have diesel anymore.  We had a great burger at the Grubstake food cart and then swung back to Kenny Lake for fuel.  We got back to Chitina at about 2:35pm and started the famed McCarthy Road.  62 miles of dirt, rocks, some blacktop, railroad ties and railroad trestles.  We planned to stop partway but didn’t find what we were looking for.  


We pulled into BaseCamp Kennecott about 3 hours after starting the road and made a two night reservation.  Our spot wound up being pretty much right on the river and we fit perfect without having to unhitch.  The site and area were so relaxing and much needed that we kept extending and stayed for 5 nights.  It’s now getting  close to time to drive back.  


We really enjoyed the simplicity of being out here.  We were surprised there is service outside of Starlink, so we were able to stay in touch.  We read some books and magazines, watched movies, had multiple campfires and biked up to Kennicott twice to explore.  It was really cool checking out the old mine building and biking closer to Root Glacier.  We passed on the mine tour and glacier tour and opted to do our own.  You’ll see in a good amount of the pictures that after Kennecott and Root Glacier meet, it is mostly dirt covered.  It looks like the Badlands.  I also found a small group of trees about ready to fall into Glacier Lake.  I may be a little odd, but I sat there looking at them and contemplating how long they’ve been riding the glacier.  Did the glacier pull them from the hillside at some point or did they grow out there?  I’ll never know and soon they will be part of the Chitna/Copper River System.  McCarthy and Kennecott lie inside of Wrangell-St. Elias NP.  It’s our 38th NP and one of the most difficult for us to get to so far.  For some great history on the area, our friends at OpenRoading, Finding Our Someday and Art We There Yet have done some great YouTube videos about this place. 


Probably time for bed, we’ve got a long drive in the morning.  Fingers crossed there are no issues.  

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