7/10/17 We popped down and split. Sayonara Valdez. The rain was steady and hid the mountain tops, valleys, waterfalls, and snow we had luckily seen yesterday. Back up through Thompson pass past the Worthington glacier and on out to the Richardson Highway, north again and east up the Copper River on the Edgerton and McCarthy Road going through Chitna, beer stop at the Hotel. Moose in the parking lot (like the show “Northern Exposure”) the moose's name was ‘Patches’ to the hotel bar staff. 

It was foggy and luckily it had rained making the potholes shine with evening light. Now driving is fun to navigate a route in a purposeful direction …. like skiing down a hillside around obstacles. Is that a guy thing?… sometimes I drive my motorcycle on a windy hill town road and all I’m thinking about is the road coming up and how the bike would best go into it. Feels good going into a curve to the sweet spot and accelerating out to a straightaway though when asked could not tell what went by for the view. 

After about 65 miles ‘in’ we decided to search for a place to boondock camp… after we got 75 miles in we decided to turn around and take a site we saw on Moose lake of a small spur. We were in a low cloud area and a lot of mist…was okay though, as we would see all we missed in haze, on the way out. On the way back we encountered a smaller ‘road barn’ broken down on the side of the road. There was a guy stopped from the other direction to help, towing a trailer. I stopped and asked if help was needed and all said “yes”. Stopped to fix loose roof top cargo, they could not restart the camper…not even a click of the starter solenoid…. ah…the solenoid… to be bypassed but how….. I agreed it was the best idea to go from the battery to starter ….I wasn’t going to say something bad couldn't happen in the process…no guarantees … upon which I got a conscientious nodding…. a kitchen fork was produced and bent in a “C” with lashed and frapping attached to a slender piece of firewood….into the battery compartment it went  to the back making proper contact with a satisfying spark!…. I think Elon Musk would approve. 

We went to the spot to camp only to find it had been taken!…. but wait ….they are leaving!!!! Just a couple locals out for evening look see. So we backed in to the lake watching scores of ducks in the water. All set up and happy… we decided to watch a pre-recorded iPad movie (lousy) as the rain was coming down. An hour later 11?… I went out to ‘see a man about a horse’  and was hit with an almost clear sky and sun at the perfect evening light… the lake was still, mirroring the mountains I hadn’t even seen before….. right up beside us. We both came out of the camper and spent a half hour wandering around to a beautiful site…. a mink swan right by too.

Next morning up and off, the last 30 miles to the River. A Town called McCarthy on the other side connected by a foot bridge ( though locals have a vehicle bridge down stream to haul in essentials …not open to folks from ‘away’)

The town of McCarthy and also the derelict, Kennicott Copper Mine, now a part of the US National Historical site. One of the richest strikes of nearly pure copper in the world. When the copper ran out so did the profiteers… leaving all behind as undoing what was built was not for profit… walked away rich. All abandoned …. as if they simply stood up and left town. Because that is what they did. It is a marvel of human proportions… the history of the WORK done here is mind blowing, under severe conditions… $5 a day with $1.50 a day taken back by the company store for food and lodging)…. a good read about those tougher than we. when we were in the Info center the ranger, a young woman told us she had lived in Goshen…next town near ours. She said if it weren’t for Alaska thats where she would settle …tall praise. 

So I type again in the camper hearing the very loud ‘white noise’ of the glacial till swollen river sweep by 10 feet away carrying hunks of ice off the glacier…..back to raining… good to clean off the 1/4” thick cemented mud off the truck/camper and sleep on a cushion of sound. 

Tomorrow we no doubt will pull up stakes and go north again once ‘out’ to take Denali Road  in the westerly direction. The weather dictates the pace, more then likely leisurely, so to not drive through what should be seen, in rain. We will camp somewhere and putter for a day.