Alaska part 4 McCarthy road

 Alaska blog 4 - The McCarthy Road

Tuesday morning, 6/25/24. I woke up and got dressed to fish. There was a ten foot wide public easement across from where I was camped for the night for Silver Lake. I walked down the path to the lake and was immediately engulfed by mosquitoes. I stepped down into the lake and it was worse, plus I really could not wade out very far. I turned around and walked back to the truck. No fishing today.

After changing out of my gear I headed to McCarthy which is at the end of the McCarthy Road. It was a very scenic drive, so I stopped along the way. As with the Denali Hwy, the paved sections were worse than the gravel parts. I got to the end of the road around noon, there really wasn’t any free areas, parking for four hours was $6, camping was $35, so I grabbed a very nice primitive site next to the river with a table and a great view. 

The town of McCarthy is only accessible by foot unless you are a townsfolk and I assume workers. After lunch I headed over the foot bridge. There is a free shuttle from the foot bridge to town, but I decided to walk the 3/4 mile into town since I hadn’t been getting much exercise. 

   

After walking around town and having some ice cream I grabbed the $5 shuttle to Kennicott, which is the historic mine and trail head for the Root Glacier, a 4 mile round trip hike. It was a last minute decision to do the hike and I was a little crunched for time. 

There were some great views along the way. Except for the very end the trail was well maintained. The last half mile was loose scree and steep. I walked up a short distance to a flat spot on the glacier, but without crampons or at least creepers I choose not to go any further because it roll off pretty steeply on either side.

The last shuttle departed Kennicott at 6pm, I made it back to the shuttle stop with 3 minutes to spare. I practically double timed it to get there. Got dropped off at Saloon for a quick beer then walked across street to catch shuttle back to foot bridge.

Stay tuned, I'm behind with my blogs

Tight lines and safe travels