Hatcher's Pass Hiking on the Way Back to Anchorage

We couldn't decide what to do on our last day of this trip, but we'd never been to Hatcher's Pass in the summer, only in winter to ski. So reading up on some hikes, we camped overnight at the bottom at the Gold Mint Trailhead - but did the Reeds Lake hike first off of Archangel Rd.





We didn't get all of the way to the lakes. Two things about this hike - first, we started after it had been raining all day and sometimes pretty hard -- it didn't rain the WHOLE time we were hiking, but everything was so wet and the trail so narrow that we were soaked by the time we got back - well, really within the first 15 minutes or so of this 3 hr. hike. It is a fun hike, and we'll go back again - pretty socked in by fog and mist, so not so many pictures -- the water was gushing down pretty violently -- and by the time we got to a boulder field with the water rushing down just underneath it, we didn't see a way to get Kira across. The ranger told Brian the next day that it is a spot that routinely canines refuse when the water is as high as it is right now.

So we overnighted at the Gold Mint Trailhead and then went up the next morning (yesterday) to Independence Mine and did the relatively short trail to Gold Cord Lake. What a treat though! The main treat for Kira was to find snow again - she's in heaven with snow in July!



You can see the ice still on the lake on the 9th of July!



Sigh . . . and then we came home - to do laundry, clean up and get ready for another RV trip next week - to McCarthy this time! And we spied some more places to hike back at Independence Mine another day - maybe without Kira this time! Independence Mine was a gold mine most active in about the 1930s to 1950s. There is good historical information there and a number of buildings still standing.

More Exploring!

One of the campgrounds where we stayed had an unexpectedly good hike to "The Overlook" -- we were the only people there overnight again, though we saw one other in the morning. It was a State Recreation Site, and they had a 1 mile "Nature Trail" but the Overlook hike was longer and quite steep. The view at the top was so worth it, and the sun had come out by then with enough of a breeze at the top that there were no bugs.



It was just one of those days that you wondered, "Why didn't I bring lunch and a book?" We were content there for quite a while but wanted to move on to the next place (headed back from Chicken now) so we descended and packed up!

We'd brought fishing gear, so we did fish a couple of places along the way.



Ironically, Brian caught a grayling in one place that we completely didn't expect to, the Grizzly Campground, where we ordinarily wouldn't have chosen to stay - still, we were parked right by Grizzly Lake, only one other camper was there (not primitive camping at all, so cabins, etc., all unoccupied mid-week.) We rented a canoe and paddled a little, came in for a rainstorm, then went out again in the morning and paddled - Brian through in and caught a pretty good-sized grayling on the first cast.



Kira isn't crazy about being in the canoe, but this is more of her favorite spot! She starts out across from us in her own bed, and sometime during the night, she hops over with us. She was a good sport for the week though and hiked every day with us.

On The Road to Chicken, Alaska

We had a week out in our 18.5 ft. Chinook, 1977 sturdy thing that she is, especially with Brian taking care of her - including adding a marine propane heater that was just right for warming it up in the morning! We headed north last Thursday and climbed Lion's Head on the way up. We found the campgrounds to be very full, of course, with the 4th of July holiday. But there are always spots in Alaska and good ones too!

This was the view out of our window in our "leftover" and free spot on Alascom Rd. just north of Sheep Mountain. No services, but we're self-contained - so glad there were no spots left!

We continued on Friday and met up with Loogpla Cowden and her guy, Curt, for lunch on the road just north of Glennallen - then continued on to stay on the Nabesca Rd. in the Wrangell Mts, while they continued west to Delta Junction - we were told we might not  find a spot on the Nabesca Rd., but did and also did a pretty good hike there, 7 miles round-trip up to the Caribou Cabin - kind of a monotonous hike in that it's up a gravel maintenance road, and we didn't have time (or maybe energy) to go beyond there for what is supposed to be a great ridge hike. The view was gorgeous though, up and back.

Saturday we camped at a BLM site - we were the only people there besides the host, and besides the mosquitos, another really great spot. The "host" didn't know why the 4th of July campers hadn't made it up that far. Very nice outhouses and free firewood!



Then we got to Chicken, a tiny spot far enough north that it wasn't getting dark at all. So Chicken, we understand, has a Chickenstock Festival every year (think Woodstock) but this year it's been delayed til August due to the Coronavirus. Things were pretty closed down but we managed to score some old Chickenstock t-shirts for grandchildren presents and to have a nice lunch out on a sunny patio.



I'm glad we went, and the terrain was different and striking enough to be worth it all in itself - but the roads were terrible enough that we decided not to do the many miles further on Top of the World Highway (dirt road) to Eagle.