After a hard week of training on the glacier, a recovery week was much needed. I took advantage of an easier week and went on some fun adventures in Alaska with my sister, Kristy. We drove 7 hours East of Anchorage to the McCarthy Kennecott area, located at the foot of the Wrangell Mountains. The drive there is not an easy one, seeing as it takes over 2 hours to drive the last 50 miles. We loaded down the car with bikes, backpacks, rain gear, tent, food, water, and everything else we thought we might need for the next five days.
In order to get to McCarthy, you have to park at the end of the road, cross a foot bridge and walk or bike 1.5 miles. Even though the town is quite small with a population of about 40-50, it is a popular tourist destination in the summer. Five miles up the road is Kennecott mine. This area is full of artifacts and history from its mining days in the early 1900’s. Copper was discovered in Kennecott in 1900 and the mines and the town of Kennecott were built quickly after the discovery. By 1938 the copper deposits in the mountain were gone and the town was completely abandoned. Over the 30 years that the mine was up and running, $200 million in ore was extracted, making it the richest concentration of copper in the world!
We had fun exploring the old mining town and reading about the history from that time. We ventured out on some cool hikes that took us to a couple of the mining sights. As you can see from the pictures, several artifacts were left by the miners long ago.
Despite some pretty wet, rainy weather and a few run-ins with bears, we had a great time!
During my time in AK, I went on several hikes in the Anchorage area. It does not take long to drive out of the city and be in the middle of nowhere. Kristy and I took advantage of a beautiful sunny day and ran back to a lake called symphony lake. The views are always beautiful there, rain or shine.
I am back in Ketchum and looking forward to a 10 day training camp with the U.S. Ski Team in a week. Fortunately, the team is coming to Sun Valley to take advantage of the great facilities and the endless trails we have in this area. Looking forward to some good training! I’ll keep you updated!
