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With the summer quickly coming to an end (college classes start the last week of August), my long time friend and I are running away from home for three days. We have a wonderful adventure planned.

I will drive to her house tomorrow (Thursday). We will leave from her house early Friday morning to drive to McCarthy, Alaska. This town is in the Heart of the Wrangell Saint Elias National Park, the largest National Park in the U.S. The road ends just about a half mile before the town. It ends because there is a large glacial river in the way. There are two foot bridges to walk to cross the river. Then a half mile walk into town.

While there, we will take a shuttle (most likely an open jeep) to the old Copper Mine of Kennecott. We plan to do some hiking on the Kennicott Glacier too.

Saturday, we will leave McCarthy and drive to Valdez. On the way we will stop at a couple more places to hike. One of which is the Worthington Glacier.

After our restful night in Valdez, we will board a ferry at 7 AM for the town of Whittier. This ferry will take us through the Prince William Sound (Think Valdez Oil Spill). The sound is rich with wildlife. If we are lucky, we will see whales. We most likely will see sea lions, sea otters, and maybe even dolphin.

After arriving in Whittier around 1 PM, we will drive through the longest tunnel in America that is used by both trains and cars. We have only a fifteen minute drive through time between trains. The tunnel is three miles long.

Then we drive back to my friend's house where I will spend the night. I'll return home on Monday.

I hope to have all sorts of stories to tell you when I get back. AND, I hope I will MAKE the time to finish the backpacking story that I started so many weeks ago. I know you all have been patiently waiting for the rest of that story.

Have a great weekend.

Rose

Ah, Rose, I can't wait to take this trip with you (vicariously, of course!! <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> )

Have a wonderful time, may the weather gods smile down on you!

Taking your camera?

It sounds like another great adventure to me, Rose. Hope you have a wonderful time and have lots of wildlife encounters to report back to us when you return.

Of course you know I'm still anxiously awaiting the final installments of the backpacking story.

Have fun,
Leequi

My travelling party (dh, myself, nephew and his girlfriend) went to Whittier one day. After we stayed in the wonderful cabin, hiked the California Creek Trail, and stopped at a glacier that I can't remember its name, we drove through the tunnel to Whittier and ate a wonderful lunch of fish and chips. The batter they used was wonderful. We sat outside on the restaurant's deck and watched the harbor. I have a great picture from there. There's not much to see in Whittier, but I'm sure Prince William Sound is wonderful. I hope you see whales.

Oops, here's another tidbit to add. I was amazed at how on the "outside" of the tunnel, the weather was sunny and warm. But when we drove through the tunnel to the other side of the mountain and into the bay climate the weather was totally different. Cloudy, foggy, and the slightest mist in the air. They say it's like that there most of the time. Then once back through the tunnel to the other side of the mountain it was sunny and warm again. Then we hiked up Byron Glacier.