Kennecott

We spent three days in Wragell - St. Elias national park, well actually... we're still in it! We actually spent three days in McCarthy, a small town just outside of Kennecott mining town. We used McCarthy as a base to head out to Kennecott. We split into two groups so that we could do different activities at the same time. On the first day in Kennecott my group hiked up to Bonanza mine. It was an all-day event that was tough on the knees. We hiked up the Bonanza mountain almost all the way up to the mine. It was the toughest hike I've been on this trip! The next day we had it easy though! While we were climbing to the highest of hights the other group was weeding out a cemetery of twenty years of vegetation. When we took our turn in the cemetery we discovered that the other group had pretty much cleared it out completely! We worked hard clearing a three foot perimeter around the old fence and pulling out the stray soap berry bush and hawkweed we came across inside the cemetery. We also redefined two of the graves with stones and made an inventory of each of the burial sites. Hopefully, one day the cemetery will be restored and will be a part of the Kennecott experience (right now it's not even on the map!). Finally, our last day in Kennecott we had an interesting (to say the least) talk from a NPS ranger about the wonder of phenology, or the study of change in plants and animals as it relates to climate change. We drew pictures trees and counted buds on fireweed. Today we made it down to Coppercenter (?) and finally arrived at the Princess Lodge where I am currently waiting for my laundry to dry. I'll have lots fo Kennecott pictures soon!