Boom! A cannon blast interrupting our sleep? Thunder? No—new icebergs splitting from the face of Child’s Glacier and tumbling into the sea provided last night's sporadic rumblings. In the stillness the roars were magnified; with each calving I envisioned waves and ice crashing through the sides of our tent. You might think this would elicit fear but instead I found it thrilling and then comforting to experience these rhythms of the far north.
After sipping mugs of peppermint-chamomile tea Husband Tim and I packed our gear while Guide Tim and Kate cooked breakfast. We stuffed our dry bags with sleeping bags and clothes and surveyed the interior of our canvas home one final time. Red smears covered the walls and ceiling of our yellow rental tent, evidence of our nightly mosquito-crushing ritual. Only when every last blood-filled critter was destroyed could I drift off to sleep. I would miss the wilderness, yes, but not its tiny tormentors.
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| Goodbye Camp Five. Leaving the wilderness—and the mosquitoes—behind. |
We enjoyed a brunch of vegetarian burgers, bagels and scrambled eggs with cheese, then cleaned up and pushed off from Camp Five, the finest campsite of the expedition. Within half an hour we arrived at the take-out spot to find a snow-covered road where we expected to see the shuttle van parked and waiting. Guide Tim hopped out and walked the snowy road for a quarter mile—no van in sight. We’d have to row to another take-out spot downriver. The good news: it’s not too far away. The bad news: the van will meet us at Child’s Glacier overlook where the six of us will have to carry all the gear 100 yards uphill to the parking area.
Upon arrival at the revised take-out site, we emptied the rafts and portaged loads of gear up the muddy trail. Finally Kate, Yag, Deepa, the two Tims and I carried each several-hundred-pound raft to the waiting van. This was more work than we bargained for on our last day.
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| Finally, the gear is loaded into the "luxury" van, our transport for the ride to Cordova. |
That task completed, husband Tim and I walked to the Child’s Glacier viewing platform where we read about the glacier, the mountains and the river and digested these facts: the mountains surrounding the Copper River receive an average of 60 feet of snow per year—the heaviest snowpack in the world; the Copper River is the fourth largest in Alaska and one of the most silty and turbid rivers in the world; Child’s Glacier is capable of calving huge chunks of ice—in 1993 an iceberg split from the glacier across from where we now stood, sending a 30 foot wave crashing over this viewing platform. We hoped the same thing wouldn’t happen today. And it didn’t.
While snapping our final photos though, a large section of the ice wall fell away from the glacier, producing a boom and several small waves. This would be our send-off as it was time to board the van for the 60 mile drive to the harbor town of Cordova. We drove along the Copper River Delta and watched shorebirds searching the mudflats for food. We also spotted a swan couple with two fluffy babies (cygnets)—the birding highlight of the drive.
In Cordova we stopped at The Lighthouse Restaurant for personal pan pizzas and tall glasses of iced tea, then said our goodbyes before being dropped off at Cordova’s one-room airport. We arrived in Anchorage after a short and smooth flight, picked up the rental car, checked in to the Courtyard Marriott at 8:45 p.m., and by 9:00 I was luxuriating under a hot shower. Every day you shower without really thinking about it, don’t you? Well, after six days in the Alaskan outback, when you step into the shower you feel every drop of water on your skin—washing away the accumulated sweat, grime, sunblock and bug spray. It’s glorious.
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| Danger! This poster at the Child's Glacier viewing platform shows what can happen if you're in the wrong place at the wrong time. |
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| After reading the above poster part of the ice wall came crashing down. Kayakers had paddled past this spot only minutes before. |
In Cordova we stopped at The Lighthouse Restaurant for personal pan pizzas and tall glasses of iced tea, then said our goodbyes before being dropped off at Cordova’s one-room airport. We arrived in Anchorage after a short and smooth flight, picked up the rental car, checked in to the Courtyard Marriott at 8:45 p.m., and by 9:00 I was luxuriating under a hot shower. Every day you shower without really thinking about it, don’t you? Well, after six days in the Alaskan outback, when you step into the shower you feel every drop of water on your skin—washing away the accumulated sweat, grime, sunblock and bug spray. It’s glorious.
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| "Quaint" is the over-used word I would pick to describe the fishing village of Cordova. If I return to Alaska I'd like to spend more time exploring this town. |
Clean and refreshed, Tim and I reflected on our Copper River experience. What we liked: the food, the campsites, the solitude. What we didn’t like: the rafting! We both agreed that the hours spent fighting the wind on the cold, silty (no fishing) water were not our favorite. However, we realized that we couldn’t have gotten to our wilderness campsites without traveling the river. This six-day trip was a once-in-a-lifetime journey for us, but the next time we visit Alaska we’ll most likely travel the roadways or hiking paths to access Alaska’s wild lands.
Re-live the first five days of the raft trip by clicking on the links below:
Interested in a Copper River Raft Trip? Copper Oar rafting company provided our guides and equipment. The National Park Service offers information about the Copper River Float through Wrangell St. Elias National Park at this website: http://www.nps.gov/wrst/planyourvisit/upload/Copper River Float.pdf
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Note: After spending a couple days in civilization (Anchorage) we traveled by float plane to Swan Lake in the Kenai Peninsula where we rented a US Forest Service cabin. You can read about that adventure by clicking on the following links.
