Horsefeld

Last week we flew into the backcoutry to Horsefeld, which is a hunters’ camp fairly close to the Canadian border. We were flown in on a beaver plane, which is a pretty large plane as bush planes go. The flight was about an hour long and it took us through some really beautiful country with a lot of glaciers. Upon arriving in Horsefeld you could see two fairly small runways that were basically just clear cut ground. The pilot circled around and we started to land on the larger of the two runways, but when we were

almost touched down he decided he didn’t like that one and took off again. He moved to the next one and started to land, then he decided he didn’t like that one either. Finally he moved to the original runway and started to land again. I’m not going to lie at this point I was getting pretty nervous, just saying that wouldn’t be an ideal way to die. We landed and the plane jumped up several feet then hit again and bounced once more. It was fine in the end, but still it wasn’t really a great landing for my nerves.

Peter and I unloaded our things from the plane and started to hike to the camp which was about a

15min hike away from the runway. We met the owner who was only about 25; he had inherited the camp from the previous owner. He was supper nice and offered each of us our own little cabin, which was nice because that means we didn’t have to tent camp.

For work we hiked around and mapped the various horse trails that braided the land surrounding the camp. Most of the horses that were at the camp were not really used to new people so there sort of avoided us, but there was one chestnut horse that actually let me pet him. Plus during our work hikes we saw a cow moose.

The return trip from Horsefeld was less nerve racking because the pilot landed by himself on the small runway and the runway on the other end was a nice gravel strip. Plus I was able to sit in the front of the plane this time and got to see whole new perspective.

Kennicott Root Glacier

This is the first glacier I have ever been on and it was a truly amazing experience. Honestly when I was hiking on and exploring the glacier it was easily the coolest thing I have done and seen in Alaska.

Bonanza Mines

I took this standing at the path looking up.
This part to the top took me the longest.

A couple of weeks ago I was stationed in Kennecott to work with a crew of interns to pull weeds. I decided to stay a day later and hike up the mountain to one of the three old copper mines. I started at about 8am on a beautiful sunny day. It took me roughly 3 hrs to hike the 4.5mile trail, I scaled roughly 3,800ft in elevation. But when I got to the top it was well worth the trip, I got to see an awesome view of the glacier and down the mountain. (I took a video of the view while I was up there, but for some reason my computer does not like the videos from my phone so you will have to settle with pictures.)

I stayed up in this little spot I found and just

looked at the amazing views for about an hour. The walk back down wasn’t so fun as the trail was steep the entire way which makes going down a lot slower, well going up it slower for that matter too. All in all I am super glad I stayed and went on this hike it was an awesome experience.

I found this guy at the very top just happy as a clam