A Day of Pack Rafting

      We added a couple days beyond the normal stay in Kennicott and McCarthy, partly to spend time with friends of ours who were working seasonally at the Kennicott Lodge, and partly to try our hand at some pack-rafting.

      On our final day in the McCarthy area, we loaded rafts, paddles, drysuits and other gear into backpacks - yes, backpacks - and headed off on a bit of a scrambling, cross-country trek.  The aim was to reach some of the further reaches of what is essentially a series of outlet lagoons connected at the base of the enormous Root Glacier.  We found an easily-accessible beach, blew up our rafts and put on our wetsuits, and then struck off to see where these lagoons might allow us to explore.

      As we paddled, we were constantly surrounded by tall, brown, sloping, gravelly glaciers in every direction, and small, clear icebergs floating next to us.  The sun was quite warm, so there was a constant stream of water running off of these glaciers, and we found ourselves cheering any time a large rock would come loose and tumble down to the surface of the water - creating a heckuva splash.

      We ate lunch at a point where a clear, glacial creek entered the soupy brown lagoon and sat in the water to cool off.  Between the warm dry suits and the freezing cold water, we had found a happy equilibrium.

      This is not the sort of place where one should expect to see the bluest of blue icebergs calving into a bright turquoise lagoon.  There is still a ton of sediment and rock and soil being brought down the valley by the Root Glacier, and when all that reaches its terminus, it comes out in a chocolate-milk sort of mess.  But the day of pack rafting was certainly worthwhile, as it gave us an even larger understanding of the massive size of this glacier and the mountains around it.