Alaska 2022

Alaska 2022 – 9

This is just one of the many mountains on the way along the 33 mile dirt
and gravel jeep road into the trailhead to the Rambler Mine ruins.
This is the nearby Wrangall Mountain; the low sun clearly showed the crater.
We noticed this private airstrip alongside the road, but evidently it has not been used in a while. We saw the plane had collapsed landing gear. There were several large holes in the “runway”.
We noticed, through the bushes, this gravesite. A docent at the welcome center told us that the Native Americans often build a small spirit house alongside the grave.
This is the mountain in which the Rambler Mining operations took place.
Initially, the road to the mine was washed out. There had been lots of rain in this area and we had to drive in water up to two feet deep. (Actually to door height in the truck).
The is the “obvious” trailhead. I found this sign buried in the bushes.
Cathy is at the trailhead sign, located about 100 yards up the trial.
We had to go “off trail” a bit on the way to the Rambler Mine as the trail had become a deep creek in parts.
This ore car is still in the mine. The tracks are intact but the entrance has been blocked to keep hikers out.
Cathy is at an ore chute. There were additional mines up the hill and they used overhead cables with buckets to run the material down the hill to this collection bin, before eventually dumping it into ore cars that ran along the trail.
Here you can see the narrow-gauge tracks and a cable car
suspended above the chute.
These are hand held star drill bits. One person would hold the rod and a second person would hit the top with a sledge. The holder would turn the rod a quarter turn between hits. The base of the rod was star shaped with four cutting edges. Eventually you could remove enough material to place the charge (dynamite).
We saw these flowers along the trail.
The trail to the Skookum Volcano had some unusual marking so I bypassed the closure and found this sign up the trail.
Needless to say, we turned back.
It appeared that the “roadway” was initially paved in parts with wooden planks.
We noticed this little guy on the trail back to camp.
He did not want anything to do with me.

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