White Chief is the Best Hike in Mineral King

It is steep, really really steep, but White Chief canyon/bowl/valley begins only about 2-1/2 miles out of Mineral King. It has so much variety – you can go short or far, there are natural caves and historical mining tunnels, and a zillion kinds of rocks, sink holes, a lake, some sort of ponds, and even some cabin ruins.

In August, there was an official hike to White Chief led by the experienced and well-studied Laile DiSilvestro. She is from a long time cabin family, so in addition to the facts that she studied, she has rich history passed down through the generations. She brought along great photos, and I learned more from her than I have learned in all my years of hiking to and around White Chief.

There were 9 of us all together. (Nice to meet you, Dan, Sandy, Lindsey, Rich, Dana,  and Bryn!)

This is called “galina” and it is what got miners excited. They cooked it in smelters to determine which, if any, precious metals remained.

This is where we turned around on a simple walk to White Chief back in August. This time it was a real hike, with packs, food, water and walking sticks.

There are many holes in the ground, both man-made and God-made. The variety of rocks is wonderful! Some folks are drawn to shapes, others to texture, some to patterns, and me? Color, of course!

This is quite high in the White Chief canyon/bowl/cirque/whatever you want to call it. I’ve taken 3 different friends there, and each one got a Big Fat Headache (Hi Robin, Lisa and Carol!) Guess this isn’t a very friendly hike, and I’ve stopped dragging people there because I could run out of friends this way.

This is not a chunk of snow – it is marble! REALLY! I’m sorry I don’t have anything next to it for size, but maybe it is like an ottoman (but a very uncomfortable one).

We are the group in the upper photo.

This image is courtesy of the Crowley Collection and is included in “Mineral King: The  Story of  Beulah.”

Bryn and I sat here for awhile and visited while I soaked my foot. (Yes, just one of them.) This is an area that confuses me – in my memory it is ponds. At this time it was a slow moving creek. Hmmm – the altitude messes with my memory? Prolly.

P.S. Why did no one on the hike notice that Trail Guy and I were wearing our very special and available Trail Guy tee shirts with a custom Mineral King design??

Will Tuesday Cruisedays Ever End?

Yep. Next week. Promise!

After Juneau, we went to a place called the Tracy Arm Fjord. It is a narrow canyon of water with the Sawyer Glay-see-uh at the end. The ship cruises slowly up the canyon at some crazy early hour in the morning, and if you have any sense, you’ll disregard the fact that you were out exploring Juneau at 11 p.m. and get your arse out of bed at 5 the next morning to see this beautiful side trip. Further more, if you have any sense at that time in spite of being dangerously low on sleep, you’ll dress warmly for heading outside and upstairs into the icy wind.

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The water was really this teal color. Really!

 

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The icebergs really were this blue. Really!

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Brrrrrr, where are we going?

 

Cool! Is that it? Can we get any closer?

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Oh. Don’t want to be a sequel to that movie. Guess we won’t hear or see any of that famous “calving”.

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That’s okay. I have a telephoto feature on this little camera.

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This was Michael’s favorite part of the whole cruise. He spent the rest of the trip lamenting the fact that we didn’t get to be close to shore. The reason was that the casino couldn’t open unless we were miles out to sea. I finally told him to take it up with the captain.

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That was a small craft which was able to get closer to the glay-see-uh because it could navigate safely through the icebergs. I think it could, because I didn’t hear any news stories about sinking ships in Alaska. Of course, I didn’t listen to any news. Why would I? Part of a cruise’s magic is to escape!