Back to the Nebesna Road... one more time

View from the Nebesna Road

After Morgan left, we spent the night in the motel, keeping track of her flight's progress.  About 3:30 am our time, her mom texted that Morgan had landed and was safe with her in Atlanta.  With a huge sigh of relief, we were able to turn over and sleep soundly the remainder of the night.

The next morning, it took us longer to complete our list of Anchorage errands than we had planned, so we camped one last night at Eagle River.  The back seat certainly felt empty again.

Now we had to decide… what to do next?  Without Morgan, it felt like the whole tenor of the trip had changed.  We had been on the road just over three months but weren’t quite ready to go home.  We still had some unfinished business.  We knew we wanted to be in Eagle on Sunday to meet with friends, and, of course, we wanted to drive the Dempster up to Inuvik again. 

We decided to go back to the Nebesna Road for a few more days.  Between David's pulled calf muscle, Morgan's boot, and rainy weather, even with two prior visits to the Nebesna this trip, we still hadn't been able to take the hike up to the Rambler Mine.  With David's leg now healed, we had the time and the opportunity.  We also wanted to make reservations to stay at the Viking Lodge, a walk-in cabin on the Nebesna.  So off we went, back to the Nebesna Road, hoping for good weather this trip.

Although the Wrangell range was draped in clouds during our entire stay, we had beautiful weather in the valley during this trip up the Nebesna.  We hiked the Rambler Mine trail.  It is a relatively short hike, just under a mile one way, however, it gains over 400 feet in altitude in a mere half mile.  Pretty steep for us flatlanders!

The Rambler mine was once an operative gold mine during the 1940s.  The mine shaft is now barred from exploration, however, much of the old equipment and buildings were abandoned and are still visible.

Rambler gold mine with ore tram behind bars

Rambler mine

And, of course, the views from the Rambler Mine were incredible...

The following day we trekked the short quarte-mile hike to the Viking Lodge.  This cabin is reservable without charge with the National Parks Service.  The cabin was built in the late 1960s/early 1970s by a homesteader.

Much of the hike to the cabin is over boggy marsh, so it was no surprise to us that it would be buggy.  We were not, however, prepared for just how buggy it would be.  We spent several hours at the cabin, enjoying the area.  Ultimately, however, we decided to hike out rather than spend the night.  While the cabin was quite comfortable, we had envisioned sitting outside and enjoying the evening.  The mosquitos and gnats made that impossible.  We figured we could go back to our old campsite, set up our screened tent, and enjoy the evening there much better than being cooped up in the cabin until morning.

Viking Lodge on Nebesna Road

Inside Viking Lodge on Nebesna Road

We left the Nebesna Road the following morning.  Our next destination was Eagle, Alaska.  We were delighted to once again have the opportunity to meet with friends there.  From Eagle, we would attempt the Dempster.  We had heard rumors from folks over the past several weeks that the road was closed due to fires.  How could we end our trip without going up the Dempster?  Only time would tell...