Safely on the ground in McCarthy, thanks to our intrepid pilot Don... It was a surprisingly comfortable ride, but then I didn't have to sit in the way back.
They were happy to see us back in the office. I gather we had been the source of some concern once they realized the lake was high, and not just because of the missing landing strip.
Apparently, the lake drains quite quickly, and because it was so very full, they expected it would drain while we were there. That caused some concern because, as I understand it, the ice can be somewhat unstable when the lake drains (it drains under the glacier we were traveling on), and they were worried we'd be on the ice when it happened. Turns out the geysers were a sign that the lake was releasing a lot more water than usual. And, it took us so long to get around the lake because it was so high, submerging the usual route along the edge of the lake and below the glacier.
We got picked up on Monday -- on the previous Thursday when they discovered the water was so high, they saw you could still walk around the moraine below the glacier that we crossed at sunset. There was no way you could have crossed below the moraine when we were there (and even if you had, the melt from the glacier was too strong to cross, at least in the evening). It also looked unlikely we could have gotten around the other side of the lake, which we had been told we could do. All in all, the lake turned out to be the most exhausting part of our trip. We were told it would take a couple of hours to get around it, and it took us 12 or more hours (including the river crossing).
I can't sing enough praise for the folks at Wrangell Mountain Air. They're a very professional outfit, they have the most useful trip planning information for the independent backpacker that I've ever seen, and, most important of all, they are honestly concerned with your safety.
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