Local Area Activities

This page is under construction, adding information daily. 2/19/09, N.R.

Summer Activities
Camp Redington is expanding it's services to include more active participation with our guests. We'd like to show our visitors how to do things and make their own Alaskan souveniers. Tim spends his summers driving down to Chitina picking up Copper River Red Salmon from the fishwheel. (Raised in the bush, he's been living on Alaskan fish and game his entire life.) The kinds of things he's planning to offer includes:

Guided Hikes/wild plants and herb picking
Wood gathering expeditions
Building emergency shelters
Gardening, he has a greenhouse, a garden plot, and numerous flower beds
Bicycles available to ride on the paved bikepath
Hosted dog cart rides with John Fowler or Matt
Salmon cookouts
Lessons in fish cleaning, smoking, canning
Diamond Willow carving
Seminars in yurt building (gertees)
Willow basketweaving, picking expeditions with Catherine Fletcher-Gilbert
Knife making with Rick
Target shooting with Rick
Survival skills training
Trips to see Chitina fishwheels (bear watching)
Trout fishing
Tonsina River raft trips with Leon (up to 8)
4 wheeler rides

Camp Redington's Fishcamp:

Free fish cleaning station
outside firepit
canning
smoking
drying racks

Things to do and see nearby

Fishing

Alaska is a land full of rivers and stocked lakes; throughout the Copper Basin there is an abundance of Greyling, Dolly Varden, Trout, Copper River Red Salmon and King Salmon. Unlike the overpopulated Kenai Pennisula and Denali Park, the highways, rivers and streams in the Copper River Basin area are relatively unburdened by outside visitors. Because dipnetting and fishwheel permits are limited to Alaskans, this is primarily an Alaskan destination.

Disputed river access -- Copper River fishing access is 25 miles down from Camp Redington on the Edgerton Highway, 2 miles past Chitina. Camping spots on the Copper River are limited by Ahtna Coporate and Chitina Native Council land claims, and it is unclear to everyone out here as to exactly which lands they own. We think maintaining public access to the Copper River preserves the Alaskan subsistance fishing and hunting lifestyle, for all Alaskans, no matter where their ancestors are from.

Copper River Charters Captain Sam McCalister runs a dipnetter's charter service from the riverbank at Obrien Creek 24 hours a day, all season. First come first served. (Great website for fishing regs!)

The Copper River is infamous with Alaskans for its blustery winds and flying particles of glacier silt. Camp Redington offers a quiet respite from the harsh, loud river conditions. It's a perfect place for the kids and visiting grandmas to play and rest while the fishers go do the serious fishing. Camp Redington is an easy 1/2 hour commute down to the river. There are several miles of 4-wheeler/snowmachine trails right off Tim's property, and the Kenny Lake bike path starts at the junction with the Old Edgerton Highway, (7.4 mile). Copper River Valley Telephone put in a cable line to Chitina last year, so now there's a new, rough trail almost all the way to downtown.

Pippen Lake is at the Edgerton cutoff, milepost 82 on the Richardson Hwy.

Willow Lake is at milepost __ on the Richardson Hwy.

Silver Lake is at 10 mile McCarthy Road.

Klutina Charters is located at milepost 101, Richardson Hwy.

Dog Mushing

Camp Redington

Redington Racing Kennels is Tim's private dog lot of specially trained sprint dogs. He's been raising dogs all his life and cared for up to 250 while alone at the Flathorn homestead. Today he maintains a small lot of about 33 dogs and he still makes custom dog sleds.

Niki Raapana (right) on her first solo dog ride with four of Tim's dogs, the maximum she would allow after seeing how strong and fast these dogs really are. Tim used to take his dogs around to Alaskan villages and train children to mush. The teams that Tim (and other real Alaskan mushers) run often have 18-24 dogs. Tim also grew up in an era where the musher with the most dogs had the right-of-way on the trail. For the U.S. Bicentennial in 1976, the Redington family mushed 201 dogs down main street in Wassila.

Summer dog cart rides by local mushers, including Chugach Outfitters, who also offers boat excursions and fishing expeditions, and Matt Fowler, who also hosts a tour of his organic garden via dogcart.

Gold Panning

"Wrangell-St. Elias National Park & Preserve Mineral collection and gold panning are allowed within Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve. The use of metal detectors is illegal. Numerous historic mining locations on public land can be panned for gold and other minerals. In general the Dan Creek area, Nabsena, and McCarthy vicinity are the best areas to prospect." http://www.arizonan.com/Alaska/activiites-in-alaska/freepublicgoldpanningalaska.html

Wilderness Excursions

"Access Regulations-- Traditional transportation means such as airplanes, snowmachines, dog teams and horses may be used throughout the Park and Preserve regardless of wilderness designation. But helicopter landings are not authorized on National Park Service lands for recreational purposes. Flightseeing occurs throughout the area and is most concentrated in the Kennicott basin. A list of licensed air taxi operators is available from the Park Service." Wrangell St. Elias National Park Hiking Page

RV Parks/Camping/Lodgings/Food & Beverages

There is an RV Parking area at the Chitina Native RV Park in front of the airstrip at 5 mile. Liberty Falls campground was closed in 2007 after flood damage in the winter of 2006. The Alaska State Park Campground on the Copper River has free RV spots with Sanikans and dumpsters, but there are currently no public bathing facilities in Chitina (other than the showers at the Chitina Native Village).

The Edgerton Hwy portion of Kenny Lake has several bed and breakfasts:
Copper Moose
(Add list here, include Chitina.)

The Tonsina River Lodge is on the Richardson Hwy at milepost 75. It has a RV Park, Motel, Dining Room, Lounge and Liquor Store. Tonsina has a pool table, outdoor enclosed smoking/BBQ area, full size satellite TV, wireless internet and frequent live bands. The old hotel still stands.

Grizzly Pizza has a full service restaurant, bar and liquor store on the Richardson Hwy at milepost 93.

Gilpatricks' Hotel Chitina is a completely refurbished historical building downtown Chitina. It has rooms and a full service dining room. Beer and wine available.

Chitina Liquor Store (home to the infamous bumper sticker, "Where the hell is Chitna?") is at mile 32 Edgerton Hwy.

Tom's Chitina Bar is at 33 mile Edgerton Highway. Pool table.

King for a Day, located at mile 101, Richardson Hwy. (List services)

Tazlina River RV Park, located at mile 110.4, Richardson Hwy. (List Services)

RV Park Store.com-Alaska Listings has more Alaskan RV information.

Handmade Local Gifts

Famous Alaskan trapper/author Dean Wilson Sr. and his wife Ada live in Kenny Lake. They own and operate a Native Crafts store at 10 mile Edgerton, across from the SAPA Christian Center's lumbermill and greenhouses.

Pippen Lake Gift Store is at the Edgerton turnoff, milepost 82 on the Richardson Hwy. (More info)

T-Junction in the historic Chitina Emporium is owned and operated by Catherine Fletcher-Gilbert, a local picker and wild herbal tea expert. Catherine offers handmade baskets made of willow and birch and Alaskan herbal teas and tinctures.

The Emporium is one of the oldest original buildings in Chitina and it has a lounge area for tasting teas, reading and visiting.

Spirit Mountain Artworks is a refurbished historic building, downtown Chitina.

Activities

Add Bluegrass Festival info here.

The Kenny Lake Community fair is in August. Add info here.

The historic Kennicott Mines and the town of McCarthy are 60+ miles out the McCarthy Road, inside the Wrangell St Elias National Park. Bus service is provided between Kenny Lake and McCarthy by Backwoods Connections and Barefoot Guides. Air service provided by Wrangell Air.

Area Services

Churches:
Kenny Lake Community church
Others..list here.

The Mercantile offers groceries, RV park, restrooms, gas and propane, laundromat, dump and water.

Wengers Country grocery and feed store is at 15 mile.

Golden Spruce Cabins & Espresso is at 9 mile. This beautiful, handcrafted property includes a lovely dining area and is built in the shape of a yurt. There is a spruce sauna out back too.

blue ceiling

Make your Alaskan vacation into an Alaskan experience.

Camp Redington - Living the Alaskan Dream