Egg hunt in the Wrangells

The yearly Ultima Thule Geocache is the one event that I have, and will continue to plan my spring calendar around. In early May our friends at Ultima Thule Lodge invite us and other friends out for the ultimate egg hunt. It is probably the only egg hunt you will ever hear of that involves airplanes, a GPS, and the biggest backyard you can imagine to hide your eggs in, the Wrangell St-Elias Park and Preserve! If the weather cooperates we start our annual pilgrimage to the lodge with a stop in Cordova for fuel, fish tacos and shopping at Copper River Fleece.

The scenery on the way to the lodge doesn’t disappoint

The first day of the geocache everyone has 6 hours to hide 6 eggs within a 25-mile radius of the lodge. While there is some strategy to where you put your eggs, the main goal is to go somewhere you haven’t been before.

Egg #2 Flat Top.

Hiking to place egg #3. We called it Golden Joy. Our golden egg for whoever would be lucky enough to find it.

    

Egg #4 Rusted Red. On the old bridge over the Nizina

   

We saw this patch of pretty blue water from the air and decided to place an egg here.

That night we exchange GPS coordinates for our eggs and enjoy some lodge cooking. Yum!

Thursday is the big hunt and we set out to find as many eggs as we can. Last year Woodsen and I found over 30 eggs which means we landed and enjoyed the view at 30 different spots in the Wrangell Mountains! Such an amazing adventure. This year we had 7 hours to egg hunt.

There aren’t any rules on what you can use to find or hide eggs, naturally, people get creative. Fat bikes, dry suits, climbing gear, ropes down old wells… you name it.

This egg was called Last year’s competitor

Can you find the egg?

   

After we have found as many eggs as we can in 7 hours we return to the lodge. The stories over dinner are always the best, ranging from prank eggs smeared with martin lure, close encounters with bears, and chilly swims just to realize that the egg you were looking for was missing.

The scientist and the homeschooled kid tally up the score as Paul provides supervision.

Winners are announced, prizes picked and we all begin to think about heading to Valdez the next day for the fly in. A few more pictures of the beautiful Wrangells