July 11, 2009

July 11, 2009

At the end of the road is Exit Glacier and Kenai Fiords National Park. As soon as we enter the park we get a good roadside view of this glacier as it spills out of the mountain above. We intended to leisurely have our coffee and breakfast at the Visitor Center parking lot. But as soon as we drive in we see a ranger led hike getting ready to depart. Aimee thinks bears are crawling all over Alaska so she prefers these group hikes. So we quickly don our hiking boots and nylon pants, pack breakfast and a few snacks in the backpack, and head up the trail.

Fifteen minutes later we catch up to this group hiking the Harding Ice Field Trail. The route heads straight up the mountain following the right side of the glacier. We ascend thru a rain forest of dense vegetation with lots of wildflowers. After a while we catch glimpses of the glacier below us. It is pretty cool, looking like a river frozen in midstream. The glacier has a light blue tinge.

Eventually the rain forest gives way to treeless tundra and we can see the cloud level just above us. At the cloud level, the trail enters a snow field. Very eerie! But it doesn’t last. The snow gives way to rocky terrain and we soon emerge above the clouds into blue sky. From here we alternate between rock and snow till we ascend to the point that the glacier joins up with the Harding Ice Field.

The ice field is huge, some 300 square miles. Up here in the mountains, it snows heavily. As the snow accumulates, it packs down, squeezing the ice into its blue form and like toothpaste oozes out the sides and spills over the edges. The spillage is the glaciers, forty of them! Incredibly Exit glacier moves down the edge a foot per day. The scenery on this hike was incredible although a little long. At some nine miles and 3500 ft elevation gain, it took us four hours to reach the top and three more to get down. My legs are dying by the time we get back, but we are so glad we did it.