July 7th, 2006
Seward, AK
Gregg and I woke up and drove around Homer getting out final views in on the picturesque East End Road...
And then hit the Westernmost Highway point in America on our way out.
We left Homer with out showering, as we had planned to do - which meant this was going to be one trip with no showers the whole duration. Stink-a! Stink-a! We headed toward the Exit Glacier, within Kenai Fjords National Park in Seward (The glacier named because the early explorers found it a handy exit to the vast Harding Ice Field it extends from).
Your hero was expecting a leisurely 7 mile stroll, but in actuality, our little constitutional was more like 8 miles with a 3000 ft climb in elevation - the last 3/4 mile of that through sloshy snow. The end of the hike, I felt, had views that were far inferior to those in the beginning, nut my opinion seemed to in contrast to everyone else.
The beginning:
The punctuating view is the Harding Ice Field, which is a vast expanse of ice and snow - less visually interesting to me then the blue tinted layered crevasses we walked alongside on our climb up. (the coloring is because the glacier absorbs all colors except blue)
On the way up we saw a good number of mountain goats and marmots, which were a delight for me, but not nearly as fantastic as our encounter on the return.
Ahead of us on the trail, coming at us was a huge mommy bear and her three cubs. They continued to ascend toward us, though not necessarily at us for quite some time as we backtracked up the trail. Eventually the turned up away from us - allowing a nice sigh of relief. That was the first time I had seen bears in the wilderness, without the safety of my car nearby. Gregg had known exactly what to so, and stayed calm. High Five for Gregg.
The walk down was long and painful on my weak back and knees - though we were glad we had done it, and finally gotten out and explored a bit. We ate at the Salmon Bake, on the beginning of Exit Glacier Road - if anyone is ever in Seward, it is just as nice a place as any to check out.
Gregg and I woke up and drove around Homer getting out final views in on the picturesque East End Road...
And then hit the Westernmost Highway point in America on our way out.
We left Homer with out showering, as we had planned to do - which meant this was going to be one trip with no showers the whole duration. Stink-a! Stink-a! We headed toward the Exit Glacier, within Kenai Fjords National Park in Seward (The glacier named because the early explorers found it a handy exit to the vast Harding Ice Field it extends from).
Your hero was expecting a leisurely 7 mile stroll, but in actuality, our little constitutional was more like 8 miles with a 3000 ft climb in elevation - the last 3/4 mile of that through sloshy snow. The end of the hike, I felt, had views that were far inferior to those in the beginning, nut my opinion seemed to in contrast to everyone else.
The beginning:
The punctuating view is the Harding Ice Field, which is a vast expanse of ice and snow - less visually interesting to me then the blue tinted layered crevasses we walked alongside on our climb up. (the coloring is because the glacier absorbs all colors except blue)
On the way up we saw a good number of mountain goats and marmots, which were a delight for me, but not nearly as fantastic as our encounter on the return.
Ahead of us on the trail, coming at us was a huge mommy bear and her three cubs. They continued to ascend toward us, though not necessarily at us for quite some time as we backtracked up the trail. Eventually the turned up away from us - allowing a nice sigh of relief. That was the first time I had seen bears in the wilderness, without the safety of my car nearby. Gregg had known exactly what to so, and stayed calm. High Five for Gregg.
The walk down was long and painful on my weak back and knees - though we were glad we had done it, and finally gotten out and explored a bit. We ate at the Salmon Bake, on the beginning of Exit Glacier Road - if anyone is ever in Seward, it is just as nice a place as any to check out.
posted by Samantha Farbman at 2:43 PM
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