Mining ruins

The spring whether has bit me like a bug. I can't get enough walking or hiking or relaxing on the beach. One evening I convinced Mr. X to follow some off the beaten path instructions I had found on the internet. There are some old prospector relics north of the West Glacier Trail and I wanted to find them.

Since Mr. X loves bushwhacking, this really wasn't a sacrifice for him and lucky for me, while it wasn't a beaten path, there definitely was a path the whole way. No windfalls to climb over, no trail tape or other markers necessary.

We found the broken glass, tin plates and cast iron pots.

We found the foundation of an old building -- maybe a prospector's cabin. I was delighted to find the trench and heavily veined rock.
A nice walk in a nice forest.

Across the lake

 
We had some arctic air in February which meant it was 0 degrees and sunny. 12 whole days without precipitation. That's the kind of thing that gets Juneau-ites a little giddy.

On two separate weekends and a weeknight we hiked or skied out to the face of the glacier. The first two times Mr. X and I were ill prepared to follow the hordes up and over the west side of the glacier - Chilkoot pass style, I swear - to the ice cave which is why we made the third attempt on a weeknight.

A tale of two parents.

On the Saturday that we skied out with our friend, Gray, there were families everywhere. Parents skiing with kids on their backs, kids trudging through the snow, kids getting towed in sleds. It's near a mile hike over a lake that is 200' deep in places. Once we reached the face of the glacier, it was a playground. Kids climbing on glacial till, kids sledding down snow covered hills. The kids were all the same, ready for adventure, looking for a thrill.

There were two kinds of parents though. First the parent who shouts, "Hey get away from that arch." But is too cautious to answer their child's question, "Why?" Then there's the other parent who says, "Ruby, hon, come here we're gonna put spikes you your feet" and is only too happy to answer the "why" with, "'cause we're gonna go in a tunnel of ice!"

 When it became clear that if we wanted to see the ice cave, we needed to go ASAP, we decided to try on a Wednesday evening. We hoped we could beat the sunset, so we could see color in the cave; we were a too late for prime time, but we had the place to ourselves. Tuesday there was a wind storm that blew the snow around on the lake, opening bare patches of ice and piling the grainy snow unevenly. Our ski across the lake took us about 30% longer because of these conditions. Once at the face of the glacier we saw people attempting to hang-ski or whatever that's called. The wind was pretty gusty.

After switching to hiking shoes and yak-trax we headed up the side of the glacier, meeting people on their way down. About halfway up Mr. X pointed out the tree stumps that have recently become visible, spending at least the last 200 years under the ice. These stumps have been the subject of some university research and a topic in the media.

Hiking up the glacier and then finally down off the ice we reached the cave. The entrance was at least 18' wide and 15' tall. This is right where we went hiking with Brad on the glacier last year. Once at the cave, we had about 5 minutes before we needed to head back out. Frankly, I was a bit concerned with getting in, getting out and back across the slick lake ice in the dark.

We enjoyed seeing the double moulin and then once out of the cave, Mr. X beat a line for the ridges up the glacier. When he returned he said he wanted to see what was on the other side. Apparently, there were more ridges.

I was pretty cold by the time we got back to the lake and told Mr. X that I was going to head out since he could easily catch me, he didn't object. We were the last people on the lake that night and the last car in the parking lot. It was a beautiful moon-light ski with me noting Orion's belt and Mr. X pointing out the big dipper behind us.

Ice rescue

Saturday we headed back out to the Glacier visitor center for a lecture and demonstration on ice rescues. Our favorite naturalist at the Glacier told us that every weekend someone falls through the ice on the lake. The fire department was on hand to provide a lecture, video and DEMONSTRATION! They discussed all cold water immersions and it reminded my fall through the ice sheet on the muskeg. The main points were these: 1) If you go through the ice, turn around and try to get out from the side you came in - 'cause you were just walking on it. 2)Don't panic. The gasp reflex will make you breathe as if you are hyperventalating, your breathing will return to normal in 1 - 2 minutes. 3) Put your arms on the ice and kick with your feet to push yourself up. 4) Roll when you get back on the ice. Then crawl to distribute your weight. 5) If assisting others: call 911, reach to them with a stick, ladder, shovel, etc.; if that fails,throw something with inflation to them (i.e. spare tire, sled). 6) consider buying or making ice awls for a self-rescue if you often walk or bike on ice. We then trouped outside to see the rescue demonstrations in a pond that had had a hole cut with a chainsaw. The firefighter showed us three different rescues: self-rescue with ice awls, rescue with inflation sled, and firefighter rescue of unresponsive victim. photos here: http://www.adn.com/2014/01/14/3272982/alaskans-shown-what-to-do-if-they.html

Spring

The locals are saying we're done with summer. We had two weekends of spring in a row.

Saturday night Mr. X and I walked to the glacier. It was a nice end to a fantastic day. Pictures and story soon. But I will say this. In the twilight, that stump was not a stump. It was a bear who was as concerned with us as we were with him. We looked at him, he looked at us. We were going different directions at the intersection of trails and none of us made a fuss; I think we all were too tired to.

So, it really is spring. More than a week before the cruise ships arrive.

Glacier hike

Mr. X and I took Brad hiking to the glacier. Because the water level was so low on the lake, we hiked along the beach, then up, over the knob and finally down to the glacier. Brad was all for getting on the ice so we wandered around a little.

We peeked in an ice cave, inspected small moulins and hiked up near some seracs. When the walk started getting steep my get-a-grips were not gripping so I bowed out, returning to the edge of the glacier to calm my nerves with a piece of chocolate. The guys used their yak-tracks to get up close and personal with some seracs farther up the steepening slope.

Next we bushwacked up the drainage to the West Glacier trail and postholed through snow and crossed avalanche debris to the end of the trail.

Because of threatening weather, we had intended to only hike a few hours, we had such a great time that we were surprised to learn that we were out for eight. It was a great shake down for the summer - Remember to bring a water filter! We bought Mr. X some chicken pouches so he won't run out of food. I am also now the proud owner of pro yak-tracks; when I wimp out next time I can't blame it on my grippers.

January

The first week of January, I lost my marbles. It was so dreary around here and we'd had a December full of rain.

While Seattle took a punch in the gut the second week of the month, we reveled in 0 degree temps and glorious sunshine. Mendenhall lake froze solid and everyone took to the ice. Mr. X and I walked out to the glacier over the ice, using yak traks, wishing we would have brought sunglasses.

I even bought ice skates at St. Vincent's and took a little skate across the lake. Then it started snowing again. First 4 inches then 8, then 24, another 7 (and still more to come). Sunday night we walked out to an ice berg and took some pictures. We even had a picture taken by one of my favorite Alaska photographers, Mark Kelley (too bad I'm wearing my hat and neck gaitor so I look like a sausage). And don't worry the skis come out tomorrow morning...just before it starts raining again. :)

West Glacier Hike

Saturday the 13th was an incredibly beautiful day. We did our chores Friday night so that Saturday morning would be free for hiking.

Mr. X has been saying for weeks that he's wanted to see how far the glacier has receded, so we went out to the West Glacier Trail, took the turnoff marked "Unmaintained, hazardous trail" and hiked down to the glacier.

Mr. X decided to turn us up hill, so the glacier would rise to meet us, rather than have us scramble down the scree and back up again.

I took a few steps out on the glacier. That's all the farther I would go, though, without ice climbing gear. The area that we were at was almost slushy, and we could hear and see ice falling off, so really that's all I was interested in.

Knowing that Mr. X's definition of a good time involves bushwacking, I suggested that we head back to the West Glacier trail from our current position rather than doubling back. Mr. X agreed and we started scrambling through the small brush, up the side of the mountain, using a stream for our navigation.

After 45 minutes we were ready to sit down and take a break before heading into the second half of our scramble through devil's club and Sitka spruce. I looked around and said, "isn't that the trail right there?" Sure enough, it was. We hiked down the trail a way until we came to a look-out where we settled down for a break and looked out over the glistening Mendenhall lake, pounding Nugget Falls and blue glacier.

Airport Dike Trail

Tuesday, Mom took Gram and Grandpa to the Mendenhall Glacier and to the Shrine of St. Therese. It was family camp day or something because that place was hopping. We had 4 cruise ships in town, so the Glacier was also busy.

Mr. X and I met them for lunch and then we took a walk at the airport.

The eagles were eye-ing a little dog. The pup recognized what was happening and ran to its owner. The owner leashed him up and kept him close and they went on their way.

Grandpa wanted to see Wells Fargo, Costco and our church building. We took him on the grand tour showing him all three branches of the bank, the church, and the site of the dedication of Alaska to missionary service (Chicken Ridge).

Grandpa treated us to dinner at the Twisted Fish. I had the spicy halibut burgers.

Skagway to Juneau - Mendenhall Glacier

The weather was nice but the bugs were biting

Early on Father's day, we packed the rental car and headed back into town to catch the 7 am ferry back to Juneau.

This time we grabbed a 4 bed stateroom with a sitting room. Mr. X dominated the sleep-a-thon - sleeping 3 hours in the room. The last hour of the cruise, we gathered around the table to watch the view, eat some lunch and hear a book review from Grandpa (End the Fed by Ron Paul, if you're curious).

In the evening, we headed over to the Glacier to see a bear cub, porcupine, Arctic terns and their chicks, and of course the Mendenhall glacier.

Can you see the fluffy grey and white chick?

By now we were beat and the travelers had big plans (again!) for early Monday morning. So we called it a night.