Exit Glacier, Seward, Alaska

Diary:

Today the weather was back to its totally sucky norm - cold, overcast and rainy. We all broke camp and moved across town to the Exit Glacier campsite, which was really nice.

Despite the rain we decided to hike up the side of Exit Glacier to the Harding Icefield, a strenuous walk with over 2000' climb that took us most of the day.

Lunch on the trail was interrupted after Lynsey spotted a black bear and her cub ambling towards us through the vegetation. We hurriedly packed up and started walking again, making lots of noise so as not to surprise the bear. A little further up the trail we met a lone hiker who apparently had, just moments before, encountered the bear face to face as it crossed the trail! Luckily, the bear ran off without attacking him and was no longer in sight. But we were still nervous as we continued our hike, knowing well Lynsey's great talent for attracting wild creatures! Demonstrated yet again further along the trail when several marmots emerged and crossed our path. Soon we had climbed well above the tree line and were rewarded with a spectacular view of the glacier on our left and the immense icefield ahead. Our position became very exposed and the wind and rain picked up velocity. The trail continued alongside the icefield for a few more miles, but we'd had enough at this point and turned back.

Back at the campsite we were not in the mood to cook so we all headed into town and ate delicious, huge portions of Mediterranean food at the Apollo. It rained all night.

Photos: (click on images to see full size)