Alaska Day 26, Christmas in New York

Day 26 

 Wednesday June 27

    There was only one reason for me to spend two nights in Seward.  Just a few miles north is the turn off for Kenai Fjords National Park.  On my last visit, I was able to hit only one of two trails.  There just wasn’t the time for the other.  My plan was to do that other trail today. 

     It’s a little over four miles and accurately listed as strenuous in the guidebook. It’s a National Park and a heavily used trail, so they do keep it up nicely.  But still, it’s four miles of mostly…up.

     On a dry day, I would have started early and never looked back.  The payoff at the end of the trail is a chance to walk out onto the Harding Icefield.  Imagine a field of ice covering three hundred square miles and feeding over forty glaciers.   Now imagine walking out onto that.  You can see why I wanted to do this.

     The weather gods had other ideas.  This is Exit Glacier from the drive in.  There are markers on the park road showing how much bigger the glacier used to be.  They mark the edge of the glacier over the past two hundred years.

     Both trails start behind the park visitor center.

   Starting up the Harding Ice Field Trail and the rain begins.  It wasn't especially heavy, just constant.  It’s no big deal if you’re out running errands, but hiking four miles up a steep trail is another thing.  It started getting old pretty quickly.  And let’s face it, unless you’re wearing the kind of heavy rubber jacket the kayak tours give you, waterproof is relative.  

     The trail itself wasn’t too bad.   It helped that it’s well maintained and wide enough for people to pass each other.  It was a lot of stone stairs.  The first half mile is mostly covered by trees and a pretty pleasant climb.

    When you come to the bridge over the river, you’re .8 miles into your four mile hike.   A few minutes later, I look up the hill and see a face looking down at me.  The black bear had seen me before I saw him.  He didn't seem threatened, but curious.  I would have loved to dig out the zoom lens, but had just enough time to grab one shot before he moved off into the bushes.  I wasn't fast enough to get a good one though.  It's the fuzzy black spot to the right of the rock.

    At the mile and a half point, you arrive at Marmot Flats.  To your left is your first view of Exit Glacier. 

     By this point, I was already starting to feel damp, but decided to keep going.  The clouds kept blowing in and out, obscuring my view, then clearing up.

     Best guess, I went another half mile or so.  This time I was crossing patches slick snow.  The Park Service marks the trail through the snow with small orange flags.  They're trying to hikers from walking on delicate plant life.

      As I climbed, the rain picked up.  Like I said, on a nice day I wouldn’t have hesitated. I would have kept going, no matter how long it took to get to the end.  With the solstice, I wasn’t going to lose the light.   It’s one thing to be caught in a rain storm and you have to gut it out to the trailhead. It’s another to voluntarily do it. I turned back.

      In Marmot Flats, there’s a second, unofficial trail up and over a small hill.  It doesn’t take you down to the glacier, just a bit closer.

     

     Back at the trailhead, I could walk back to the car, or take the paved path to the Exit Glacier overlook trail.  It was easy enough going and the rain had tapered off.   I knew the glacier had receded.  I just wasn’t sure how much.  This is from 2011...


   Note the sign and the glacier...

     That’s a big change for seven years.  The overlook was by that sign and a short trail paralleled the glacier.  You could see and hear the running water of the glacial melt.  Not so much now.

     It was mid-afternoon when I made it back to the visitor center.   There’s a blackboard out front and they ask hikers to list bear sightings.  So, I did.   A couple of tourists were a little too excited that I had seen a bear.  

     Feeling a bit sodden, I made my way back to town and stopped again at Resurrection Coffee to warm up.  It felt good to be warm and dry.

      I started thinking about lunch, but where?  I wasn’t going to the place across the street again.  Instead, I just started walking.   There’s a microbrewery  few blocks down the road.  They had some interesting sounding beers.  Their menu was burgers and pizza.  I was kinda burgered out.  The smallest pizza they have is 14 inches.   It’s been a long time since I could put one of those away by myself.   I walked on, eventually stopping into a place called the Alaska Bistro.   Limited menu, but the food and staff were great.

     The restaurant doesn’t serve alcohol, so I stopped in two doors down to a place called Yukon Bar. 

As soon as I walked in it was obvious this was a locals bar.  There were a few guys shooting pool and a bunch of people at the bar.  The odd thing, playing on the Juke Box was The Pogues, “Christmas in New York.”   I didn’t stay very long.  There are a lot of smoke free bars in Alaska.  This wasn’t one of them.

    Seen over the bar…

    Also over the bar, a liquor license from far enough back that is was issued by the Territory of Alaska. 

Tacked to the ceiling, a whole lot of dollar bills…

     I took the camera and the longer zoom lens out later in the evening.  Since it was still drizzling, I walked to a small municipal park along the water and shot these from underneath the covered pavilion. 

Coming Up,

A Town Called Hope