Labor Day Weekend

Labor Day seemed to be the pivotal turning point from summer to fall, we now have leaves falling!  One step closer to this winter everyone keeps warning us about.  We headed down to Seward to check out the Kenai Peninsula.  Before heading into the wilderness we had a fabulous lunch right next to the marina.  We backpacked up Resurrection river and then hiked up to the Harding Ice Field the next day.  It was raining non-stop but we decided to hike in ponchos anyways.  We're actually headed back to Colorado for our friend's wedding so it will be nice to feel the heat and see the sun before it disappears up here.

Sailboats and Fishing boats in the Seward Harbor

It's not pouring yet, big smiles

Drink of Champions

Exit Glacier

Exit Glacier up close, the signs leading up to it show the recession since 1850, pretty amazing

This tree had perfect spiral cuts around it

Devils Thumb.  They are super thorny on the stems and they give off an oil that is activated by photosynthesis, apparently it really burns.

Bear tracks on the resurrection river trail.  The hiking log had 3 previous entries that included black bear encounters.  At one point the rangers were turning people around because there had been so many.  Lucy was going crazy on the trail and we were yelling "hey bear" as often as we could.  We didn't run into a bear but we did run into two moose that were crossing a river next to the trail when we hiked out.  They were too fast and the bushes were too thick, hence no picture.

Tiny mushrooms, they're everywhere up here.

Yellow flower that looks like it could be in the orchid family

Expert food hanger, Nathan Allton

Camping next to the river

Hiking next to Exit Glacier

mmmm wild raspberries

Looking back on the valley.

So much ice!

This starts to show the Harding Ice Field and how all of the glaciers are connected

Cool ice cave, we could hear the river rushing underneath it

Emergency hut near the ice field, it was actually chained down to the ground because of how bad the weather can be.

Drying off in the hut. 

Behind Nate is the most spectacular view of the Harding Ice Field, we didn't see it but it was significantly colder with the freezing wind from the ice field.

Ptarmigan would be an easy target, they let us get extrememly close.

Lost our view of the glacier on the way down

Comforting sign at the beginning of the trail

Fun trip.  We wish we had time to visit everyone while we're in Colorado and we'll do our best to try. :)