Well the third distinct season is here, break up. It's not spring cause there's still snow everywhere. But we have 15 hours of sun and 50 degree weather most of the time. So kristen and I tried to make it back to our nieghbrhood glacier the knik. We took last weekend to scout out our route and then tried a two day backpack trip to make it there. Needless to say Alaska country is BIG and deceiving. We hiked probably 14 miles in with 3 river crossings. The knik glacier is huge and creates it's own weather. By the time we were 6 miles from the terminal moraine the temp dropped to 30 and the wind coming off the glacier whipped into us at easily 30 mph. After 14 miles with a pack on the last thing you want to do is fight head on glacier wind so we didn't quite make it. We still had fun. Here's some pics...
Such a beautiful day to start. When we came back through two days later it was a swamp 4 feet deep! Alaska changes so quickly.
Swans! They're all coming back, geese, ducks, sand cranes and swans.
Our friend from the previous week.
Lucy enjoyed this calm slow moving tributary of the knik. She would not have such luck when we had to cross the main river miles ahead...
She's not as cute when she doesn't have a pink pig nose.
A side valley off the knik.
Weather is still nice, we thought we were in the clear.
Our one attempt with all of us.
A good reflection.
We reached the main river. Lucy went to the edge for a drink, the ice broke under her and she went in. She tried to climb out but could only cling to the edge against the current and thin ice. In a flash of heroism Nate dropped his pack, slid out on his stomach and once again saved his puppy's life (3rd time but who's counting). Lucy stayed away from the edge the rest of the trip. Weather is turning on us, must be getting close to the glacier.
Feeling the weather of the glacier, with very little refuge.
Hand knitted sweater from grandma. Lucy's great-grandma. She needed it by the time we found some refuge.
Unlike 10 miles downstream, the river was still fighting the ice here.
Where's waldo?
We found refuge from the wind behind these alders. Went from beautiful to miserable pretty quick.
This was about as close as we got. The glacier looks close but is still many miles away and the wind coming straight at you is 30mph and bitter cold.
Kristen faking a smile saying" that's enough let's go home."
We had to cross the main runoff once and Nate had the only waders high enough to cross. So he shuttled all the gear and warm bodies across.
Shuttling our baby.
We had fun as always, but we were exhausted. The knik is such a hard glacier to access and we underestimated its size and thus the weather coming off it. We probably needed four days to get there and back. With break-up progressing the river crossings will be all but impossible from now on. Luckily we are getting a ride in a fan boat in june with the fam! So much for all our hard work...
