WEDNESDAY,
AUGUST 14:
Awoke to
the promise of a fairly nice day. We had
our choice of kayaking, bicycling, or hiking.
Bill eliminated the first two because he didn’t think they’d be
particularly scenic. Boy, am I glad he
did and that I didn’t try to second-guess him! We had a fabulous day!
We drove back up to Exit Glacier, and took the
trail there which leads to the Harding Icefield, the 700 sq. mile icefield
which feeds Exit Glacier and all of the other surrounding glaciers, including
the ones we saw yesterday. We didn’t
hike the entire 4.1 miles (1 way) which leads to the icefields, though – it was
billed as a moderate–to-strenuous trail, and we knew we couldn’t do over 8
miles of that. But we did hike the first
1.5 miles to Marmot Meadows. Braided river from Exit Glacier in the river valley
Nicely maintained trail
The trail was really challenging in places – up over steep rocks in a lot of places. We gained over 1,500 feet elevation in those 1.5 miles. But the pay-off was stupendous! Unexpected spectacular views of the glacier and surrounding mountains. The day had turned into a wonderfully sunny day – the first in a long time, it seems, and the sunshine on the melting water rivulets and ice on the mountain slopes sparkled like crystal in places.
We got closer and closer to the glacier itself – felt its cold breath more with every step.
Bill
spotted some people down on the glacier!
We had no idea how they got there, or how they’d get out. We haven’t seen any ads for Glacier Trek
Guides here, and where we were at the toe of the glacier, it was strictly
forbidden to go further than the roped area.
So we’re not sure if these were explorers on their own who were
foolishly stretching the limits, or if there is indeed a sanctioned, legal
trail where knowledgeable guides can take visitors.
On the
plateau where we stopped was an Asian woman we’d seen before – down by the
Nature Center (Visitors Center here by the glacier) at a bear talk given by a
Ranger just before we started up the trail.
Her female companion had hiked on up to the next milestone, another mile
or so on up the trail. So she was waiting
for her. She was a very, very, friendly,
articulate, outgoing woman. We ended up spending the better part of an
hour there, visiting with her, taking pictures, etc. We learned that she’s from Malaysia, and had
perfect English – taught in all the schools when Malaysia was still a British
colony. She’d spent the last 25 years in
China (mainland) working as an accountant for Price Waterhouse. She was sure that their business volume in
China would overtake that in the U.S. some day in the not-too-distant future. If she’s correct, astounding.
She and her travelling companion are
“independent travelers,” like us – not part of any tour. I’m in awe of how she put together an
itinerary for 16 days on her own, from half a world away. I guess, though, that with the internet, it’s
not so much different from how I put one together. Except she had to pick and choose which
places she wanted to see, out of so many possibilities. She said that she used the Trip Advisor site
a lot. But it sounded as though they’d
had more than a couple of disappointments.
That’s one of our luxuries of having so much time – if we experience a
disappointment somewhere, because of the weather or anything else, it’s no big
deal . . . we have lots of time to make up for it.
We left her to wait for her friend as we headed
back down the trail, after she insisted oln taking lots of pictures of the two
of us!
Soon they both caught up with us. We chatted some more as we hiked down,
covering everything from national parks in Malaysia to retirement programs in
the U.S. (she retired 3 years ago, at age 56).
Were very
tired by the time we got back to the parking lot – at least our legs and feet
were. But our spirits were exhilarated. I told Bill it was my best day since we’d
left Wrangell-St. Elias. The grandeur of the mountains and ice, the warmth of
the sun, blue sky, the constant rushing of glacier streams as our musical
accompaniment. A couple of times on this
trip we’ve prayed & asked the Lord to guide our decisions. It’s a pretty selfish prayer – what we
actually mean is to lead us to places and activities where we’ll get the most
enjoyment. And amazingly, God often in
His extravagant generosity does exactly that.
We were all set to go bike riding this morning, when Bill suddenly said
that he’d rather hike the glacier trail.
It was the perfect decision for us today.
Even
though we were tired, Bill started a fire and we had grilled brats for
dinner. Again, first time in a while
that it’s been decent enough to cook outside.
But turned too cool to dine outside as well, so we ate inside and
re-lived the afternoon’s unexpected splendors.
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