Alaska 2010 (Our Asses Go To Alaska)

Wednesday 8/25/10

Destination, Matanuska Glacier...

Did I mention we had a great breakfast again?  There's nothing like rolling out of bed and into a fully stocked breakfast room.

Anyway, here we go again.. 

We passed the Hatcher Pass area and found this tidbit of information...

What else can you say besides oooooooooooh and aaaaaaaaaaaaaah... ?

Oh, yeah, there's always...  WOW, Is that real!

We had pulled off the main road to get closer to the riverbed and ran into this... A couple, with their ATV, horse, and two dogs.  

Of course the small dog came over, all barking, big and bad... but he was all bark, no bite.  The lady came over and we talked for a while... while talking the small dog pawed at her leg.  She picked him up and he sat in her arms in sort of a begging position.  She scratched his belly, and you could tell he liked it, cause his eyes were closed, and I could swear he was smiling...  She said in many places the horse does better than the ATV, and she doesn't like driving ATV's... that's more her husbands territory.  They were 23 year residents of Alaska, she had some sort of Swedish/German/Norweigen accent.  She said the big dog, which was a German, Chow, Something mix kept the wild animals at bay.  So, the moral of the story is, if you're going to stay in Alaska, get yourself a big dog, and a small one that makes a lot of noise, is not a bad idea either... I guess.

Well, three hours into the trip we had our first sightings of the Matanuska Glacier... 

It's 50 miles long and has a four mile wide face.

As we drove along we got different views from the road.  Of course we were trying to find the road that leads to it, but weren't having much luck.

Did you know that there are worms that live on the ice?

Well, we did find a steep gravel road that took us down into the valley, and over the river...

But at the end of the road was a little gift shop place, and it said private property, and it didn't say anything about the glacier... so we figured we were in the wrong place...  So, we went back up to the main road and kept looking, but clearly we were getting away from it...

Well, a few miles down the road we ran into this place...

Amazing. On this road, between Noplace and Nowhere is this restaurant, RV camping place, with a full menu and a crazy view...

They even had a map of the world, so people could put a pin to show where they were from...

Literally, people from all over the world had stopped a this log cabin restaurant in the middle of nowhere...  

And lunch was great... couple Reuben sandwiches piled high with sauerkraut and corned beef on pumpernickel bread... and huge home made fries... 

We asked the waitress about the glacier and it turned out we had gone down the right road, so back we went...  Turns out the glacier is private property.  How do you buy a glacier... you don't.  It seems that in the 60's four (three?) brothers homesteaded here in such a way to completely control access to the glacier.  And started this business which includes a gift shop and $20/head to see the glacier.  Well worth it.

So, once you pay your $20, they lift the access gate and you drive down this winding gravel road for a few miles and come pretty close to the glacier.

So, you park your car, put on your jacket... cause it's windy and cold... and you follow a path, designated by orange cones, through some moonscape looking  terrain.  And they caution to stay on the path, because there is mud out there... and "you will find it if you deviate".

For the most part you're walking on packed dirt... but there's also gratings the are tossed down to span over small water streams and it gets muddy in some spots... and you're thinking... how far is this?  They said 1000 ft from the parking to the glacier, but I'm guessing that's straight, and the path is everything but straight.  I'm guessing it's got to be at least a half mile, maybe 3/4.

Anyway, what you realize as you go on is that you are literally staring to walking on the glacier.  The rock is actually on top of the ice... and the stuff is melting underneath. And a couple of those stream crossing the water is moving pretty good.  When you finally make it to the designated end of the trail, technically you're on the glacier.  And the wind is blowing pretty good by now.

You get to a couple picnic tables and a sign that say something like, "Do not proceed beyond this point without an experienced guide... blah blah blah."...   Ya.  Sure.  I came 3000+ miles so I could stand here.  Besides, I looked up the ice and saw a few people standing there... figured if they could make it... so can I, none of them looked like a professional guide.

So, off I went.  Wife took the option and stayed behind.  First thing you realize is the ice actually has very good traction.  Where there's rock and dirt imbedded in it is really good, but even in areas that are just ice... the surface is very rough.  So, walking wasn't really a problem.  The only question was, "If I step here is this whole thing going to collapse and suck me into a crack, never to be seen again."  There's just something disconcerting about looking down and being able to see through the ground you're walking on.

As you get closer to the actual face you realize why it seems so far away... because it is... Distance becomes hard to judge because those ice blocks are stories tall.

As I made it over one of the crests I found a bunch of people ice climbing...

As I got closer, it turned out to be a platoon of army people, but there were recreational climbers there also.

And all that rock you see is just a thin layer on the ice below...

You want to talk about cold... go sit your Ass out on a block of ice for a while.. 

Actually, with the sunshine it was too bad at all...

Not sure how long I was walking around out there, but I was getting further and further away from the car, so decided to head back.  Here's an interesting shot.

For the most part if you look around you see just rocks and dirt... but this opening shows you what's really going on.  It's just sitting on ice, and that's actually moving water underneath, and I'm not talking moving slow... hence the reason not to go wondering around randomly.  Even as I was coming back to the start of the path, very close to where we were parked... there was kind of a muddy uphill area that looked like it would be better to just cut across a little.  I stepped onto a somewhat damp clay area no more than 6-8 feet off the path, I took a step and the earth moved.  I didn't actually see anything move, but the ground beneath my feet moved down as I stepped.  Not like my foot sank in but like the feeling you get in an elevator when it first starts moving down... like the whole thing is moving and you're moving and it takes your body a split second to catch up.  Of course in an elevator you expect it, on solid ground you don't.  My next step was back toward the path... still felt that way... my next step was solid again.

Well, we got our Asses back in the car and drove back up the gravel road and left the glacier behind us.

We also decided to go back to the restaurant we had lunch at, and get a couple drinks for the road.  The strawberry smoothie I had was made with fresh strawberries and tasted so good.  Especially with the chocolate fudge brownie.  :)

And of course there was no shortage of jaw dropping scenery on the way back.

But anyway, the trip back was nice but nothing you haven't seen already... so that's it for this day.