Out & About In Alaska

Before the bear tracking part of the Alaska trip, I spent a few days exploring the glaciers and trails near Seward. I wanted to get a little landscape work in, as well as get my hiking legs under me for chasing bears the following week. I hadn't really thought much about the glaciers beforehand other than as a photo op. I ended up learning a ton about climate change and ice formations. As I'm sure everyone has heard, the glaciers are receding at a pretty brisk pace. I had heard that too, but it's pretty startling to see what's happening in person. The most dramatic example was probably at Exit Glacier where the park service has installed signs marking where the glacier foot has been located over the last 100 years or so. When you start your hike in what appears to be old grown forest with 40-50 ft trees, and see a marker for "1917" you can't help but get the idea. The final marker is where the foot was in 2005, and from what I was told it was still a tall glacial cliff at that time. You can see in one of these photos what it looks like now.

I also hiked on Godwin Glacier, dropped in by helicopter, which was a great adventure, and spent a good part of a day on Tonsina Trail through rainy forests, grabbing handfuls of wild blueberries along the way, ending at a foggy Tonsina Point with salmon running and bald eagles tending to their young. All great experiences in spite of some dicey weather. Like I said in the last post, I only scratched the surface of Alaska. It would take dozens of trips to get to all of the places I'd like to see. These photos are all from around Seward except one sunrise image from a great morning in Lake Clark. A big shout out to Sage Asher - my amazing guide for this part of the trip - dragging a cranky old photographer around the trails for a few days in spectacular fashion.

( you can click on the photos to start and stop the slideshow )