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Sept 5...

Hello once again. It's been a excellent week for hiking the wilds of Alaska. Pat, my brother, Greg, and I went on three hikes...two which weren't too bad and took us several hours to complete, but then we tackled the very difficult 8-hour hike to Harding Icefield in Seward. The icefield is basically a 300-mile-long ice cube that covers over 1000 square miles and receives 400 inches of snow each year.

The beginning of Harding Icefield

The ice is a beautiful blue and can be climbed-on if you have the right gear

In the first two miles of the trail there's a 3500' elevation change...meaning that the trail winds straight up the mountain. To say the trail was "difficult" wouldn't quite do it justice. I think the climb was more like "brutal". And by the time I made it back to the trail head, I felt like someone had beat me with sticks...ha, ha.

Greg, me, and Pat at Harding Ice Fields

However, even though I was carrying camera gear, warm cloths, food and water, I made it...and I felt pretty good for being an old man. One thing I know for sure is that all the exercise I've been doing at the gym really paid off. I was using hiking poles and the climb sort of felt like a combination of a elliptical machine and stair-master combined.

Pat took this picture of my brother and I walking back down the trail...this part of the trail doesn't look too bad...but don't let it fool you because very few sections of the trail were this easy...

We were lucky enough to have a beautiful sunny day and saw several black bears and a few mountain goats...

I was also surprised to find these flowers growing at the top of the mountain...

The following day we took another hike...an easy hike compared to Harding Icefield, but we got some impressive views of this particular area of Alaska...