Catching Up... Byron Glacier

My parents visited this last weekend. It was fantastic to see them. We had a great time together. I'll slowly get the last week blogged, but for now I need to catch up from last weekend and this last week -- things have been busy.

BYRON GLACIER

After a saturday night out on the town, I slept in. I lucked out and got up just in time to jump in the car with Mike and Lila. We drove down to Byron Glacier, which is along the road to Whittier. It takes about 45 minutes to drive out there. The Glacier is just West of Portage Glacier and is a very easy hike in.

We arrived at our trailhead and immediately recognized Callie's car. She'd gone out that morning to learn some ice-climbing skills with Ryan. So we continued our tradition of driving long distances to end up at trails where our friends were already at.

The trail in was well worn and wide. Very friendly to casual hikers. We reached the first of the ice in a short time and spotted Ryan and Callie climbing. They were on the other side of the stream, and none of us had on waterproof boots so we just waved from the opposite shore. Then Mike, Lila and I continued over the first moraine, which was a jumble of large, slick black rocks with moss growing anywhere it could. Fantastic.

We were able to get up close to an outlier from the main glacier and touch the ice. It was covered on top with jet-black rock and then was shockingly white below with streaks of blue. The surrounding valley was covered in clouds that gave us glimpses of the peaks above.

The main glacier hung further back up in the valley. With it beckoning in the background, it was very tempting to keep walking further up the valley to see what each successive ridge hid. Unfortunately the day threatened rain and we all wanted to get back to town. It truly is amazing to live in a city where we can drive 45 minutes (or less!) and be out in a wilderness with glaciers, moose, bears and all the accoutrements.

PICTURES:
http://picasaweb.google.com/jack.r.mckenna/ByronGlacier

Next posts: Tuesday Night Runs, Koots! and the Anchorage bar scene, Parent's visiting, culinary reviews, Eagle River, Seward... I need to get to work.