Day 39 (7-9-12 - Exit Glacier)

We hiked 7.5 miles and climbed 146 floors, (per Fitbit), at the Exit Glacier.  We are tired but really enjoyed the hike.  The first hike we took this morning was a ranger guided hike with Lou.   We hiked the Glacier Edge Trail.  It was slow paced for us but we learned a lot about Glaciers.

The other hike we took on our own, was to Marmot Meadows on the Harding Icefield Trail.  It was 1.4 miles up the mountain with an increase of 1,558 foot in elevation.  Another tough hike, but well worth it.  We could see the blue color in the glacier that looked like ribbons carved in the ice.  Very nice and well worth the hike. We saw a couple of marmots on the trail.  We stopped and waited for them to get off the trail.  We needed the break so it was good to wait about 10 minutes for them to get off the trail.  They were picture hogs.  When we made it back down, the ranger told us that it looks like someone is feeding them.  I agree, they were not scared of us.  As a matter of fact, I think my bear bells summoned them out of hiding.  We saw them as we were going up and coming back on the trail.

We saw several people on the glacier from Marmot Meadows.  They hire guides to take them on this trip.  We were told that it is usually 1 guide for 2 to 3 people and is very costly.  We were also told that the guide is very selective on who he or she takes on the hike and that some people would be turned down by the guide.  With our inexperience with hiking in an glacier, we had no chance of going with a guide.  Good.  We were exhausted from walking up the trail of mud and rocks.

We admired the view of the glacier, and started down the mountain.  We had a  light shower.  It is very slippery walking down the muddy rocks.  We had a few slips of foot but made it to the bottom without injury.  Unless, you consider the injury to our muscles in our tired, shaky legs.  I am sure that we will recover in a few days.

We got back to the camper and opened the back door and pulled down the screen of the toy hauler.  Fernie was very happy.  She sat in the back of the camper and watched people.  Almost everyone walking on the walk/bike path commented about the cat.  We would see people walk by, look in the camper, point, make a comment, and laugh.  One lady told us that she liked the house that our cat lived in. This is a true statement because we bought the camper so the cat could travel with us. Ferny was the talk of the walk.

We watched a couple of whales and a lot of boats in the bay this afternoon while we were recuperating from our hike.  The waves are really rough at high tide.  The waves were coming over the bow of the smaller boats.  I hope the seas are calmer tomorrow when we go on the Kenai Fjords National Park cruise.

                                                                Ferny (the talk of the walk)

Pictures :  https://goo.gl/photos/cfeNcNPM6xrJmaXG7