This is a marmot! I know I mentioned a marmot when I talked about Sam's and my hike. I didn't put a photo up because none of mine were close enough. But, while Eve was tra-la-la-ing along the trail and taking a breakie-poo, out popped a marmot out of its little hole! So she then immediately aborted the said breakie-poo and snapped as many pictures of Mr. Marmot as fast as her little fingers could go. Then they held hands and continued to tra-la-la along the trail.
I even had a little nappie-poo!
Then, due to a retarded photographer, all three of us look like we're about to start a race! Actually, the original intent of this photo was for all three of us to look like we were suspended in mid-air over the glacier. But as I mentioned said incapable photo-taker, he captured us at the wrong moment. But it's still funny.
This was a sign we saw at the first mile we trekked. I thought it was funny. But I guess I should take it seriously, huh? 
Photo of Exit Glacier. Once the sun decided to grace us with its presence, the angels came out heralding HALLELUJAH! and the blue of the glacier literally glowed. It was amazing.
Surviving the elements. Or, at least attempting to walk in snow. This is the most snow I've ever seen and/or been in. I had seen a lot of snow when I went skiiing in Utah, but it was nothing compared to this. Fortunately, people that had done the trail before us left definite tracks in the snow...so I carefully followed their footsteps, so I wouldn't go cascading down the mountain and die. True fax. 
See? I'm a pro at this!
Snow in August? What? Only in Alaska.
Almost there!
See those little dots in the picture? That's us.
The Harding Ice Field! It was so surreal. A complete sea of ice surrounding you from all sides. This is something that I think compares to such sights as ones you Must See Before You Die, along with the Grand Canyon. In the lower right hand corner of this picture is Exit Glacier. The glacier is covered in ice and snow, and just that little area of it down there is the blue ice peeking through. 
We made it to the top! From the left, that's me, Eve, and Sam. Many thanks to Julia for sacrificing herself and taking this picture. 
Unless global warming kicks up into high gear, this ice will stay here forever. How unfathomable is that?!
While we were hiking the trail and at the top, I was cursing the fact that I forgot to bring my polarized sunglasses. It's unbelievable how snow reflects so much light. My corneas were burning. 
Me at the top! The snow was so bright, that all of us were almost silhouettes in comparison. Unfortunate you can't see us that well, but I'm not complaining. 
Picture of surrounding area. Look, you can even seen a bit of green! (in the lower right hand corner, just in case you were having trouble.) 
Another stunning view of Exit glacier and the Harding Ice Field. This is a place that you will only see if you take this trail - or go on a plane. No place else to access it. And no place else like it.
The three of us at the end of the trail. I think those are smiles of win. And exhausted-ness. Too bad we had the entire trail to go down!
On the way back down! Since there was so much snow, and many, many foot tracks, much of the snow turned into slick ice. That was really slippery. So all of us had quite a few close calls. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of us sliding down...but we literally got on our butts and slid down most of the way. For some parts of the trail, we used our shoes as skiis and crouched real low to the ground and slid the way down. It was really fun.
While looking at this picture, don't you just hear Handel's "Hallelujah" chorus singing in the background? Well, we did...and sung it the entire way down the trail. (As a matter of fact, I'm playing it right now as I write this post. It has a little ring to it, I think.) Eve got us started singing the Hills....are alivvvvvvve....with the sound of muuuuuusic, too. It was glorious. 
Two thumbs up for a gorgeous view and kicking that trail's ass! (Although it was a mutual ass-kicking smorgasbord.) 
Of course, I had to get the hair-down picture. Beautiful view. I'm talking about the mountains, of course.
Then, at the end of the day, trail conquered, legs shaking and us questioning who we were and where we came from, we went to a Greek restaurant and ate dinner. We were all rewarded with this delicious, fattening, chocolatey piece of cake. Sam's expression is absolutely priceless. I love this picture.
So that was awesome, and an unforgettable experience. I hope you all get to Alaska and do that trail - because it's something you'll remember for the rest of your life. Now, I know I mentioned clamming centuries ago...and said how I'd post pictures. Well, I finally got the pictures from Chad, so here's the evidence:
We caught 135 clams that day. Here's Sam with her two razor clams. Doesn't she look so cute in her little clam gear? (yes, Randy, she does!)
And so was I. I got down there, went elbow-deep in muck, and pulled those little suckers outta there. It was exhilerating. Might I add that Sam and I made a clam chowdah out of them and it was absolutely delicious. 
What I reaped.
Sam and Chad each getting their clams.
Did I mention that I loved clamming?
I know from the last blog entry that I cut my and Sam's vacation story off at when we took the Alaska railroad. Well, our last night in Seward, we took the train at around 6 pm and rode into Anchorage. We saw some beautiful views of Kenai Lake, the Kenai mountain range, and many glaciers along the way. Once we got into Anchorage, we were welcomed by a gorgeous sunset across Turnagain Arm.
It's so beautiful.
Pretty, pretty sunset. You can see the reflection of the train windows on the picture.This was inside the train.
Turnagain Arm.
My last Alaskan sunset. (tear)
Once in Anchorage, Sue picked us up and we spent the night at her house (which was lovely) and the next morning, we drove out to the Flat Top Mountain trailhead. This was a hard hike, too. I think the highest point was 3,500 feet (or somewhere close) at the top of Flat Top Mountain. It really does have a flat top - but you have to scramble up rocks for a good mile or two to get there.
At the top of the summit, overlooking the surrounding mountains. I think my expression is one of strained happiness. Good one, Emily.
See? It really does have a Flat Top. Too bad it looks really easy from this picture. It's deceiving, I know. From probably that bit of snow right there 'til the top, you have to scramble over jutted-out rocks the entire way. It was pretty scary.
Overlooking the entire area. It was a pretty awesome view.
That's it! (for now, at least.) In two hours, I get on a plane to Anchorage that will eventually lead me back to good ol' Florida. I've had an absolutely life-changing, out of this world, amazing time here in Alaska. I've met some of the most interesting people, seen some of the most beautiful things, and been shown a whole new world of possibility. I will never forget those that I've met here and they will remain in my heart forever. I hope to come back to Alaska as often as I can (or as much as my pocketbook allows) and see more incredible sights and people. In a matter of three and a half months, I've done things people don't even get to experience in one lifetime, and for that, I'm eternally grateful.
The sole purpose of this blog was to catalogue my adventures in Alaska. I will continue it, as long as my life remains exciting (it better be!). Who knows where I'll end up next summer. Only time will tell.
Summit Creek is roughly 8 miles long through alpine/tundra area. Most of the trip you are in a bowl surrounded by mountains on all sides of you. You gradually climb uphill for the first three miles, and then the next two and a half are along a ridge following the side of a mountain. The trail had several snow crossings and creek crossings. The latter was a time where I got go for a little swim. Without fail, everytime we had a creek crossing, I'd slip off of the rocks we attempted to cross by and fall shin-deep in water. Sucked. The rest of the trail my feet, shoes and socks were soaked, sloshing and gurgling the entire way. (But that didn't deter me!)
Dall sheep! We saw a family on our way down from another snow crossing we did. I'm pretty sure there's three females, one male, and two babies in this group. We got pretty close to them! At this point, we saw the sheep, and then out of nowhere, we heard this high-pitched, whistling sound, similar to that of a referee's whistle. We first thought that it could possibly be a whistle from one of the hunters we had met along the trail. But then after another whistle, we turned our heads to the direction of the sound and saw a marmot! They can get pretty big, but they're usually 2 feet long and resemble beavers in a way. They're gray-tan color and have little fluffy tails. We saw a bunch more during our hike. 
Sam just waking up from her perfect slumber.The tent was pretty small...but we kept eachother warm. :) 
Wolf print! We ran into some hikers the day we did Summit and they had told us they had seen a wolf while they were hiking. This print was on the Devil's Pass trail. We suspect it was the same wolf.
Exhibit B: A Murre, I think.
Exhibit C: A horned puffin. I swear I bet some of the tourists at this place were taking pictures of all of the sea life and were going to go back home and brag to their friends and family about how they got such close-up pictures of all of this sea life out in the wild. I guarantee.
Then we met up with Eve and her sister, went out to dinner, and then spent the night at Miller's Landing in Birch cabin. It was such a change (and better sleep) than the night before. 
Then the next morning, we went on a Kenai Fjords Tour, like the one I did during our first week of training. This was a 6-hour cruise, the one we were originally supposed to go on but didn't, on account of bad weather. As opposed to the previous one, this one is two hours longer, and you get to see more of Resurrection Bay. We also got a close look at Aalik Glacier. This picture above is of a humpback breaching. The picture's blurry of course. We were all so excited because he did it out of nowhere. He was being a total ham. He breached a total of three times, and did a lot of back-stroke swimming. 
It was so amazing. It was peculiar that he should be breaching, because it is typical humpback behavior to do such a thing around other humpbacks. But we didn't see a single other. It was just him the whole time, putting on a show for us. 
The picture above is of the humpback swimming stomach up. He kept on flapping his fins back and forth on top of the water. The sound was incredible. The next picture is of Aalik Glacier. It is a forbidding sight. 
Here's the ice calving. The sound is out of this world. Since sound travels slower than the forces of gravity, you could watch the ice falling in silence. Then a couple of seconds later, a huge, cracking CRASH and BOOM into the water reverberated the entire surroundings. It's a sound you can't really describe in words. One of those - you have to experience it moments. 
