THE ALASKAN ADVENTURE Day 43 June 28, 2009 Seward to Russian River, AK

We said goodbye to Seward today and the campsite at Miller Landing.

However before we totally left the area we returned to Exit Glacier.

Exit Glacier is a half mile wide, dynamic river of ice whose source is the 700 square mile Harding Icefield. This outlet glacier flows out of the higher Harding Icefield and down the U shaped glacial valley, a distance of about 3 miles. As the ice moves forward, it also descends approximately 2500 feet to the Exit Creek outwash plain. The glacier moves forward about 2 feet per day, carrying all sizes of rock material plucked from the underlying rock and side walls, as well as material falling from the valley sides and coming to rest on the glacier's surface. Rocks embedded in the bottom of the moving ice continually gouge and grind the underlying base rock to flower size particles that give Exit Creek its milky color.

We planned to hike to the toe of the glacier and then carry on up the side of the glacier to a viewing platform. We changed clothes in the glacier parking lot and headed out. There were sign posts along the trail and it took us awhile to figure them out. OK Kathy figured them out. The first sign was 1917, the second 1929 and the next 1951. The sign marks the spot the glacier was on the year that was written on the sign. The area where the 1917 sign was about 1 mile from the glacier.

As we got close to the glacier we got a surprise. We were going to get wet. To get to the toe of the glacier you had to approach it from the gravel beach that was created as the glacier receded. This gravel bar hosts Exit Creek which is actually a number of little run offs that eventually form the creek. Well these little run offs were about 8 - 20 wide and as we had to cross two of them to get to the toe. We had three choices. 1) Take the plunge and jump in and get wet 2) Take your shoes and socks off and wade across 3 ) Turn around.

We were not going to turn around and as we wanted to continue to hike we needed to stay dry. So off came the shoes and socks and we waded across. Did I mention that this was glacial water, melted 500 year old ice and very, very, very cold. It was so cold it actually hurt.

The good part was that we made it across cold but dry and continued on to the toe of the glacier.

Now that we had seen the toe of the glacier we continued on. The only bad part is that we had to cross the streams again. So off came the shoes and socks.

I cheated a little bit on the way back and managed to use the stones to my advantage. After successful navigating the little bridge and while I was waiting for Kathy my new hat blew off and landed in the middle of one of the streams. I got wet. I had to save my new hat.

We got to the highest view point and hung around for awhile before heading down. One thing we realized was how much colder it became as you approached the glacier. I would guess about a 20 degree F difference. We finished the hike of about 3 miles and then headed down the road to the Russian River. We were not able to get a campsite at the Russian River but we were able to get into the Kenai / Russian River Ferry Campground. Tomorrow we are going back to hike the Russian River Trail.

The above three shots were taken on the way down from the glacier.