It was our third morning at the beautiful Bear Lake Lodge. Every morning, we met up and chatted with other travellers while enjoying the breakfast freshly made by our innkeeper. We met retired couples, young couples, and other travellers, all in good spirits, looking forward to exploring Alaska. Alaska is so vast that we hardly have the same itineraries with each other. It felt like we were living our lives in a novel in this wonderland.
The Aialik glacier kayaking, the day before, gave my arms the biggest fatigue of the last decade. Our legs were still strong. We saw the huge Harding Icefield from the boat trip the day before. We were ready for a hiking day up the exit glacier. The Harding Icefield offered a spectacular but strenuous day hike from the exit glacier area to the top of the cliff. We were casual hikers and had no particular destination for the day, and were hoping to be back in time to get to a good seafood restaurant for dinner. (Finally we got to Wednesday when the restaurants reopened after closing on Monday and Tuesday).
At the trailhead, the icefield was far up; and we hiked a relatively easy glacier overlook loop trail as the Icefield started to come up closer. After a few hours up, we were at the Marmot Meadow with a better view. The fellow hikers told us it was within reach to get to the top of the cliff to look down on the glacier. Mid-way up, there were more floral varieties as well as plenty of poisonous indian pokes along the way, and more mosquitos too.
The young hikers walking down from the top often encouraged us, so we continued to journey on. It took us more than an hour of strenuous hike to cover a distance of 0.8 miles to the top of the cliff, overcoming icy paths and a few slipperies. There were a few fellow hikers up there taking pictures. It was so beautiful up there. We felt rejuvenated and grateful that our knees were still with us after over five hours of hiking, at times pretty strenuous.
It was Wednesday, all restaurants were back in business. We treated ourselves to a nice dinner of Thai Salmon and Alaska crab leg at the Chinook seafood restaurant. After dinner, we strolled over to the nearby fish cleaning station, and had a good chat with a local couple who were cleaning tons of salmon. The lady told us that her huskies love the frozen salmon head as a popsicle snack, and how she and her son loved the winter in Alaska. In the few Alaskans we ran into, they all seem to be so grounded and have so much energy in their lives.
We had a blast at Seward and the Bear Lake Resort. We consider the possibility of finding a summer job here in future years!
Coming up Wildlife Conservation Center.
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