Mud Volcanoes and Moose Tracks

The one time I forget to ask the question: “Hiking boots or Tennis shoes?”

Today we took a hike down a small trail in a Wrangell campground to go see mud volcanoes. I guess I was just so entranced with the thought of the volcanoes that I didn’t think about how we would get to them. I believe the phrase “leisurely stroll” was mentioned in reference to the mile hike. Anyway, I decided to wear my sandals since the weather was so nice. I suppose I was lucky that I didn’t wear my tennis shoes because about half of the trail was completely muddy and wet. I had a blast though, walking through the mud others leaped to avoid. Needless to say I was filthy.

The actual mud volcanoes weren’t at all what I expected. In my mind’s eye they were piles of mud seven feet tall and ever oozing. In reality they were patches of wet dirt (very, very, wet dirt) that were slightly bubbling. I suppose I was looking forward to something a little more prehistoric. Across the dry mud between the volcanoes were tones of moose prints. We speculated that the moose might go to the pits to drink, or possibly to dance the night away, we aren’t quite sure.

We also found mud formations that reminded me of giant crawfish holes. Instead of being a few inches around and tall like normal crawfish holes, these were about a foot tall and wide. The discovery of these mounds, the temperature, the multitude of mosquitoes, and the muddiness of the trail made me think that we were just taking a hike back home in Louisiana. I guess it just goes to prove that however far away you may be, home is all around you.

Wrangell - St. Elias National Park and Preserve

Kennecott

We spent three days in Wragell - St. Elias national park, well actually... we're still in it! We actually spent three days in McCarthy, a small town just outside of Kennecott mining town. We used McCarthy as a base to head out to Kennecott. We split into two groups so that we could do different activities at the same time. On the first day in Kennecott my group hiked up to Bonanza mine. It was an all-day event that was tough on the knees. We hiked up the Bonanza mountain almost all the way up to the mine. It was the toughest hike I've been on this trip! The next day we had it easy though! While we were climbing to the highest of hights the other group was weeding out a cemetery of twenty years of vegetation. When we took our turn in the cemetery we discovered that the other group had pretty much cleared it out completely! We worked hard clearing a three foot perimeter around the old fence and pulling out the stray soap berry bush and hawkweed we came across inside the cemetery. We also redefined two of the graves with stones and made an inventory of each of the burial sites. Hopefully, one day the cemetery will be restored and will be a part of the Kennecott experience (right now it's not even on the map!). Finally, our last day in Kennecott we had an interesting (to say the least) talk from a NPS ranger about the wonder of phenology, or the study of change in plants and animals as it relates to climate change. We drew pictures trees and counted buds on fireweed. Today we made it down to Coppercenter (?) and finally arrived at the Princess Lodge where I am currently waiting for my laundry to dry. I'll have lots fo Kennecott pictures soon!

Coastal Trail

Back from Denali

Well, we did it. We spent three nights and two and a half days in Denali! Denali National Park and Preserve is absolutely the most amazing place I have ever been. It's so awesome (in the awe inspiring sense of the word) that I'm already planning a camping trip back. We saw so much wildlife in their natural habitat. Denali has six million acres of untouched wilderness. Hiking up a mountain you have to remember to call out "Hey Bear!" to let any four legged residents know that you're passing through.

A Grizzly!

Speaking of bears, we saw multiple ones throughout our stay in Denali. On two occasions we saw a golden colored grizzly with her two cubs. They were like half a mile away but you could see them really well in the binoculars. On the day we saw them the second time we saw another golden grizzly about half an hour later. He was alone and eating berries on a hillside. Along with bears we saw caribou, wolves, Dall sheep, arctic ground squirrels (yes they are actual ground squirrels, not chipmunks...), pika, a ptarmigan, and many other birds.

Bachelor Dall Sheep hanging out nearby.

We stayed in the Murie Science and Learning Center's field school campsite and had a sort of "class" each day with them. Margi, our super-mega-awesome naturalist guide, led us on hikes each day as well. We climbed up Igloo mountain the second night we were in Denali. That was the most fun I've ever had on a hike. We made it about halfway-ish up the mountain maybe and every ten to fifteen minutes of hiking got us to a gorgeous new spot to look out over the park.
Overall it was an amazing camping trip and there is so much that I could say about it but it's really late and I'm pretty tired. We left Denali and got into Fairbanks yesterday. We went to the Eskimo Olympics last night and checked out a gold mine and the Museum of the North at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks today. Tomorrow we're doing laundry and going to Pioneer Park (where we have been informed that there are NO amusement park rides).

Last day in Anchorage

Today was the last day we spent in Anchorage. We made an early morning Wallmart and REI run to gather up supplies for our trip to Denali tomorrow. We'll be spending three nights out in the wilderness so we wanted everyone to be fully prepared. I picked up a rain jacket and a new water bottle with a carabiner. After shopping we went for a bike ride down the Coastal Trail. It was beautiful weather: around 60 ^o and the sun was shining! We rode about seven miles round trip. The air was clear and the wind was blowing, it was fantastic!
After the bike ride we took another trip to the Native Alaskan Heritage Center and got to pet sled dog puppies!! We even got to go on a "sled" ride. The sled had wheels on it since there isn't any snow on the ground this time of year. The puppies were freaking adorable and the adult dogs were cute too. They had fourteen dogs harnessed that pulled us today.
Overall it was a fantastic day. Kind of low key, compared to climbing Flattop, but really enjoyable for our last day in Anchorage.

Exit Glacier

From the edge of the glacier

From the toe of the glacier

We hiked the 1(ish) mile path up to the glacier. There, we met a group from Baton Rouge. There are quite a few people from Louisiana that we've met up here. After we took a group picture near the glacier we went down and Stephen and I ran to get a picture of the glacier from below. It is so HUGE! It boggles the mind to think that it is actually quite small compared to it's size historically. There are signs along the road with dates on them that represent where the glacier was in the corresponding year. They stretched back almost before we could even see the glacier. You can kind of see it in these pictures but the parts of the glacier beneath the crust of dirt and "dead" ice are a gorgeous blue. These parts are actually the living glacier. They remind me of a blue raspberry snowcone! 

Flattop Mountain

This morning the HOM group set out to climb Flattop Mountain, just outside of Anchorage. Flattop is a little over 3500 feet high and is aptly named.

Start of the trail to Flattop

 About halfway up the mountain there was a place to sit and catch your breath. After the break we actually started mountain climbing! At points it was hand over hand climbing.

About halfway up Flattop

 As we reached the top of the mountain Breanne, my hiking buddy, and I were overjoyed. The wind was ridiculous up there! It made is even more freezing than it actually was. (My dad let me borrow his fancy camera with panoramic capabilities so here's an awesome view.)

Panoramic view from the top!

Ok, so I just got to Alaska! It's cold! There are mountains everywhere! It's amazing!

Glacial Retreat

According to experts from the National Park Service (NPS), Alaska's glaciers are getting "smaller and thinner." Along with many other glaciers around the world about 90% of Alaska's are retreating.
 People have been recording this retreat for about a hundred years through photography. Using a technique called "repeat photography" where one photographs a subject in the same location as a previous photograph (or photographs) we can see the changes throughout the years to these locations, in this case: glaciers. The National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) has an archive of many repeat photography sets of glaciers. (I'm currently waiting for them to send me the download to add to this post.)
 Joel Cusick, a NPS specialist, in his quest to find out if leave nutrients from plants could be studied to get an age of a landscape, mapped out the retreat of Exit Glacier. He looked at all the old pictures of Exit Glacier that he could find and placed them in chronological order. Doing so he had a rough estimate of the glacier's retreat through time. Unfortunately the photographs most useful, those shot overhead from an aircraft, date back to only about 1950. Cusick then turned to dendrochronology, measuring time by counting tree rings.
 As a glacier recedes it leaves behind a mound of rocks that have been pushed to the tip of its terminus. These rock formations are called moraines. Eventually these moraines get overgrown with vegetation and trees will sprout. By coring these trees you can count their rings to find out how old they are. This method gives you the age of the tree but not the age of the moraine it is growing from. The period of time between the formation of a moraine (glacial retreat) and the sprouting of a tree is called the ecesis. During his research Cusick and his team determined the ecesis interval for Spruce to be 25 years and Cottonwood to be 5 years in this area. With this information Cusick could accurately map out Exit Glacier's retreat.

The Retreat of Exit Glacier. nps.gov

"During the retreat of Exit Glacier from its Little Ice Age maximum in 1815 until recent times, the glacier has left a series of more than 11 moraines and retreated more than 1.25 miles (2 km). The glacier had an average retreat of roughly 6/10 of a mile each century or one kilometer each century." - Susan Huse, NPS.

-Aimee LaFleur

Exit Glacier's Retreat
NSIDC
Glacier Q&A with the NPS

Ice Calving

"Ice calving, also known as glacier calving or iceberg calving, is a form of ice ablation or ice disruption. It is the sudden release and breaking away of a mass of ice from a glacier, iceberg, ice front, ice shelf, or crevasse. The ice that breaks away can be classified as an iceberg, but may also be a growler, bergy bit, or a crevasse wall breakaway." - Wikipedia