So my cell phone alarm clock rang at 7:30 this morning and I got up and got dressed in long johns, hat, mittens, etc. and went into the elevator as the sun blazed its morning song through the ship I am on which is 50% glass. I didn’t know that my cell phone reverted to east coast time and I had awakened at 4:30 am until some folks in the same daze got on the elevator!
I went back for a few hours rest to preparare for my excursion. Nothing could have prepared me for taking a helicopter ride in the Juneau, Alaska Icefield. They have been studying the effects of the icefield’s glacier system here since 1946.
We were given glacier boots to put over out boots, instructed on how to board the helicopter, and squeezed in for a ride to heaven. The temperature today was 67 and hot hot for everyone. We climbed up over the majesty of the white blanketed mountains until we got to the the south end of the icefield and landed on Mendenhall Glacier. As we flew over the blue topaz pools of water which signifiy a glacier, it was apparent we were traveling back in time. Nestled in the middle of the glacier were about twenty white huts where 15 people, mostly in their twentites, taking care of about 100 sled dogs. Our guide met us wearing no shirt. It had snowed up there yesterday so it was pristine. Our dog sled was all hooked up and ready for us to go for a ride. The dogs were so responsive and much leaner than I thought they would be. Our team came in 8th in the Iditarod this year. Some dogs have competed as much as 9 times in the race. Gee and Haw are the two commands they respond to. Gee being right and Haw being turn left please! As we took turns riding in different position, we watched as an avalanche went crashing down. The sound echoing through the glacier was as old as time itself. This is North America’s fifth largest icefield which blankets over 1,500 square miles of land and stretches nearly 100 miles north to south and 45 miles east to west. The whiteness was blinding. I took lots of pictures and videos, but could not really tell if the camera was on, as nothing was visible.
Sober Dog sledding on a glacier…WOW…take that one off the bucket list!