We awake Sunday morning to calm winds but still a lot of cloud cover and threatening rain. No worries… we come prepared. We gather our wits about us and move Thumper onto a side street in town and head for the local coffee shop. It seems that coffee and internet go hand-in-hand. Not a bad combination really, the only minor problem, is that after a cup or two of so-so coffee your heart is off to the races and your mind is thinking days ahead as you are now sitting there watching the little hourglass thingy pass time ever so slowly while you are trying to upload pictures into your blog. Can you say “painful”? Sure you can. We finally get a somewhat workable update completed and head back to Thumper. Time to change gears and get out on the trail. Whoops, it’s still raining. No problem, it’s Sunday! We lock things down and head out to The Pit Bar to check up on the Steelers and hopefully find Sherry. She runs the place and is a good friend of Leeann’s. Turns out she’s at the football game…in Seattle! It’s about 11am at this point. I don’t know how they do it here, I mean a 1pm kick-off in New York means Game-On in Alaska at 9AM! So, we get to The Pit just in time for the 2^nd half of the Steelers game… but that’s all we really have to say about that.

We leave The Pit as time expires and our beers are finished and head to Exit Glacier. It is just up the side road about 4 miles and came highly recommended by Kamaria. Exit Glacier was named as such as early explorers found it to be an “easy” exit from the Harding Ice Field way up top. Ice Fields are the big thing we don’t often see that can cover the tops of entire mountain ranges. Glaciers are what we do often see, which originate in the Ice Fields and reach down off the mountains. Many Glaciers can originate from one Ice Field.

It is misting rain and the clouds are hanging low as we begin our trek. It is a 4.2-mile hike UP to the Harding Ice Field. The sign tells us to figure anywhere from 5 to 7 hours to complete the UP and back. It’s 4:20 as we make our calculations. Susan figures we can hike until 6:30 but then we have to turn around in order to get back before dark. We synchronized our watch, checked our stash of trail-food, said good-bye to Thumper and headed UP. “UP” is the operative word here as I think the only step we took DOWN on the way to the Ice Field was the one we took when we got out of the truck. It is a 3000’ elevation gain in that 4.2-miles so all we can say is, thank goodness we are at sea level!

We pass a couple coming down the trail about a mile UP and they recognize us from the campground last night. They told us they had seen bears above the trail and to keep an eye open for them. Ok… Now we have something to keep our minds off the next step. The trail is a mix of dirt and gravel shelves cut into the mountainside punctuated by steep sets of steps made up of boulders and tree roots. By “steep”, I mean… well… picture a ladder leaning against your house… you get the idea. Susan starts muttering something about a striking resemblance to trails in Nepal. We flank Exit Glacier to the right and weave our way UP the trail. We do spot the bear as we come around a corner and some of the vegetation falls away. Well, we think it was a bear as it was about 2000’ above us on the next ridge over… so let’s just call it a bear.

We eventually crest a little false-summit which reveals Exit Glacier in all its glory right there in front of us. It is REALLY hard to get the vastness of it in a picture, but that top bit is about a mile across. We are about 2/3’s the way UP the glacier at this point and we can see the top of it as it disappears into the clouds and the Harding Ice Field. It is simply amazing! Otherworldly, actually. And from all reports, it is nothing compared to the ice field itself. We see some white “Dall Dots” higher up on the ridge and another couple hikers just ahead photographing them. “Dall Dots” are what you usually see from where you are when you are looking for Dall Sheep… did we cover this already?... anyway, they are usually a LOT higher than you are. We stop and talk to the other hikers (dad-Marty and daughter-Sarah) who were also on their way back down from the Ice Field. Marty assures us that the Dall Dots are only about another 15-minute walk away. Susan says we only have 12 minutes left before we have to turn back. Jim talks her into an extra 3 minutes and sprints off for the Dots. Just for the books here, sprinting uphill anywhere, even if it is at only 2000’ above sea level, isn’t really a good idea for anyone who has been sitting in a truck for the past 5 weeks.

Jim eventually gets to within shooting distance of the Dall Sheep (photographically speaking) and begins to add to our collection of out-of-focus animal shots. Susan completes the advance upon the Dots at her own pace and probably arrives in much better shape than Jim did.

We watch the herd for 10 minutes or so and then turn and make our first steps DOWN the trail. Our timing is about perfect and we should get down right at dark, barring any unforeseen circumstances, that is. Jim has a couple shots of what looks like Susan walking down the trail at midnight… but really… it wasn’t that dark… really.

As we exit the trail and get onto the paved walkway back towards Thumper, we find Marty & Sarah standing there waiting. “For what?”, we ask as Marty points ahead on the walkway. There is a cow moose and her calf just hanging out there, right where we need to go. Not being ones to let a 1200# mother and her kid get in the way of our warm Thumper, Susan and Jim run right at her and throwing little stones at her kid while using the flash on Jims camera to kinda make a stobe-effect to totally confuse them.

No… really we just waited there until they decided to move off the walkway.

We drive down the road to just outside the Exit Glacier Park entrance and pull into a parking area complete with a private bathroom. It is still doing it’s best to imitate a typical Seattle day being all misty and foggy and cloudy and damp as we warm up Thumper and revel in the joy of yet another day in Alaska.