Day 41

Hi Everyone,

You would think after 41 days we would have seen everything there is to see up here but everyday seems to bring something new, it has been awesome so far. Yesterday we took a Glacier Cruise to the Aialik Glacier. This glacier is fed from the Harding Ice Field. The header photo above is of the Aialik Glacier. You can see two tour boats below the glacier (I think these boats are about 150' long each). The glacier is much bigger than it looks. We were told that the glacier is 600 feet high.

Tomorrow we are going to try and hike half way up Marathon Mountain (3000' in elevation climb in less than 1.5 miles). On July 4th they have a race up and down the mountain. We were told that the top runners have done the complete run up and down in 60 minutes. They told us the top men can make the descent from the top of the mountain to the finish line in town in 11 minutes. We will post photos of the trail tomorrow.

Take care and thanks for looking,
Vern & Sue
Here are some pot holes we encountered driving to Millers Landing in Seward. It was like this for 2.5 miles. We thought about filling in the holes ourselves (we came to our senses about 10 seconds later).

On the glacier tour we were awestruck by this humpback whale that was feeding near the glacier. It would come up with it's mouth open then close it to catch all the fish in it's mouth. It was and awesome sight. These photos were take without a telephoto lens, that's how close it was. The captain of the tour told us he had not seen a whale feeding in this area for at least 10 years. I guess we were very lucky (click on photos to make larger).

Here is the last shot of the whale as it dives out of sight for the last time.

While near the glacier you can hear the sounds of the ice cracking. It almost sounds like thunder as it's so loud. This photo above (center of photo) shows a large chunk of ice just after it broke off. The piece was about 100' across and about 50' high. It created a wave that was about 6' high. They told us this glacier moves 5' a day.

Here is another piece breaking off (center of photo) I know the photos don't do it justice but believe me it was an awesome sight and sound.