Hiking to Glaciers

Last weekend, my friend Sage, her dog Bhodi, and I set off for our epic adventure in Hatcher Pass, one of Sage's favorite places in Alaska. We hiked almost to the end of the Gold Mint Trail, following a little river...

...and found a nice spot to camp. Unfortunately, it was still foggy in the morning. The clouds and fog kept coming and going.

Despite the bad visibility, we decided to go exploring. We wanted to see a glacier but did not find the right path and ended up climbing over a field of boulders. There were just rocks everywhere! Sage thought they were beutiful, but to me, it was mostly annoying and frustrating.

On Sunday, our last day out there, the sun was shining and the sky was finally clear. We got up early, packed our camp and hiked back to where we had been the previous day. This time, everything was so clear, so obvious. It was so easy to hike up to the lake that we had tried to find the previous day.

From the lake, we continued to Mint Glacier. It was really awesome to go walking on the glacier!

We also swam in a lake. But then it was time to head back because we still had eight miles (13km) to walk to the parking lot where we had left our car. The wildflowers along the trail were so beautiful and made it an enjoyable hike even though I was getting tired. There was so much fireweed that the meadows and mountain sides were all pink.

Back in Anchorage, I had everything one could hope for after a hiking trip: a cold beer, a warm shower, and to crown all, Sage's friend made us dinner. I did not have much time to relax after the trip because the following day I had to do my laundry and organize everything for the next adventure that I started in the evening: camping in Seward and a day hike to Harding Ice Field. I had already seen Exit Glacier with Asser but I had not seen the ice field so I decided to do the hike on my way down south to Homer. To make it more fun and to share the gas costs, I posted a message in the Anchorage group on the Couchsurfing web page and got my car full of people.