Bucket list

Things are just getting crossed off my bucket list right and left here! At the beginning of the summer I made a list of adventures/activites that I wanted to do before I left. That list is dwindling now. Last week I had a super action packed weekend. On monday me and my Australian roommate set off to climb Mt. Alice! This is the peak I see out my kitchen window every morning and the highest in Seward.

That peak in the middle is Mt. Alice

This was from earlier in the summer, it doesn't have so much snow on it now

 The trail is completely unmarked and only known about by locals. After very specific instructions on how to get to the trail and minimal trouble finding it, we set off. The day was perfect, sunny and warm and not too cloudy. The ascent wasn't too difficult and the first part of the trail was through a woodsy area over tangled roots and rocks.  We came to a nice clearing partway up and enjoyed the view of seward across the bay. Two different kinds of eagles, a bald and a golden eagle circled around over head. We sat for a few minutes just enjoying the view, it already felt like we were very high up. When we broke above the treeline we had a great view of seward all the way out into open ocean and down the resurrection river. It was already breathtaking and we weren't even close to the end. As we came to a field of wildflowers we laid in them, munched on carrots and talked about our future plans. I really like hiking with Sophia, shes always up for an adventure and is silly enough to do handstands on the mountain with me and have snowball fights. Sophia left for Canada today and she will be missed dearly, I will miss her contagious energy in the apartment. 

When we got up to the rocky part of the hike I got really excited, I love scrambling over rocks and climbing in areas that are slightly unsafe. The rest of the hike was like this, rocky with scattered snow patches. 

Us as we broke treeline. The resurrection river is the in the background.

Alaska is alive with beautiful wildflowers

Awesome scenery and awesome company

Unfortunately you can't get to the very top of alice, the climbing gets far too technical. But you can get to above the bowl area. When we reached a nice grassy area above the bowl we looked out over the bay, mountains and Seward and it was absolutely stunning. I was floored by how much beauty surrounded me. I felt like I couldn't possibly stare at it long enough to appreciate it. It was so breathtaking and I got really emotional and actually teared up at how awesome it was. If you know me well, you know that this is quite a feat. I do not get sappy or emotional over hardly anything. When I stood up there overlooking the everything my eyes instantly filled with tears. I can't even describe how much I was moved by it, I could have sat up there forever.

The bay

Climbing on rocks!

livin in the clouds

It is hands down my favorite thing I have done in Seward so far, which is saying a lot. 

That night I went out with the other interns for Karaoke night! We got up to sing American Pie which unfortunately for everyone in the bar, is about a nine minute song. I had over looked this small fact when I requested it and I felt like we were all up there for an impossibly long amount of time. It was still quite fun. I love karaoke. 

The next morning bright and early was our next adventure! We got the 9am shuttle into the Kenai Fjords national park and hiked up to the Harding Ice field. The harding ice field is basically exactly what it sounds like. A ginormous ice field. It stretches out as far as you can see and is right over exit glacier. the trail is 8.5 miles and it basically straight up hill. It was a rough day for me because my legs were already sore from hiking Alice the day before. Near the end of the trail it turns in to mostly snow and you slide all over the place. Its pretty treacherous because if you fall you slide down the whoooole way. The view at the top was definitely rewarding though. It was just ice as far as the eye can see. I can also now say that I have made a snow angel in July, which is exciting for me. The trail was great but somehow it was overshadowed by my hike up Mt. Alice. The harding icefield was also awesomely beautiful but it for some reason didn't elicit the same emotional response that Alice did. I'm not sure that I am capable of feeling that again, Its possible that I was just tired when I hiked up but either way it was the greatest. 

Emily, Katrina, Katie, Josh and I partway up the hike

Exit Glacier!

Hiking through snow!

Little "emergency hut" (basically and empty room)

My snow angel!!

Overlooking Harding Ice Field 

Exit Glacier and the ice field

Awesome weekend overall. Oh also we saw a marmot on the way up which was cool. He looked like a cross between a fat guinea pig and a weasel. He also seemed completely unperturbed by our presence even after we started coming closer and taking pics of it.

My weekend was a short one, immediately following our return from hiking I had my first overnight shift. This shift goes from 11:30pm to 9am. I had no idea how my body would react to the lack of sleep and the weird hours. For the first few hours it was alright, I felt pretty good (the 4 cups of coffee didn't hurt). Around 3:30am I started crashing. I started singing loudly to try and keep myself awake and walking around a lot. The overnight shift is nice in the fact that you are by yourself and you can work at your own pace, but throughout my week of overnights my body really did not respond well. After my over night shift I couldn't sleep at all. I ended up getting only three hours during the day, and that was even after I had to drug myself with tylenol PM. It didn't help that the sun was shining and it was super beautiful outside. My mind just wont let me sleep when there are fun things happening outside. So for the first two nights I was extremely sleep deprived and I realized this fact when I took a load of laundry out at work and just stuck my face in the warm towels. I sat there for at least ten minutes with my face in the warm sea otter laundry before I realized that this was a very strange thing to be doing. After two shifts running on no sleep I was finally able to sleep during the day. It was unavoidable and I basically was sleeping before I hit the bed after my second shift. I only slept for six hours or so but it felt so much better than three. I'm glad that my week of overnights is over and I can stop being in zombie mode and adopt a more normal sleeping schedule. 

Last night was unexpectedly awesome. I spontaneously went ice climbing on exit glacier with a guy who works at a guide shop! It was amazing and the weather was perfect. he had all the gear ready for me and we hiked up and onto the glacier! It took me a while to get over the fact that I was actually standing on the glacier! so awesome. After a quick crash course on ice climbing we went right to it. I learned how to set up an anchor and some knots. We did three climbs. Theres nothing comparable to being lowered into a glacier crevasse. The ice gets bluer as you get deeper in to it and the walls are dripping. In one I had to flatten myself to get down inbetween a slab of ice. So awesome. Ice climbing was not as difficult as I imagined, its all about getting good foot holds by kicking your spikes into the glacier edge, also the ice picks. Then its just pulling yourself up from there. Its so exhilarating. I loved it. to get to a really good climb we had to walk over this TINY ice slab with deep crevices on either side. A little terrifying. we drank from a little glacier stream, some of the coldest and most delicious water I have ever had. We walked down the front of the glacier instead of taking the trail back to get to the car which is totally illegal because someone died doing it last year. As we were walking down he casually mentioned that he could lose his job if he was caught. oops. Midway down the glacier by a small glacial river, he dug into his bag and got out a water bottle. Margaritas! We hacked into the ice a little and put a handful of glacier ice into some cups and had ourselfs delicious glacieritas sitting on a glacier over looking the mountains and resurrection river below. Coolest moment of my life. Yesterday I touched a glacier, climbed into its crevasses, drank glacier water,  had glacier margaritas, and walked the whole length of it to the bottom. So successful. 

standing under an ice bridge

Setting up an anchor

So there you have it! My week of endless adventures! There is no way that I will ever be able to top this so you might just wanted to stop reading this blog now. haha.