My Great Alaskan Adventure - Thursday, July 3

We were determined to make today issue-free. We went on a VERY EASY one-hour Two Lakes trail at the base of Mount Marathon that took us around two small lakes. New rule: Only hike where the path fits at least two people. We took it so easy and so cautiously that we weren’t sure if we actually walked around both lakes. My sister’s pretty convinced that we only walked around one smaller lake and a bog in between the two lakes.

To reward ourselves for making the VERY EASY hike incident-free, we went to Resurrection Roadhouse and had super yummy fried halibut and chips with a special house dip. And then to work off all that fried batter, we decided to pay our first pilgrimage to the Exit Glacier. The Exit Glacier is named as such because ice climbers and explorers that discovered this glacier found that it was a relatively easy way to ‘exit’ the icy mountains. We went on the Overlook trail (another VERY EASY hour-long trail) which brought around some incredible photo ops of the glacier face that was scarred by calvings and jagged blue ice. After taking a survey of the area, I made a mental note to return the next day for the “strenuous” Harding Ice Field trail.

That night, the adventure didn’t stop for me. It was cold and rainy, but I went sea kayaking in Resurrection Bay with Kayak Adventures at 6pm. The concept of the midnight sun still had not worn itself out. It was a tad too chilly for my liking, but made for really great marine life sightings. Basically, when the sun is out, it creates turbulence (sea/land breeze) that causes the marine life to hide away. However, since it was cloudy and quiet that evening, all the animals came out to play! I saw the bald eagles’ nest, loons, a ton of other sea birds, and even had porpoises frolicking less than 10 feet from my kayak! Apart from the fact that my kayak-buddy had little clue how to direct with the rudder, (we were permanently paddling at a slight angle off the direction that we wanted to go in – sorta like heading towards the Magnetic North when you really want to go True North), everything was perfect.