Glacier Trekking!
| After dinner one night, my uncle
was sharing photos from his Alaskan cruise. And then, I saw
it… My jaw dropped and I asked, “Is that a glacier?” My uncle told me
that his ship had cruised into a bay where they saw a
calving glacier. “Is it really that color?” I asked. I was
referring to the beautiful otherworldly blue of the icy
monstrosity. “Yes,” he told me. In that moment, a dream was
born. Months later, on a rainy June day, I stood on a lower deck of the Celebrity Summit peering out of a large porthole as we sailed into Disenchantment Bay. The name apparently comes from a 1700’s explorer’s disappointment that the bay was not an entrance to the Northwest Passage. For me, the bay was absolutely enchanting. The water was filled with hundreds of small chunks of ice that gave way to larger icebergs until we were face to face with Hubbard Glacier. |
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| For hours, we stared at the icy wall. I was mesmerized. Suddenly, there was a large crack and then a low rumble. Chunks of ice split from the glacier and splashed into the bay creating a wave of water that advanced toward our ship. Even though our ship was huge, we could feel it rock a little when the wave reached us. It was truly an awesome experience. |
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Jen's video of Hubbard Glacier calving: |
| A few days later, when we arrived in our port city of Juneau, Alaska, I was disappointed to find that it was another rainy day. Before our trip, I had booked NorthStar Trekking's "Helicopter Glacier Walkabout" as our excursion in Juneau. I wondered whether the rain would cancel the helicopter ride that would land us on Mendenhall Glacier, but the people at NorthStar Trekking reassured me that the rain would probably pass. We hopped inside a van, then climbed into a helicopter, and, by the time we arrived on the glacier, bundled up in our NorthStar-Trekking-issue black snow pants, red jackets and boots, the rain had stopped. |
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| The guides handed out trekking poles and tied crampons
(spiked attachments) to our boots for traction. Wearing my
crampons, I was amazed at how easily I could walk along the
slippery glacier and even climb down icy “stairs” leading
into a moulin (chute through which water enters a glacier
from the surface). I marveled at the blue ice under our feet
and a stream of crystal clear water flowing past us. Our guide suggested that we dump our bottled water into the stream and take a taste of fresh glacier water. We eagerly dumped our water and one by one the guide filled our bottles with ice cold glacier water. I took a sip and it tasted great, but, when it's ice cold, any decent water tastes great. I slid the bottle into my pack. A few hours later, back on our warm, cozy ship, I pulled out the bottled glacier water, now at room temperature, and I took another sip. It was the best water that I have ever tasted! |
I did this in 2006 near Hubbard Glacier and on Mendenhall Glacier, Alaska, USA. |
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Jen is also known as J.W. Lynne, a best selling author of eleven novels. Click on any of the titles below to see the book on Amazon! THE UNKNOWN: Eight kids learn the shocking reason why they were kidnapped. ABOVE THE SKY: A girl lives in a world where touching her soulmate is forbidden. THE DARKNESS OUTSIDE: A teen is locked in a bunker to take a simulated trip to the moon. KID DOCS: An experimental program turns kids into doctors. WILD ANIMAL SCHOOL: A girl falls in love with a boy at an exotic animal ranch. WHAT HE DIDN'T TELL ME: A traumatized girl meets a boy with a horrible secret. IF I TELL: A teen wonders if her father is a serial killer. Besides reading books and dreaming up stories to write, Jen's favorite activities are singing along to musical theater soundtracks and hiking in California's beautiful parks. **Jen's books are available on Kindle Unlimited.** |