Sawtooth Lake Backpacking

So, way back in early summer we went on our first overnight of the year. We went up to Sawtooth Lake in the Sawtooth National Recreation Area. It was amazing. 

The hike itself is fairly short, but moderately difficult. Just about 5 miles, and a fair amount of elevation gain. 

The lake, worth every step. 

The hike up is gorgeous, and it was so hot! Andrew was working nights at the time. So he had actually worked the night before and we took off as soon as he got home that morning. Despite our early start, we didn't start the trail until 11am. And by 2pm it was close to 90 degrees. 

We kept our packs really light because we were only staying one night. But still, sweat was pouring. 

We finally were close to the end, and there were pretty flowers everywhere. Like the shooting stars (above). 

We stopped for some ice cold water and to take our packs off. And it was just so pretty at this point. 

A little bit farther and there was the lake. It was so gorgeous, and bright blue. There was no one else around despite all the hikers we had seen on the way. We think they all turned at another, lower lake, instead of coming up to this one. And we set up camp, at this great spot that overlooked the mountains and the water. 

From our camping spot, we climbed down the rock and lay right next to the water. Which was freezing. We were so hot and covered in sweat we wanted to jump in the water. So what else would we do but take off our clothes and jump in right?

Right...

Andrew, brave, brave man did just that. The water was so cold he had a hard time saying anything as his eyes got wide and he tried to get back to the rocks. I only managed to get half way in the water before I couldn't think straight and pulled myself out. 

Well, at least we washed most of the sweat off, so our sleeping bags weren't gross. We dried off on the warm rocks and just took in the view. 

The next morning the water was like glass, and we took our time making our oatmeal and eating our breakfast and watching the water. 

We wanted to get out of there before it was too hot, and I think we left camp around 9:30 or so. 

It was a wonderful hike. I can't wait to go back and hopefully do more nights in the area. There are several other lakes beyond this one that will make for a nice trip. But that will probably have to wait for next summer! 

Helicopter Ride over the Juneau Ice Field

After our excellent tour on the Mendenhall Glacier we had a nice extended fly over the Juneau Ice Field. An amazing basin filled with snow and ice, 100 miles long and 45 miles wide. It's the birthplace of 38 named glaciers. It was so neat seeing the beginning of the Mendenhall.

 

In this picture, you can see the pilot but also the Mendenhall and its medial moraine.

Look at all those mountains, and snow! The farthest mountains are in Canada.

The below picture is the Norris Glacier.

The next picture is the Taku glacier. This was a neat glacier to see because it's advancing unlike so many others off the icefield. 

On the descent down to the airport.

And full circle, you can see the Mendenhall glacier beyond the trees.

It was such an amazing trip, the guides were excellent and the helicopter ride was even enjoyable. I never thought I'd say that!



Helicopter to the Mendenhall Glacier

This is going to be the coolest. And the longest blog post ever. I apologize in advance...but the pictures are just so cool!

I've been working in Alaska for the past two and a half months at the Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau Alaska. I've got a month and a half left to go before heading back to Idaho. Last week Andrew came up and spent a whole week with me. We got to be tourists, and oh man was it fun. We'd been saving up and we managed to fit in some great things.

One of those days the weather was Juneau perfection! Clear, sunny and even a little hot in the sun. After weeks of rain, the sun was welcome!

And we decided to do a flightseeing tour on the glacier! Via helicopter... That's really the only way to get up to this part. Other than a crazy hike.

So up we went, in our first helicopter ride and our first-ever walk on a glacier. I don't even like flying in planes and I must say... I LOVED it! It was exciting, and fun! The views were breathtaking. And maybe that's why it didn't bother me as much as I thought it would. I suppose if I died, the view on the way down would be spectacular. : )

The orange tent is where the guides hang out during the day. 

Bye helicopter!

 



 

Andrew putting on his gloves. And my new favorite picture of myself (below). We were decked out in all the gear. Our tour included a 2 hour hike on the glacier! Not just a quick out and back like some other tours. We got helmets, glacier boots, crampons, an ice axe, a harness and a giant carabineer. Which really made me wonder what the hell I'd gotten myself into.

Water moves throughout a glacier, creating these beautiful scenes. And moulins, where water rushes down into a cavernous hole. They anchored us and let us walk to the edge. Carabineer use #1

 

Here's Andrew walking up from the Moulin. The Mendenhall glacier is 13 miles long. From this spot we were about 2 miles from where I work every day. It was surreal finally being on the glacier!

This pool was crazy. It was so deep and blue. This is where we filled up our water bottles with glacier water. Yum. And thankfully, we didn't get giardia. 

Carabineer use #2. Down into an ice cave. They anchored us again, this time belaying us down into this ice cave. It was awesome. I only went a few steps down...because I was scared. Andrew went farther and got the pictures.  

Andrew looks so annoyed in this picture. It makes me giggle.

 The largest erratic I've ever seen. And a bergstrom. A place on the side of a glacier where the ice pulls away from the rock. Sometime these features can go all the way down to the bottom and under the glacier. It was great being able to see the features I've learned so much about in the past couple months.

 

Up next is the helicopter ride back. We had the longer tour so we got to fly up and over the Juneau Ice Field. It was such a treat and there are even more pictures that I thought would be a little much adding them into the post too.

 

What an experience we had. I am so glad we had this chance to be daring(daring for me, at least) and do something we might never do again.