Mendenhall Ice Caves

Dani and I needed our hiking fix this week, so we scrambled out to the glacier via West Glacier Trail on Wednesday. The route was pretty icy but our trekking poles were lifesavers. When we did this trail in May it was considerably warmer and although the ice was beautiful in the sun, the ice caves were smaller and we didn't feel like going too deep because of their unstable condition in the summer heat. The glacier is constantly changing and moving, so new ice structures form all the time. When we went out there this week we discovered that a small stream had burrowed a cavern into the glacier. The ceiling of ice was relatively thin, so the entire tunnel was illuminated by the sunlight above. While it's not wise to lounge around down there for extended periods of time, we were able to dart in and snap some pretty rad pictures.

Opening of the ice cave

Cirque formed by the glacier

Saturday morning my buddy Ben and I went back (we left at 4:30am so I could be back to work by 2). I've been wanting to learn more about photography, and Ben was kind enough to bring his equipment and let me borrow a camera to get some experience with something other than my camera phone. I learned a lot from him and we got some sweet photos! Most of the ones shown here are courtesy of the professional. This time we brought crampons, so before we went down into the cave we trekked around on top of the glacier as the sun rose. It was incredible!

Should I be on the cover of Nat Geo or what???

The blue tunnel seemed to stretch on forever

On Sunday we enjoyed dinner with our friends the Fields. It was great to be with them and spend some quality time with our furry buddy, Fynn. With our plane tickets purchased it's becoming more and more real that we won't live in Alaska forever, and Dani and I agree that the thing we'll miss the most is the friends we've made up here and our fantastic ward family.

The Best Part of this Post is the Announcement at the End

I don't have much of an intro this week, so let's just jump into the good stuff....

After work one night (remember we get off at 10pm) we decided it would be fun to do a spontaneous backpacking trip. We asked our friend Ben, a Juneau local, a good place to go and he told us Windfall Lake. This was about a 4.2 mile hike one way, not bad, so we decided to do it. Here are the highlights and the not so highlights of that adventure:

We saw a porcupine climb up a tree! Yah, who knew that porcupines are huge and climb trees?!

We never found a flat place to put up our tent, so at 2:30 in the morning after hiking a little over 5 miles - taking every possible branch in the trail and bushwhacking off the trail hoping to see that "just around the corner" perfect camp spot - we finally admitted defeat and settled for a less than desirable tent location on uneven, hard, bug covered ground. I wouldn't say we cursed Ben's name, but we sure had a lot of "what was he thinking telling us to come here?" moments.

All was forgiven in the morning when we saw the lake in the light. Wow! It was gorgeous, and we had a great morning playing on it. The forest service had canoes for public use, and we spent some time paddling out on the water (it felt SO GOOD TO BE ON THE WATER!). There was also a really nice forest service cabin that you can rent out for $30 a night. The family that stayed there through the night left early in the morning so we had the whole place to ourselves. We definitely want to come back to this lake, as we wanted to spend the whole day there but had to turn back to get to work by 2.

Also this week we did the West Glacier trail - hands down our favorite trail we've done so far. This 7 mile round trip trail takes you up to the Mendenhall Glacier, and from there you can take your time exploring all around this enormous, beautiful piece of ice. There were ice caves, and glacier arches, and waterfalls, and just about everything you could imagine in an Alaskan dream.

Best tasting water you'll ever have.

The weather has been surprisingly warm the last couple of weeks so we decided to go for a swim on Saturday before work. We went out to Auke Lake and played around. Chris had fun using the rope swing, and I started to hate mosquitoes even more than normal as I realized my wet body seemed to be their favorite thing in the forest. Cool fact: Auke Lake looks black because of the tannin from the spruce trees - these are the same chemical compounds found in coffee, tea, and wine. But don't worry, we kept our mouths closed so we're still good on the Word of Wisdom.

On Sunday we taught Primary for the first time. We found out that we were actually just going to be subbing for the Valiant 10 class for 2 weeks and then were going to be permanent teachers of the Valiant 9 class. The teacher of Valiant 10 has recently been diagnosed with breast cancer and the primary presidency assumed she would want to be released. She has asked to stay in her calling, so we will sub for her while she is in treatment, and then will take over the other class once she comes back.

Sunday evening we were invited to dinner with another young couple from the ward - Brooke and Garrison. They have the sweetest 14 month year old daughter, and it was so great getting to know all of them better. Brooke cooked halibut to make it a true Alaskan affair. They moved to Juneau the same week we did, so like us, they are new to the area and trying to make friends. After dinner we took a walk by the ocean where we ran into the bishop's family! It was a lot of fun and we look forward to doing more together.

Here's the best part of this post, which is this announcement at the end.........

Next spring, from April to August 2016,

we are going to thru-hike all 2,650 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail! 

Now, for anyone thinking that sounds a little crazy, or a tad bit dumb we want to redirect your questions and concerns to Aunt Susan. After much badgering, uncontrollable pressure, and refusal to take no for an answer, she has forced us into making this decision. Don't believe us? Here's the picture proof:

Our planning is well under the way and you will continue to receive updates as we prepare for this epic adventure. You will also notice changes to our blog as we give it a makeover to include a new page specific to the PCT.

Remember to pray and remember to play,

Mr. & Mrs. We-Make-Crazy-Decisions-Together Andrew