July 25, 2015 - Trail of Blue Ice

We enjoyed the sunshine on the hour-long drive down to Portage. When we got about a mile away from the Begich Boggs Visitor Center, it got cloudy, windy and cold. That's the way the weather always is there - unless it's raining. Between the mountain pass and the glaciers, there is a micro-climate there that is fed by the cold blue glaciers in the area.

We started out from the Visitor Center and picked up the Trail of Blue Ice at the other end of the parking lot. It is an improved trail and it's very pleasant once you get away from the cold wind coming off the lake. That happens in less then five minutes. :) In fact, after a few more minutes I was quite comfortable in shorts and a t-shirt.

The trail beckons

A mossy rock

Our walk was fairly uneventful.  There were two club members who encountered a bear on the trail, but we didn't see any wildlife at all, so we had to make do with observing the local flora.

Fireweed

 
The nagoonberries were ripe, and we stopped to sample some with some other club members. They are similar to raspberries, but "seedier."

We did manage to see some of the "blue ice" despite the clouds. The ice in glaciers looks blue because it is compressed to the point where it is very dense and all of the light waves in the spectrum except for the blue frequency are absorbed.

You can just see a blue glacier on the left, peeping out from under the cloudy mountain top. You had to be there.

It is very calming to be able to spend time in a wild, beautiful environment with very few people around.

When we got back to the Visitors' Center, we used our Golden Age Passport to get into the exhibits and the movie. I accidentally sat on a giant ice worm. I thought it was couch. Yes, ice worms are a real thing, and they sometimes have some on display, swimming around in a bucket of ice water.

Me and my new best friend

A typical Alaskan mosquito

Walk Route: B+

Walk Instructions: B+ 

I like instructions that give the distances at each landmark.