Kenai Fjords NP, Alaska
Snow and shorts–now this is Alaska!
It was a warm May day in Alaska, so my wife and I put on our shorts and tennis shoes and set out to Kenai Fjords. Now, the highlight of a visit to Kenai Fjords is a hike to the face of Exit Glacier, so we left our car and set out on the nice, paved trail. It sounded simple, but when we got halfway there, snow at least two feet deep blocked our path.
Not to be deterred, I said, “come on, Honey, we can walk on top of the snow!” We scrambled up the snow bank, stood on top, and gingerly made our way onto the snow. It worked! It was icy enough that it held our weight with no problems. . . at first. After a hundred yards or so, the steady “crunch, crunch” of our steps in the snow turned to a loud “poof” as the snow gave way underneath me! I sank right up to my knees, which wouldn’t have been so bad except I was wearing shorts. I wasn’t about to let this situation get the best of me, so I climbed out and continued on. The rest of the hike sounded like “crunch, crunch, poof! crunch, crunch, crunch, poof!” Angie, being the wiser one, followed in my footsteps to avoid the problems I was having. It was slow going, but we made it–a little wet, a little cold, but having fun nonetheless.