JuneauJun 1, 2006
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Mendenhall Glacier
With the dogs
Mum
| We are now in the 2nd largest town of Alaska (population 35,000) and this town is lovely although modern in comparison to Skagway. It sits under Mt. Juneau and is also a former gold mining town founded during a gold rush in 1880. This is the day we had planned to do that something special and it will definitely be the highlight of the cruise. Today we went up in a helicopter to Mendenhall Glacier which was just soooo awesome and mind-blowing. Flying over the glacier we saw pools of water which was thawed ice and these pools were a brilliant blue in colour compared to the white surrounds. What a truly marvellous sight! In places the glacier was so craggy and weather beaten and in others so smooth and a dazzling white. We landed at the musher's camp on top of the glacier where 270 huskies and their and handlers stay during the summer months and give dog sledding rides. This is good training for the dogs as during the winter months some of them take part in 1,000 mile races across the Alaska. We met our musher (who showed us the ropes on how to dog sled) and the 10 dogs he is training, who were all so friendly. The sledding was such good fun and the dogs so well trained. It was a truly exciting experience giving us a little of what Alaska is all about. On the glacier we saw several minor avalanches which were well away from the musher's camp. The weather was just beautiful, we only needed our gloves on for a short while whilst sledding. Back on board we made another attempt to climb the rock wall and can say that Tony and myself are now skilled rock climbers! (in our dreams - however we did make it to the top) We were fed yet again, (can't keep eating like this but guess it will all end in a few days) enjoyed a show and then got roped into being a compere for Karaoke Idol. (a bit embarrassing) Dom is still keeping himself busy with the friends he has made and we often don't see him for several hours. What an exhilarating day! |
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