We did not do the hike that I expected to do. Apparently Dan had done the trail to Inter Glacier that we had planned and we decided to take the shorter trail to Emmons Glacier for new scenery.

Two things I would like to say up front: The first thing is that altitude makes a difference. I wear a heart rate monitor on my climbs and I had to stop 3 or 4 times in the first mile to let my heart rate go back down into my target zone. The incline was not that steep, I am pretty sure it was due to air pressure.

The second thing is that I have never seen a glacier up close before. It was not what I expected. I expected the pristine white ice wall type of thing that looks like an iceberg on land. If that is the way they are supposed to look, then the National Park Service needs to get off their butts and dust this thing off! The glacier looked almost like rock and dirt. The way you could tell it was a glacier was that the fact of it was cracked and there was a definite icy look about it where it had broken. When we started, the trail is well maintained and the views were fairly nice. The maintained trail is only 1.5 miles which we were able to do in about 30 minutes. At the first scenic lookout, I tripped coming back onto the trail and scraped up my left arm. While this amounted to no more that a "boo boo", it has convinced me that I need to take a first aid kit in my pack from now on. I am going to pick one up on the way into work today.

After the maintained trail ended, we then went onto the unmaintained trail to see if we could get all the way up to the glacier. Up in the distance, we could see an ice cave which we thought would be really nice to see upclose.

So, we continued along the unmaintained trail until we got to a fairly large cliff where there was no way down. It appeared that about a quarter of a mile back, the cliff we were on was a hill that could be walked down. The bottom looked flat and easy over to the glacier. So, we walked back the quarter mile and sure enough, there was a trail of sorts down the steep hill.

First thing we noticed at the bottom is that perspective still works. While the bottom looked flat from 200 feet higher, it was not flat at all. Heck, it was not even flat-ish! There were these 10-15 feet rock piles that we had to traverse. But we really wanted to make it to the ice cave, so we pressed on.

The next major obstacle was White River. From a distance, this was a small creek that would be easily crossed. When we got close to it, it was obviously not something to jump over. This close to Emmons Glacier, White River is not really large for a river. 15 feet across and maybe 2 feet deep, but the water was moving a really fast rate. It was not crossable on foot without some large rocks in the middle we could jump to.

When we first got close to White River, I was convinced that one of two things were true. Either we had found the source where Yoo-hoo was bottled or we were darn close to the Wonka Chocolate factory. I was certain that I was not looking at water. I tried to get Dan to taste it to see which it was, but he wouldn't. Now I will never know for sure. Since there were no Oompa Loompa's about, it is my guess it was Yoo-hoo.

We followed White River east (up hill) for a couple hundred yards hoping to find a place where we could cross but it soon became apparent that we would not be able to cross.

We had traveled just over 3 miles so we decided to stop and have a powerbar and rest for the trip back. I know it was 3 miles because I bought a GPS system that we were using. While I have not gotten the Topography maps that I can load into it yet, it still was a good gauge of distance and it showed the trail of what we had traveled. Other new equipment I had purchased since the last hike were some Solomon hiking boots, which I like, and a CamelBak,which is a day pack with a 100oz water bladder in it and a hose that clips on the front (while this did make getting water easier, the first mouth full is always warm and nasty).

The way back was a little easier, although when Dan led I gave him the name Deathwalker. Some of his "trails" were a little unsafe and came to dead ends. All in all, he actually did a good job but male bonding etiquette required that I chastise him for even the slightest mistake.

When we got back to the maintained trail, it was smooth sailing the rest of the way to the car. Unfortunately, with the new equipment, I forgot my camera so I have no pictures to share of the hike. With luck, we will goback this way before the end of the summer and I will back fill them in.