Glacier National Park

Hey Everybody!

It's about 1pm. I've been on the road since 4:30am.... Gotta get up early for those sunrise pictures! Not that I have any transferred for you right now...next post, I promise. These are just a few pics from arrival yesterday before the severe thunderstorms started. It was cool to watch....I tried to get a pic of lightning striking a rainbow 'cuz I don't usually see that sort if thing, but I failed. At least I know it's possible.....now I want another stormy afternoon!

Anyway....this is taken from the road on the way to the park.

Next: Going-To-The-Sun Mountain from one of the trails I attempted yesterday when I started hearing thunder. Yes, I returned to my car!

 

Since it would be wrong to post without one....this is just one of MANY waterfalls along the road....but not the Weeping Wall. Sadly, that section of road is under construction. I can drive by, but no place to stop for pics.

Lots of wildlife sightings so far. One deer when I was driving. One Badger. One Hoary Marmot. No bears :-(. Good thing, really, because I opted to travel without bear mace, which makes me doubly wrong in park rangers' eyes (they don't encourage solo hiking). And, without even trying to find them...several mountain goats were hanging out along a creek (and in the road). No place to park because of road construction, but got a couple pics b/c everybody was stopping or at least slowing.

So, that's it for now. I am off to a different area and will be in touch again tonight or tomorrow after another early morning run. I have lots to say about this park, but it will have to wait until I'm not sitting in a busy parking lot. Wish you were here....we could hike and scare off bears together :-)!

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Glacier Walk Photos

Hey Everybody,

It's been about 100* each day since I've been in Montana, so I have decided to revisit the glacier walk to cool off! I should also confess that I walked to the local lake yesterday for a swim. That doesn't sound like a big deal [I know], but when you consider that I have been making fun of this little lake since I lived here for college it is kind of a big deal that I jumped in it for the first time ever... The water isn't as warm [or as clear] as the Gulf of Mexico, but it was warm enough & pretended I was at the beach. I have no doubt I will do it again soon.

Anyway, back to the glacier walk....and the disposable camera pics. The first thing I have to tell you is that this wasn't a black/white camera. It just looks that way. It was raining on & off, the ice is dirtier than other glaciers I've seen because of volcanic ash. But it's a glacier.....I got to play on it & lived to tell! :-)

This is the best example I have of how the top of the glacier looks. It is not flat at all. It sort of reminded me of waves as they roll in at the beach. The crevasses range from very shallow to very deep. And the only blue ice we saw was in the cracked areas.

 

This is the high point of our hike. It was also the only point during the entire walk where we could see the upper glacier. It is barely visable in the photo, but it's there.



I didn't just learn how to use an ice ax and crampons...I learned about glacial cones too. These cones can be seen at various points along the most melted sections. When the dirt/ash forms a thick enough coat on the ice it works as insulation. So, there is some pretty blue ice under this dirt cone & it will eventually melt. Kinda cool though, huh?

  

At last....solid ground. This is a view from the dirt path as we were leaving.

And, finally....this has nothing to do with the glacier walk. My snorkel pics from Silfra are pretty lousy, but I'm posting one anyway. At the end of the snorkel through the fissure we entered a deep lagoon. This is part of the continually cracking earth floor. You really have to see it for yourself....it's much cooler than this looks!

Hope all is well wherever this finds you. I hope to sneak off to Glacier National Park for a quick visit in the next week or so. First, I REALLY should finish my laundry. After that I should be able to let you know where I'm headed to next.

Thanks for visiting!!

Lucky Records

Hey Everybody!

I am back in MT for a bit. It was time to do laundry! And I needed to get some sleep after the marathon trip back to the states. On 7/4 I left the hostel in Reykjavik at 6:30am & then had a long wait for my 11:30ish AM flight back to Oslo. Once in Oslo (around 4pm) I spent the rest of the day & night at the airport. I flew out of Oslo on 7/5 at 6:30AM via Frankfurt, Gemany (3hr layover). Then it was on to Newark, NJ where I found a Dunkin Donuts willing to make the Men in Black iced coffee for me even though it wasn't advertised anymore. Aaaahhhh, good to be home! One more flight.... to Denver, which is where I stopped for the night around 10pm. After 24hrs of traveling, 7/6 was an easy 1.5hr flight to Montana where I have been staring at my laundry for two days. I just started it about 10min ago.

I will let you know when I am getting ready to take off again. I think it will be in a couple weeks...

In the meantime, I promised two very cool guys that I would post a blog about their shop, Lucky Records! If you make it Iceland, stop by; they are located at Hverfisgotu 82 in Reykjavik.

What are the chances that I would choose to walk down the street that has the only record store in Iceland?!

I had to check it out. And for a moment the owners & I thought I stumped them with my question: "What's the coolest rock 'n' roll item you have?"

But the guys came up with a great answer: "We are!" and then told me that they are the only dedicated record store in the country! I must have checked out half the record bins....they really do have everything! Johnny Cash autograph, Duke Ellington, world music, old Beatles albums, and rare Icelandic pressings. Of course, you can get CDs too. :-)

So, I hope this finds all of you well and enjoying the summer. I think I will have a few more pics from Iceland soon b/c I just got my disposable camera photos back. They aren't great, but they'll give you an idea of what I saw on the glacier hike.

Mostly I had to stop looking at my photos because I got to the point where I was dissatisfied with ALL of them and wanted to hit delete way too much! So I went to bed :-) But I will be in touch again soon.....

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Happy 4th of July!

Hey Everybody!

Here I sit in Oslo's airport. It has become something of a second home this past month. The best way I can demonstrate that is with a short story. There is a Starbucks here & I have used it 2 (maybe 3) times in the past month. My most recent visit (an hour ago) went something like this:

Me: Hi, java chip frappucinno, please.

Barista: I remember you. You went north and saw the ice bears.

She apologized for not remembering my name, but I assured her it was okay. How many thousasnds of people have ordered this past month? I was just glad she remembered me for a travel story and not my order, like my local FL Starbucks or my favorite DQ during college. For the record....I love my local FL Starbucks!

I have about 10 hours in the airport & about 1 hr of free wifi - unless the desk staff change. Then, I could get another password. But that might mean losing the best airport bed I've had in Oslo. For the first time I have gotten to a full length cushioned bench for the night! It's the simple things that matter when traveling. You know, ice for drinks, benches for sleeping, and free wifi.

More from Reykjavik....

While this is NOT a great photo, I had to take the pic. How could I not love a place that humanizes its cars!

This church is visible from pretty much anywhere in town. The statue in front was a gift fom the US to Iceland on the thousandth anniversary of the discovery of Iceland.

I still don't understand why these vertical photos are so weird on the blog....if anybody knows how to fix it, please teach me!

The last lighthouse(s)....for now. This was taken at the local sailing club.

And some flowers at the church....

More soon.

Iceland trip winding down....

Hey Everybody!

The best way to avoid packing....post something! The problem is the hostel's wifi is very slow, but I'm gonna try! If not, I'll have plenty of hours sitting in airports in the next day or so....

Today was my last full day in Iceland....I wish I were staying longer! Mostly because I think it's a beautiful & cool place, but also because the weather started improving late this afternoon. One good thing: the rain held off until just after snorkeling in the fissure between the North American & European continents. Since I have only the disposable camera for water shots...the on dry land shots will have to do for now.

The tectonic plates move about 3cm/year & there are mire than a hubdred small earthquakes per day in thie area....very small & not noticed except by scientists.

We entered the water via these stairs in our fins. That is my hiking boot....I took the pic after. Way easier to take the stairs with fins than I thought it might be. The blue fins belong to a group of divers who just entered.

I don't know how cold the water was....our guide wouldn't tell us :-). I will tell you that the dressing time for dry suits was longer than for a simple wet suit. I have never felt more like an astronaut in my entire life! But it worked....water was very comfortable & not a drop of water got on my clothing. The lips get a bit cold after a few minutes, but you get used to that. I think we were in the water about 30-40 minutes. I asked the guide & he said he's been in for as long as 3 hours. I would LOVE to snorkel here again.


This is the actual beginning point....we ended in a lagoon because it has greater visibility than the lake.

This is the best above ground shot I could get to show you the underwater rock formations. It is almost always deeper than it looks....sometimes a couple hundred feet where we were this morning. I expected no life due to the cold water. I saw no fish, but there were two types of algae.

The rain came down harder and harder for the next few hours, so I returned to Reykjavik, returned the rental car, walked around the city for a few hours. These are up just a couple of fun pics for tonight.

This is the backside of the concert hall.

And this is a bt of local art.....

I better get back to packing & to bed. I will be in touch soon. Thanks!

Did someone say waterfall? :-)

Hey Everybody,

It's late and I have to get up early (in about 6hrs) to get to an activity on time, so this will be quick. I promise to get caught up on the Iceland trip soon - a few days!

The short list for today:

1. For the first time since June 26 I saw a traffic light...

2. About KFC: I saw the first one today and it's true....KFC tastes better in Iceland. Excellent chicken!

3. I had ice today....do you have any idea how hard it is to get ice for a drink in Iceland (well, Norway too!)?! you know, if you aren't on a glacier to pick it up yourself!? The girl at KFC told me it was because it was KFC. Thank goodness for KFC; I miss ice!

That's all I remember for the moment....stay tuned. In the meantime, here are some pics from the last day or two.

I believe there was a comment about me never posting lighthouses or waterfalls..... :-)

The beaches in Iceland don't seem to get real busy in the summertime....

Why don't we make ours this cute and cool?! All but 2 that I have seen here are this color.

This crater was formed about 6,500yrs ago. Here's a view from the top & the bottom, including some of the colorful smaller lava rocks.

And waterfalls.... Seljalandsfoss from behind....cuz I don't want you to get bored!

Scogafoss - legend has it a Viking hid gold behind this waterfall. Nobody has found it yet....

Last but not least: this is Gullfoss. It has been said that this one is more powerful than Niagara Falls. It has two levels. Lava forms the edges of the falls. And the canyon was carved by glacial floods.

Ice Day in Iceland!

Hey guys,

It's about 1:30am, so this is gonna be quick, but I promise I will get caught up. Last night (6/30) I slept between the Atlantic Ocean and an outlet glacier. I could see the glacier from my room! I took this around 8am.

It was about a 5mi round trip hike last night around 9pm to see the glacier up close....kind of rainy so I didn't bring my camera - no pics up close.

This morning in more light rain (as I tried to talk myself into & out of the glacier walk!) I took a zodiac cruise in a glacier lagoon....the cool one that feeds icebergs to the sea! They even go under a bridge to get there....I could barely stand leave the place!

Here's a pic of an iceberg that flipped over in the water while we were cruising around. We watched a smaller 'berg flip, but missed this one. We know it flipped because of the waterfalls on the iceberg & the waterline.

But I had to leave....I had a glacier walk at 2pm. And I failed to convince myself that I shouldn't do it....just a bit nervous about the crampons, the ice axe, and the crevasses! I didn't bring my camera on this hike due to two factors: 1) rainy weather and 2) if I fell into a crevasse, somebody might as well inherit a working camera :-)! However, I brought a disposable camera, so I will know in a couple weeks if I got any pics, I hope so!

About the glacier walk....it was very cool! Well, most of the time.....

We got an extra hour on the glacier just because of the distance the guide took us. The crampons felt weird for a few minutes, but quickly felt comfortable and secure. This means I was feeling pretty good cruising along on the glacier. That would be the last time I felt that way for a good 45min I'd guess! On a narrow portion of our hike I must have tripped myself or mistepped and so slid down the ice on my knees. I will check for bruises shortly....pretty sure I've got 'em!

I got up and moved on with a slightly wounded ego, but no real harm done. It was about 3 min after that fall, however, that we had to make a bit of a jump up from one hump to another. I was a bit shaken from the fall....crevasse on each side of me -- but only one was deep. I hesitated, but made the jump. On the return, I waited for the guide to walk back to help me jump down. I just couldn't do it again....the fall would have been not good!

So, it was very cool because I hiked all over a glacier today. It was easy for a long time, which made me think it wasn't a big deal after all - you know, not that dangerous. That's when it got interesting with narrow foot paths & ice steps hacked out with the axe. It was a very good lesson in the serious nature of glacier activities. It also proved that climbing up is MUCH easier than climbing back down.

Mostly, it was just cool to see the secret parts of the glacier - the internal waterfalls in melting ice, the blue ice under volcanic ash, the glacier cones, and the beauty of the waves (or layers) of snow and ice.

Ok....it's now 2am. I have to shower and get to bed. And check on my bruised knees :-) or pride or.....Here's one last pic. This is Hwy 1 - The Ring Road - the main road around the island. Endless lava fields on both sides.....

More soon. Thanks for stopping by!