Why I Miss Living in Alaska

It's been five months since Cody, Specks, and I left Alaska.  Not a day goes by that we don't miss it.  We've spent the last five months having fun and keeping ourselves busy.  We've truly thrown ourselves back into Midwestern life.  But, something has been missing.  Life just isn't the same here.  I've narrowed it down to a few key points.  I know what we miss and why we miss it.  Alaska just gets in your soul.

1.) The lifestyle.  I miss having thousands of miles of hiking trails at my fingertips.  Cody, Specks, and I hiked at least 2 times per week.  Plus, there was a breathtaking glacier in the middle of town that I walked to at least once a month. Every weekend was new adventure when we lived in Alaska.  We rarely ever spent a weekend inside, even in crummy weather.  We hiked, fished, camped, and climbed mountains.  Exercise in the form of outdoor activities drove our lifestyle.  Dull moments were few and far between. We were healthy, happy, and whole living this lifestyle.

2.) The community and culture.  Alaska has an incredibly rich culture.  I miss living somewhere so identifiable by this.  There are no Tlingit dance groups or storytellers in the Midwest.  There aren't monthly artist walks through downtown Beaver Island. Canoes don't carry tribes from all over the state to a yearly Celebration.  Poetry slams, theatre performances, and symphonies are all missing from our life.  Juneau was a tiny city with a HUGE cultural impact.  Not many towns of 30,000 people can boast such a rich repertoire of events. It's just not the same living without these cultural elements.

3.) Winter.  Winter in the Midwest isn't like winter in Alaska.  Sure, there are places to ski (kind of) and hike in the winter here.  It's not the same though.  Alaska lives in near-constant darkness in the winter, which I never minded.  If anything, it made me more ambitious because I had a much shorter amount of time to accomplish tasks like shoveling or exercising.  We were constantly taking trips to the ski resort( five minutes from our house) or hiking out to NFS cabins to spend snowy weekends. I also really like cozy, dark evenings snuggling at home with my family.

4.) The weather.  Now, the Midwest tends to have far better summers than SE Alaska.  Midwestern summers are long, hot, and gorgeous.  SE Alaska has the better weather overall though.  Juneau is in a rainforest and the weather is incredibly temperate.  We typically didn't see winter temps below 30°F and we didn't see summer temps higher than 60°F.  There were exceptions to this obviously, but the average is between 30°-60°F for the whole year.  Midwestern weather on the other hand is a fickle thing.  Take last week for example, we had five days of temperatures in the -15°F range.  The summers might get above 100°F for weeks at a time.  It's a big change and I've found that I prefer my temperate climate.  I like that in Juneau I could wear the same outfits all year and I could hike all winter with only a fleece and a raincoat.  It made life easy.


5.) The mentality.  There is just something about the people in Alaska.  Juneau is a blue city in the midst of a red state.  But, the state as a whole is very libertarian.  People tend to be very "stay out of my business."  I like this.  I knew people, people were incredibly friendly, but people generally stay out of each others business.  Everyone takes care of each other without needing to discuss it.  It's a beautiful thing.

Your turn…What are your favorite things about where you live?

Currently listening to…The Lumineers- Dead Sea

Mendenhall Glacier Ice Caves

Sometimes you get to experience something so spectacular that you know it will happen only once in your lifetime.  I experienced something like this while on a hike this week.  I took off hiking across a lake in Juneau and ended up inside of Mendenhall Glacier.

Standing on Mendenhall Lake.  Look closely and you'll notice that we are wearing ice cleats! 

Mendenhall Lake, which the glacier sits on, is completely frozen right now.  This makes getting to the caverns underneath Mendenhall Glacier not only possible, but downright easy! The Glacier is accessible to hike to/in all year by hiking West Glacier Trail.  However, this trail isn't for the faint of heart, especially if you are not the most skilled hiker. The trail includes some steep climbs, slippery rocks, and it requires that you go off-trail to get to the ice caves.  It can also be quite dangerous to go inside the caves under the glacier due to the constantly melting ice.  Enter at your own risk!

View from West Glacier Trail,  August 2013. 

With Mendenhall Lake frozen though, the glacier is accessible by hiking a mile across the lake, up the base of some rather large hills/cliffs, and sliding on your bum (literally) down a slippery slope to the opening of the ice caves. It was a wonderful hike and the views the entire way were spectacular.  Nothing can compare to the feeling of standing INSIDE of a glacier though.

Cliffs near the glacier.

Touching a glacier for the first time!

Inside Mendenhall Glacier, frozen ice columns. 

Inside the largest cavern in Mendenhall Glacier. 

Look up! Massive hole inside of the ice caves that looked skyward. 

The glacier was completely amazing.  Everything emitted a soft, blue glow.  The ice was the smoothest thing that I have ever touched.  It appeared bumpy, but the bumps were actually many inches underneath the actual top layer of ice.  The top layer of ice was so clear that it was almost invisible.  It was cold inside of the caves, but warm enough that I was comfortable without my gloves and hat on.  This was, without a doubt, a once in a lifetime experience because of the melting ice.  I am so thankful that I got to experience this incredible, natural wonder.

Questions:
What is the top item on your bucket list?
What is something that you've done that is "once in a lifetime?" 

Pictures of Mendenhall Glacier

Mendenhall Glacier never ceases to amaze me.  I have often posted pictures of my visits to it and stories of the happenings there.  You can check one of my stories out here and get a little more information here if you are interested in the background on this ever-changing hunk of old ice.

I love the glacier and every trip we take to it is peaceful and overwhelming.  Words can't describe the beauty of this place.  So, I will let the pictures do the talking for me today.

Above are pictures I snapped from the trail and below are two pictures that I fell in love with and decided to enhance.  Enjoy :)

Ice cube that had been left on the observation deck. 

Stone towers created on the beach. 

Question:

What is your favorite place in nature to visit? 
What amazes you?

Summer Ice

I know that I have posted pictures of the Mendenhall Glacier a few times in this blog.  However, I intend to keep posting them because, I mean, it's a GLACIER.  How many of you have seen a glacier? Probably not very many (ha ha).  I know I hadn't seen one before moving to Alaska.  So, I will continue to share the awesome-ness of the wild and random hunks of ice in my state.

Glacier- Winter 2012

As you can see in the picture above, that was the glacier in the middle of winter (January or February I think). Cody and I hadn't been out there in a couple of months so we loaded up the car and headed out to the Tongass National Forest.  When we first arrived we were a bit overwhelmed…tour buses and tourists EVERYWHERE.  We had to park quite a ways away (we normally park right at the entrance). Then, we had to fight through hundreds (possibly thousands) of people just to get to the trailhead.  It took longer than usual to do the 30-minute walk to Nugget Falls because of the sheer volume of people on the trail.  But, it was totally worth it when we finally got to the base of the falls.

At the base of Nugget Falls, Mendenhall Glacier. 

Nugget Falls. 

The scenery was beautiful and I totally understand why nearly a million people visit Juneau each summer.  Mendenhall Glacier, and visiting Alaska in general, is a once-in-a-lifetime thing for most people.  Cody and I are just lucky to be able to call the 49th state home.  When we reached the glacier and the falls I was actually happy to see so many people getting to enjoy the natural beauty our home has to offer (although I was still a little prickly about being unable to take any decent close-up pictures due to the amount of people, ha ha).  I completely understand why people choose to come here for vacations.  I hope that they all enjoyed it as much as we did!

Rock climbing near the falls. 

View of the glacier on our hike back to the car. 

Questions: 

Is tourism a summer money-maker in your town? 

What vacations are you taking this summer?

Would you ever vacation in Juneau? 

*P.S.- I know I have been slacking on reporting any other areas of my life lately (teaching, cooking, fitness, etc).  This week I am going to try to bust out some new posts that talk about the parts of my life not necessarily related to Alaska-living.  Enjoy :)