Laughton Glacier

Across the tundra we trekked for days, searching for refuge. All we had was the clothes on our bodies and a camel skin to drink water out of sparingly. We had to kill a moose and sleep inside of its emptied body to preserve ourselves from the harsh winds and glacial, frigid air.... Oh, wait. That wasn't us. But we did go to a freaking sweet glacier hidden up in the coastal mountains northeast of Skagway. We may or may not have almost died a few times. Almost fell in a few crevasses, almost slipped and cracked our heads on boulders frozen into ice for the past few hundred years. We almost lost our footing and slid down about a fifty-foot ice slope. I (Adam) almost got taken out by a boulder bounding down a cascade of water that i was trying to traverse. It was intense. It was worth it.

This is where we went. Located in the Tongass National Forest, Laughton Glacier is a popular place to hike up to if you are an avid hiker. We consider ourselves "boderline avid". We don't get the rush of hiking, but we get the rush of seeing where you hiked to. Its the equivalent of a person who likes running because it makes them skinny, rather than running just because you love the rush that comes from running. Make sense?

As soon as we got glimpse of the glacier in the distance we got as close as we could as quickly as we could. We were excited. The first part of the glacier we got to was this. A monstrous river coming from underneath the glacier. This water was pure glacial water. One time, i watched a Man vs. Wild episode where Bear rode out of a glacial crevasse via these underwater tube full of water. I was going to try it out, and then Joanie stopped me...

Once we finally got onto the glacier, the ice was SO blue. And old. You could tell this ice had been here for a LONG time! Supposedly, 1 foot of glacial ice is created by the longtime compression of 100 feet of snow! Anyway, that slope in the background is the ice slope that Joanie and I almost ate it down....

Ah, and smack-dab in the middle of the glacier was this SWEET glacial waterfall. It was crazy trying to get down in there to get this picture, but it was totally worth it. We were totally encased in ice at this point.

Remember that crevasse we almost fell into? Yup, here she is. This crevasse wasn't the biggest. But it was intimidating. If you were to look down that crevasse for the bottom, you would never find it. It was pitch black. Many a hiker have died by falling down one of these bad boys.

Here's Joanie standing over the crevasse of doom....

No, i take that back. This is the true pit of doom. This was as wide as my shoulders, and if i had fallen down there, i guarantee you would never have heard from me again. You could hear thunderous water crashing around down there. This was intense. Bottomless pit is an adequate name.

You must focus grasshopper.....

You know those big wind indicators that are on big tall poles? Yeah, i got the guts up to do it. I climbed it. Here i am, trying not to look scared. Some of the dumb things i do... Luckily for me, my soon-to-be doesn't discourage my adventurous spirit...

Mmmmm, aren't those just the prettiest eyes you ever did see?! Yeah that, my friends, is petrified bear poop. It must have been there a few years or so. It crumbled like sandstone. But it was most definitely bear feces. Joanie was avoiding me like the plague after this. Actually, haha, Joanie was having a hard time on the rocks, so i picked her up on my back and i was trying to sprint up the path to catch up with the other peeps. I hit a rock weird and ate it- hard core- on the gravel path. I didn't even have a chance to get my hands out or anything. Full on, face plant in the dirt. Yeah, it hurt.

Ah! Now there are some pretty eyes on the left there. I'm surprised the glacier wasn't melting with how hott Joanie is! ;)

Finally, this is what got us back down to Skagway. Well, not this train exactly. It costs extra to ride the Steam train. They only run this historic piece twice a week. We had to wait for the next train. But it is pretty sweet. The train had to bring us up here as well. If we didn't take the train it would be a LONG day hike just to get to this spot.

SUCH a fun hike. Just when i thought the hikes couldn't get any better, we go and do something awesome like this. Even though i won't miss the cold up here, i will definitely miss the beauty of Skagway and the surrounding area!