The Hip Replacement Hike

August 5, 2017

Juneau Alaska

West Glacier Trail

It was an unusually warm and sunny day in Juneau, Alaska. I had read about a hiking trail that would eventually lead you to the Mendenhall ice cave, I say eventually because it was supposedly a long and strenuous hike (took us 5.5 hours). Well, I was intrigued, specially because if you make it there with all your limbs intact (bears might be lurking around the corner) you will reap the rewards of entering a cave of ice, carved out of a glacier that formed millions of years ago...

Me and Marijana, my enthusiastic hiking pal from the shop decided to embark on this adventure. Armed with only water in our backpacks as we did not want to attract any bears with the smell of food, we entered the trail with great excitement.

Part 1 - The honeymoon faze

The trail begins with a wonderful light stroll in the woods, naive as we were, we thought this is so easy and nice. We took our sweet time just walking and taking pictures of the beautiful scenery. After about 40 minutes of bliss and flat terrain we realized that the honeymoon was over!

Part 2 - Into the deep woods

We looked at each other, then proceeded to look up at the trail as it zig zagged up the mountain without a visible end. The climb was made easier by ropes we could hold onto and pull ourselves up with. The trail narrowed and continued with heavy vegetation and trees, until we reached a fork in the trail. One way continued uphill, and the other way was not even visible, and after much debate and asking a local for directions, we took the path of least resistance, or visibility...

Part 3 - The search for orange markers

We walked into even heavier vegetation, over rocks and dodging tree branches. With eyes constantly searching for the markers in orange that we were supposed to follow. Eventually we made our way out and into a clearing. The hard part hadn't even begun yet...

Part 4 - Mountain climbers

We took a much needed break as we pondered in which direction we needed to go as we had lost sight of the markers. In front of us, a huge mountain was taunting us. At the top, we saw people making their way down and we realized: that is our path, we could glimpse the marker at the top. The group coming down was from our ship, and they were older guests so me and Marijana looked at each other and nodded, if they can do it, we can do it! Up we went. Climbing up is easy but I kept thinking what goes up must come back down the same way...

Part 5 - A glimpse of Mendenhall

As we reached the peak and continued on the trail we soon got our first glimpse of the glacier and it was majestic but still quite far away. The trail continued down the mountain we had just climbed and as we walked along the side of the mountain the terrain had changed into a pebble like trail with huge rocks scattered here and there, until we were standing right at the edge of the glacier.

Part 6 - The Holy Grail

We watched in awe at the entrance of the cave as the warmth of the sun was melting the glacier. Those droplets of water that had been trapped in ice for millions of years were now being released and fell towards the earth with a vengeance. I entered the cave, with a little restriction (what if the cave gives in and I get buried in ice? My absolute worst nightmare!) Alas, I continued deeper, it was like visiting an alien like planet. The contours of the ice walls, the out of this world blue shades of the ice, (resembling of blue diamonds) water dripping from the ceiling and falling on me. The sound of the ice cracking and small waterfalls from deep inside of the glacier making their way through the cracks in the walls. I touched the ice and filled a bottle with the melting glacier water, what a souvenir to take home.

Part 7 - She'll be rolling down the mountain when she comes

All good things must come to an end and we knew that we had a long path to follow as we started to make our way back, retracing our steps. First along the side of the mountain, then up the mountain and down the steep side of the mountain, through the forest, the deep vegetation, zig zag down the mountain and the easy walk through the last stretch of wood. And I must admit, for most of the way down the mountain I was sliding on my hiney...

As I am writing this, it's been almost two months since we conquered the Mendenhall ice cave, and my hip is still hurting from the experience. But it was worth it, even if I may need a hip replacement later in life :)

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