Big glacier, big family

We arrived in McCarthy in the dark after travelling through dark trees and with Daniel and Rob and the quad bike weaving our way through rain and forest. Tim at the parking lot regaling us with McCarthy tales and moaning about the septuagenarian on the only pay phone having long conversations with his Philipino bride who has not come to this end of the road. But in our warm house replete with 4 (of the 7) Koenig children we had a bountiful welcome and warm room. To awake with one of the better views in the world out over the Wrangell wilderness and the twin Kennecott and Root glaciers throwing up their mounds in icy embrace. There is only so much adult hiking ambition that can be entertained when towed about by four children in the mountains above McCarthy- especially when attached to the hip with a length of rope. We, all of us and Boomer the dog (ex-sled dog of limitless running capacity), fumbling our anarchic happy way across a very big glacier.A day (after night of Robyn wrestling with her bear fears) dawned with the prospect of some serious glacier exploring under the trusty guiding of Jacob Schultz, spending his summer guiding in the Wrangell-St. Elias Park (the biggest in the USA). To the Ice Fall was our mantra and 30 km later we had coming as close to patting one of the highest icefalls in the world (lots of excesses here- it’s a big country) as you could hope. On the way, armed with our crampons and ice-axes, we peered into holes of blue with deep endings far away from our feet, drained glacial lakes with stranded icebergs and moulons (sp>) carrying waterfalls to rivers in the dark. Always not able appreciate distances and perspective as mere hillocks of ice and mountain play with your brain and bring on that old feeling of smallness and insignificance.A day ending with a wild wet ride on our quad bike through long dark avenues of tree and flying mud, creeping into our sleeping bags just shy of midnight, exhausted and hungry, but enough marvel in our eclipsing brains for deep dreaming.