- Sleep in
- Hike up to the Harding Icefield in Kenai Fjords National Park, 900 m higher
- Barely escaped another grizzly bear encounter
- Grill the salmon you caught yourself
Sleeping a little longer is the order of the day. At half past seven we get up and have breakfast with a view of the sea. Here a sea otter splashes in the sea. The weather seems to be a little friendlier today than it was yesterday. In any case, the sun is pushing something through. We drive to Exit Glacier and pack the necessary things for the 5-6-hour strenuous hike. The path leads steadily up through forest, later high bushes until finally only alpine tundra and rocks surround us. The more than 900 m difference in altitude make us sweat quite a bit. In the upper part we discover pretty fresh grizzly droppings on the path. We only realize how close we escaped a direct confrontation when oncoming hikers tell us that they saw the bear from above two minutes ago. After a good two hours of ascent, we are rewarded with an impressive view of the glacier and the gigantic Harding Icefield. During the refreshment break, we put on warm clothes because it's pretty fresh up here.
The subsequent descent is quite neat on your knees. We are on our way north, where our pre-booked ferry to Valdez will start tomorrow. On the way we find a nice full hookup RV park. Here we grill our first self-caught salmon, which tastes absolutely delicious. Before going to bed we use the shower at the campsite.
