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What Do You Do For Fun?


Nanuq

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Sunday afternoon the word went out that Portage Lake was frozen smooth so we drove out there for a skate! When we got there it was just amazing... the lake

was smooth as glass almost all the way back to the glacier! So we strapped on the skates and away we went. It's about 5 miles back to the ridgeline where the

glacier pushed up the moraines in the 70s, and then another mile at least around "the corner" back to the face of the glacier. Temps were about -10F and there

was a nasty headwind blowing, about 20mph or so... for wind chills of -40 to -50F. But it was a HOOT!!!

So here are some photos of how we have fun in Alaska. Enjoy!

Getting ready for a skate in -50F wind chills

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Here's the intrepid daughter!

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Look how smooth that is... glassy for MILES.......

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In places it had broken and refrozen... the ice is about 5 feet thick here

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It's about a mile behind her to get to the face of the glacier... this is a BIG place!

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In this photo the far shore is more than a mile behind me, the near ridge to the right is about 1/4 mile

behind me to the side, and the glacier is way back beyond that ridge.

The face of the glacier is about as high as a 10-story building where it's all broken and calving.

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We made it to the glacier! Here's a toe of ice that sticks out in a shallow spot in the lake, so there's not much risk of it calving and breaking the ice.

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We got WAY too close to the glacier face in this photo, but it was shallow there so not much chance of calving. I was pretty nervous.

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Enjoy!

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Hey, I went ice skating with my daughters last weekend too...but at an indoor rink in southern CA. Not quite the same...

Thanks for those pictures. I would never have guessed those distances, if you hadn't told us...wow!

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Poeple really have no comprehension of the true beauty of Alaska until they have seen it first hand. It's been 6 years since I have been there, makes one kind of homesick for the -40 below windchill. Great photos of one of the most beautiful places in the world. I'm envious as a sit here in the 79 degree heat of Louisiana.:Jumpy:

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