Day 49 16 September Hubbard Glacier

In these last two days we have been so fortunate to witness the most majestic and spectacular that nature has to offer.

As we approach Hubbard Glacier, we first see Turner Glacier. There is a lot of cloud except for this patch of sunlight.

Hubbard Glacier is named after Gardiner Hubbard who founded the National Geographic Society and became the first President of the Bell Telephone Company (today known as AT&T). His daughter who was deaf, married Alexander Graham Bell, who had been her tutor. Bell had first worked with deaf people when his mother started to become deaf when he was 12 years old.

Here the glacier is "calving" It was an unexpected highlight. We were only a kilometre from the glacier. Because of the distance, you see the ice fall before you hear it. You can hear the creaks and groans of the glacier as it moves. 

Elizaeth's video is really good.

This glacier is 10 kilometres wide, and it heads out of shot to the right. Photographing it all is impossible

The glacier heads off into the distance as the clouds roll in.

We were followed by a Carnival Cruise line ship. A great way to see the glacier with 5,000 of your closest friends!

We did find out today that an injured bald eagle that we had seen in 2017 had been rehoused to the Sitka Raptor Centre that we had visited two days ago. She had been in Juneau, but that facility closed in 2022. Unfortunately, the bird had been put down earlier this year in February because of on-going health issues. Lady Baltimore, so named because after the gunshot she suffered, one of her talons wouldn't contract, so it was always up in the air.

Today we had two lectures, one on the indigenous people and another on the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.  

The one on the Iditarod was by a vet who had participated in them for years and it was one of the best presentations we have seen. The welfare of the animals is paramount, and they have constant care. Their boots are changed every 1-2 hours which means the musher has to do this 64 times. The presenter shared stories of human endurance, like fractured arms, being separated from their dog teams and participants with cancer. It was very humbling. I would struggle to be a tourist let alone a participant in such extreme climate.

As a result of climate change, they have started to do more of it at night, so the dogs do not overheat or dehydrate. When they travel at night, they have a light but because it would not extend to the front dogs, they reduced the teams from 16 to 20 dogs. Moose are a problem, and mushers must have a gun as they have attacked and killed teams in the past.