The Bomber Traverse

Ry and I started down the Gold Mint Trail a little before noon, on a amazing blue bird day. All the way down the trail I marveled at how dry the bushes were, and how nice it was not to be soaked....the memories from the day David and I had a few weeks ago felt fresh in my mind....

The colors are pretty prime out in the alpine right now....and so are the blueberries!

Ry Hiking along the Little Susitna River

 

As we started to climb above the valley floor, glaciers began appearing tucked away on the tops of the high peaks all around us. We went behind the Mint hut and there is a very obvious path of weakness that leads up to the pass. An indescribably beautiful area on a sunny day.

A Panoramic View of the Mint Glacier Area

 

At the top of the Pass we descended a few hundred feet down to an unnamed glacier, traversed over the glacier through the snow to a pass that looked down onto the Bomber Glacier. From there it was a quick descent down amazingly crumbly steep terrain, and then onto the snow covered Bomber glacier.

The Bomber Plane

 

Its a little bizarre to see an old bomber plane wrecked up on the glacier. Wires lay exposed on the ice, and the tires rolled down the slope and look like round rocks on the ice.

Ryan in a Massive Morraine Field

 

From the Bomber glacier we went up and over another short pass and were then above the Upper Reed Lake. As I looked down the 2,000ft plus morraine field I was again so thankful that it wasn't raining.

Overall a beautiful day and a thoroughly worthy hike. I would guess that its about 15-18 miles long, with about a 5,000 foot gain throughout the day. It took us 11 hours, but we spent about 3 hours chilling in the sun at various points....its way to beautiful to not take time to look around!