Friday June 16, 2006

Hi all,
Today was the highlight of our trip!

We were flown by helicopter to a dog camp on the Mendenhall Glacier.
Because of Gwyn's bad experience on the last helicopter she and Billy
decided to stay and explore Juneau.

These are some scary copilots sitting up front.

Our pilot's name is Nate.

Looking up the Mendenhall Glacier.

Looking back at Juneau.

We cross over the mountains into a winter wonderland.

This vast untouched willderness is like nothing we have ever seen.

We flew over this huge hanging glacier.

You lose all sense of size out here.
Check out the size of the helicopter in front of us.

The peaks reach up to 7000 feet out here.
This time the ride is as smooth as glass.

As we round the mountain the dog camp comes into view.

As we get closer we see that it's a lot bigger than we thought.

Turning the corner and setting us down.

What a ride!

They have over 300 dogs here.

Every dog is glad to see us, saying "pick me","pick me" !

The puppies are so cute.

They all want to be petted.

Sue is as ready and excited as the dogs.

Our dog team is hooked up and we're ready to slide out of camp.

Mush ! Mush!

With all the food we have been consuming,
this will be a real workout for these guys.

Ok, I think we're ready. Mush!

And we're off !

These guys move, in just minutes we are far from camp.

If you look close you can still see the camp.

This valley gets over 100 feet of snow a year.

Mush ! Mush !

This is our guide, Sigred, from Denmark.

Then we let Sue drive.

Sue, where are you ?

The time here went way too fast and we have to head back to reality.
We say goodbye to our guide and to the dogs.

We are then lifted away like a magic carpet.

As we climb out of the valley below, we think how blessed
we were to experience such an awesome time.

Following the glacier down the mountain.

You can see it breaking up as it melts.

Thank you Temsco, for an experience of a lifetime.

As we set down we are sad that it has to end.

We took about 200 pictures,
so it was very hard to chose the best ones.

While we were doing our thing, Billy and Gwyn went to a Museum

and then visited the capital building.

Tomorrow we will be in Ketchikan Alaska, see you then !

Ralph , Prilly, Sue, Bill, & Gwyn