Glennallen, AK: on the road again

After Palmer – where we ate lunch at the Noisy Goose: soup and coffee to warm up – the road follows a mighty river with jagged Chugach mountains for background. Eventually the road climbs about 1500 feet above the river and turns the corner of a ridge and instantly the panorama opens up to an incredible vista. The river still runs down on the right, the mountains still its backdrop but the valley broadens into a basin with a beautiful lake on the left (about 1000 feet higher than the river), an imposing cliff closes the left side for miles. The road descends to the lake and then ascends on the side of the cliff; it gives a tremendous impression of adventure. All of Alaska is there: the remoteness, the cold, the limitless expanse, the black spruces, the lake and the river, the mountains layered into various strata of clouds. Later we climbed out of a valley to a stunning view of the Matanuska Glacier. It is a very long flat glacier that snakes back into the mountains. The icecap on some of these mountains looks to be greater than 300 feet thick. Finally, the last 15 miles into Glennallen are ridden staring squarely at the Wrangell - St Elias range with the high, white peaks of Mt Drum and Mt Sanford. Amazing!

Today I rode cold; there was not a part of my body that kept warm. Finally later in the afternoon the sun came out and I finished the ride comfortable. Julia had more layers and did better.