Day Fifteen - 10/31/07 - Of Ents, Glaciers, and Chewbacca

We woke up this morning in our riverbed, eager to experience Alaskan metropolis. Forgoing breakfast, we jumped in the car and headed to our only stop on the way to Anchorage: Matanuska glacier.

At the end of a winding road, we found a gate blocking the way to our glacier. A store sat off the road, with a large and friendly wolf-dog guarding the entrance. With a tummy-scratch, we made it past the sentry and into the wondrous shop filled with walrus tusks, books on the northern lights, and candy bars. Behind the counter, almost blending into the wood behind him stood the keeper of the glacier. Creakingly coming to life, we were not entirely sure if he was all man or part ent. Lacking the courtesy to ask his name, we donned him Ent Man. Frozen by both his steady gaze and tufts of chest hair pouring from his many layers, we engaged in conversation.

We told him where we camped the night before, and he informed us that it often reached -40 there. Asking him if he had ever had the pleasure of staying at that campsite, he replied quickly, “Hell no!” Our halting conversation continued with Darren asking him if there was much snow on the ground around Anchorage. Before setting his mind to that question, the Ent Man explored the reason behind Darren’s inquiry. Socratically, he posed, “Do you want snow?” Brad and Bryan gave a delayed “ehhh,” I did a head nod/shake, but Darren saved us from noncommittal awkwardness with a heartened “Yes!” The Ent Man pondered over this response in the depths of his Ent brain and as light flickered back into his eyes, he set his gaze upon Darren and again digging to the depths of Darren’s being asked, “Is there something wrong with you?”

Emerging from his lair, we ventured toward the glacier, silently questioning our identities in light of the Ent Man’s wisdom. We parked the car and walked along a short path which led to a picnic table. On the picnic table was a sign reading, “Warning: do not proceed unless you are accompanied by a guide or have extensive glacier experience.”

Brad and Bryan, having recently studied a glacier at close proximity, declared their experience extensive and we wandered onto the awesome and potentially dangerous mass of ice. A light covering of snow frosted the hulking blue ice which was slowly pushing mounds of dirt and rock down the valley. Over a small ice ridge, we beheld a cerulean cavern and clambered quickly toward it to capture the most captivating pictures of our journey to date.

We explored, climbed, stomped, created echoes, broke icicles, and took in the majesty of this natural wonder. Finally we grew cold and hungry for the city and departed. Our first stop was the city library where we found free washrooms and internet. Darren also found a lady (for free) and the rest of us were openly astonished and secretly envious.

After checking our e-mail and developing hunger migraines, we discussed all-you-can-eat possibilities with a reference librarian who directed us to the Twin Dragons Mongolian barbecue. On our way out, we received a call from our first stab at couchsurfing.com: Nick, a twenty-eight year old jazz bassist who told us to meet him at a gig that evening and then crash on his floor. Excited to not spend money on a motel or camp in the freezing cold, we proceeded to the barbecue where we ate until we were sick.

We then met Nick at a mostly-dead somewhat-upscale bar where a family was casually eating around a high bar-table; two of them dressed as clowns. Remembering that this was Halloween, we were excited to hear that Nick was headed to a costume contest at a nearby bar, Humpy’s, and followed him there. Many strange coincidences occurred: Brad met a 70s girl who was from Gilderland – a town near his home; I met a couple, the Green Giant (female) and Nacho Libre (male), and found out the Sr. Libre was friends with a fellow leader of orientation trips at my school (Jim Murrett of FOP for those familiar); Darren saw the girl of his dreams dressed as Uma Thurman from Kill Bill; and Bryan found religion from the costume contest winner: Shaman. We moved from there to another bar where the costumes continued to rule – a bird owned house at pool, and sexy firefighters confirmed our assertion that for some reason men can dress up as whatever they want while women have to dress up as “sexy” or “skanky” whatever they want.

Outside the bar, we tried to convince Chewbacca to growl for us, but he instead classily flicked his cigarette onto a nearby car and muttered drunkenly.

At the end of our night, we witnessed a ghost from the Matrix movies (who we later met as one of Nick’s roommates, Lee) escort Nick home. Before departing, he told us that we must conquer the sun. This we did with joy, knowing that our first night in Anchorage foreshadowed good things to come.