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Today I led my first solo full-day trip to Aialik Bay! It was a blast, and I'm fairly sure all my guests had a good time out there. It was my first experience with mixing groups in boats, and I think it worked out quite well. So I wanted to share a little about the reasoning behind my decision and how it worked out in the end.

I have exciting news: I'm now allowed to run trips on my own! I checked out over the past two days, so I can lead trips in both Resurrection and Aialik Bays. This evening was my first solo trip as a lead guide, and it was pretty interesting. In particular, we didn't end up seeing much wildlife, but people still had an awesome time. We chatted about the history of the area, exchanged stories of heroism (that serum run to Nome in 1925), and generally soaked up the scenery. It's so cool to have the flexibility to really make a trip fit the people going on it, rather than forcing everyone into the same mold. On the whole, it was a great first solo trip! I look forward to continuing to learn from every trip I lead.

I had the dubious pleasure today of ending a trip early. We talk a lot about safety during training, and it became pretty clear that I couldn't keep this group of clients safe in the long run if we stayed out on the water. So we ended the trip early and came back to shore. This was a fabulous learning experience for me. It also showed me how well-prepared I actually am to keep people safe out there. On the whole, I'm proud of my actions, though there's plenty I would do differently next time. Here's how the whole thing went down.

I was pretty unsatisfied with my first take on glaciers 101. Here's another attempt, after letting that stew for a while.

Glaciers 101

Glaciers are massive bodies of moving ice. Their scale is enormous, so it's easiest to understand them in comparison to more familiar topics.