Juneau, Alaska

We are staying in the Mendenhall Forest Service Campground. We had no problem finding it after leaving the ferry. We pull into our site (reservations were made months ago) and get plugged in and set up. This is wonderful...we have water and electric hookups!!! In a forest service campground...very rare! Maybe we can get the inside of the trailer dried out. In checking out our surroundings we discover there are two other couples staying here that we camped near before, one in Sitka and the other in Petersburg. We have the "Ferry Travelers Neighborhood" going on here!

Monday, July 5

It's raining again so we take our time getting breakfast. Checking out the Mendenhall Glacier is on the agenda this morning. This glacier is a "tongue" of ice stretching 12 miles from the Juneau Icefield to Mendenhall Lake. At it's widest point, the glacier is more than 1.5 miles wide, with ice 100 to 1,800 feet deep. John Muir named it "Auke Glacier" after the nearby Tlingit village, Aak'w Kwaan. In 1892, it was renamed in honor of physicist Thomas Mendenhall, who surveyed the international border between Canada and Southeast Alaska. This is a huge tourist attraction and we get our first taste of the impact the cruise ships have on the place. We go through the visitor center and then head for the trail to get a better look...and also hoping to get away from all the craziness. We ask the Ranger how to get to the bottom of the giant water fall where we see other people walking around. We follow the trail she sent us on, but begin to realize that it is not taking us to where we want to go (aren't the rangers supposed to know this stuff?). We were almost to the top of what is called the East Glacier Trail, when we turn around. We head back down the trail and at the bottom run into someone who tells us how to get to where we want to go...this trail does not appear on the maps and it was a little tricky to find the trailhead. This led us to the base of a huge waterfall cascading down Nugget Creek. The waterfall and the glacier are very impressive!!! This is the first really big glacier I've ever seen! We are camped next to the Mendenhall Lake, which has iceburgs calved from the glacier floating in it. We can't see the glacier from our campground, but we are very close to it. It is beautiful!

From here we head toward Juneau and stop at a Safeway to do a little grocery shopping. We decide to eat lunch here...they have a complete full service deli...wasn't bad. It was a great place to get out of the rain!

On to our first look at Juneau...5 cruise ships are in and the place is thick with tourists...yikes! This downtown area is set up all for the cruise ship folks. Crazy. We keep driving and meander up and down through the back streets. Steep!!!! Juneau is often described as a little San Francisco. Neat little houses all up and down the hills. Juneau is the biggest town we have been in along the inside passage, but it is still pretty small. Lots of buildings crammed into a small area. Juneau is located between Mt. Juneau and Mt. Roberts along the Gastineau Channel. Joe Juneau and Dick Harris discovered gold in Gold Creek in 1880, which was the state's first major gold strike. At one time the town was called Harrisburg, but later it was changed to Juneau supposedly because Harris had fallen out of favor with the locals. Can't get away from drama!

We had all we could take of that area so we head north up The Road. There are lots of roads, but The Road is the long one that runs north and south. It is called different names depending on where you are and nobody knows which, so the locals just call it "The Road." It dead-ends halfway to Haines about 40 miles north of downtown. It is a pretty drive, but like most of the drives we have been on all you really see are the trees...there are a few pull offs that allow you to see the channel. The locals tell us that you can see whales from this road. We were hoping, but not today. On our way we stopped to check out a local salmon fishery. Lots and lots of BIG salmon going through their ladders. They offer a tour but it is too late in the day to go, so we decide to come back another day. Back to the trailer...crank on the heater and cozy down for the night listening to the pitter-patter of rain on the Casita.

Tuesday, July 6

We wake up to the same pitter-patter of rain on the Casita. It is hard to get out of bed...this rain is getting to us. We have checked on the weather reports and they show clearing and sun starting Wed. The locals say that you never believe the weather reports...maybe, just maybe, the weatherman might be right this time (Please Lord!). We will give Juneau until Wednesday. If the weather doesn't change we will change our ferry tickets and move on. This weather is depressing us.

Another no-hike day but we head out to check out the Last Chance Mining Museum and Historical Park. This is on the site of the AJ Gold Mine. Lots of stuff left over from the mine to look at...a world class air compressor, 3G glass map of the mines, and lots of mining exhibits. Don really enjoyed this. It is owned and run by Renee and her husband( who also owns and is restoring a local working lighthouse in the area). She was very talkative and we enjoyed our conversations with her. We learned a lot about the history of the area and got tips on places to go and things to do.

After this we checked out a coffee place Don had seen from The Road. R Espresso. Weird name...it was RX Espresso because a doctor is part owner, but there was a conflict with the name and they had to drop the X. So now it is just weird. But, a great find! A real barista makes good caps, they have good food and free wi-fi!!! Nice atmosphere to hang out in. We will be back!

Off to the Macaulay Salmon Hatchery. I talk Don into letting us take the full on tour...which turned out to be a great choice. Our guide is a college gal named Natalie. She gave us a wonderful tour. She goes to Pennsacola Christian College in Florida, is a committed believer and wants to be a journalist...we need good journalists! We had a short, but great time of fellowship with her. What a sweetheart. All three of us were blessed by this encounter...it is so neat when the Lord puts things together like this!

I wanted to see the Governor's Mansion, so we take off to go downtown. Ugh, lots of people. We find the place and get quick pictures and get out of there.

Before going back to the trailer for the night, we drive across the bridge to check out DougLas Island. Not very exciting, mostly a residential area, go back across the bridge and decide to go back to R Espresso and try out their food...yummy wraps reasonably priced. Good choice! The owner is there and Don enjoys talking with him. Hit Wal-Mart quickly and call it a day!

Friday, July 9

We weren't sure what the weather was going to do today, but it wasn't raining yet, so we pack up for another hike. We were going to do the Perseverance Trail , but changed our minds after talking to the owner of the R Espresso where we had stopped to grab a cap. He told us you could see the red coho salmon going up the river coming from the Herbert Glacier...gullible tourists that we are, we believed him. Sounded good to us. So off to the Herbert Glacier Trail we go.We had seen this glacier from the boat when we were out on the whale watching tour and had been told that this was a nice, easy hike up to the glacier. Easy yes, but a little boring...a trek through the forest for miles. The trail ends before you get up to the glacier, but you do get a pretty good view of it. Unlike the Mendenhall Glacier with it's melted water going into the lake with a sense of tranquility, the water coming from this glacier was extremely turbulent, which made it very noisy. The end of the trail also puts you at the end of a canyon so you get the strong, cold winds blowing at you. We found a place out of the wind to eat our lunch. You can opt to keep going to get to the glacier, but the weather was beginning to deteriorate and we decided to go back and do other things. Did we see any salmon...of course not. We were told that the salmon won't spawn up a glacial stream...water coming from a glacier is very gritty. We don't -think the guy at the espresso place knew what he was talking about...or maybe he did and he had a good laugh after we left. :)

Because we were already at the north end of The Road for the hike, we decided to go the rest of the way and try again to see whales...once again no luck.

It was getting to be dinner time and Don and I couldn't agree on what to do. Arguments occurred and things got off tract...sometimes that happens in marriage. We were both mad at each other...living in such close quarters with each other for a month got to us I guess! In the midst of this tension Zach calls. We agree to meet at the Waffle House for coffee. Apologies are made, and we head over to pick up Zach. We had another great time of fellowship and were there until the place closed at 11:00!! The funny thing is, is that we mostly talked about marriage and relationships...God has a sense of humor!!

Our Last Day in Juneau

Woke up to rain just like the weatherman had predicted...seems like these guys are doing a pretty good job of calling it. This morning we decide to do the Perseverance Trail that we didn't do yesterday. This takes you through the subalpine basin, cascading mountain streams and radical waterfalls, and mining ruins which we like to explore. This isn't a trail to do for views so doing this on a rainy day is ok. The trailhead is at the parking area of the mining museum we visited. This ended up being about an 8 mile hike of moderate difficulty. Much of the trail went alongside the rushing, cascading Gold Creek. We are in an area that has mining remnants of the most productive gold areas in Alaska. We were not finding much of interest until Don found a spur "trail", hidden by the thick forest vegetation, that led to ruins of a large building used in a mining operation which had been destroyed by an avalanche. We had to bust through the vegetation to get to this place...it is well hidden. We had fun exploring the area and felt like we had accomplished something on this hike by finding this.

Along the way we discovered a paper wasp nest the size of a cantaloupe...the biggest I've ever seen! Don wanted to throw a rock at it, but I wouldn't let him!

It rained the entire hike. We were pretty wet by the time we got done...gor-tex can only do so much. Since we were in Juneau for the hike, we stopped at a mountain gear shop...Don wanted to see what the Alaskan's wear to stay dry. Boy, do they have nice stuff in that place...$600 for a waterproof/breathable jacket...another $400 for the pants!!! Holy, moly...save your pennys. Needless to say, we will keep getting wet when we hike in the rain. :)

It was a good hike...our last in Juneau. After spaghetti dinner in the Casita, we load up and go do laundry. Oh boy! While we wait for the clothes we both do some computin'. When the laundry is done, we move next door to the Waffle House...small world. Don gets his computer all plugged in, I turn on my iPad. Nothing happens. So I plug it in, still nothing happens...this isn't looking so good. I thought that it had just died. I was very, very unhappy. So I sat there while Don didg his thing and wait for him to get done.

The thought of not having my iPad for the rest of this trip was very hard for me to accept. I did not sleep very well that night.

Sunday, July 11

It rained harder last night than on any other night on our entire trip so far. We got up and got going. We were meeting with Zach for breakfast, then getting the trailer ready for the ferry ride to Haines. We had all looked forward to having waffles at our favorite place...The Waffle House...but it doesn't open until 11:00 on Sunday mornings. Darn! So we go to another place...not great, but again we enjoyed fellowshipping with each other. I was still grieving over my iPad and trying to decide what to do. We had picked up Zach and on our way I handed him my iPad. He has an iPhone and is familiar with Apple stuff. He pushes two buttons at the same time and viola!!!! it is working!!! Zach, you are my hero!!!!!! Thank you so much!!! The morning was so much better after that!

We took Zach back to his boat, took pictures and said good-bye. Thanks Mark, for asking us to call your nephew. Thanks Zach, for calling us back. Thank you Jesus for this young man and the fellowship we had together. We are truly blessed!!

We get back to the campground and pull up stakes...we are at the ferry terminal by 1:00. This will be our last ferry ride along the inside passage...kind of sad. We have really enjoyed going on the ferrys. Won't miss the rain though! We had a very good time in Juneau and did a lot of fun things. God blessed us with meeting great people and gave is some glorious sunshine. Good memories!

God answered our prayers with a resounding YES!!!! We have sunshine. And, boy howdy, did we take advantage of it!!!

It started out overcast, but at least it wasn't raining. Our day would begin with the West Glacier Hike. This takes us up to the west side of the glacier where we can get a closer look at it...up close and personal! This will be about a 7 mile hike of moderate difficulty. Sweet!! Like all of the other trails we've been on, this one quickly deteriorated into the familiar slogging and bushwacking, which means slow going. The views at the end were spectacular! We first climbed up to get in the high views across the glacier and the lake. By this time, the clouds were gone and it was a beautiful day!!!! Thank you,Jesus! We were on our way down when we were startled by a young man coming through the brush...once it was determined he was not a bear (whew!), we got to talking to him. We had heard from our tour friend Natalie about the "ice caves", but we didn't know where they were. This young man told us how to get to them and said that it was worth the effort to get there. So now we made our way down the mountain toward the end of the glacier. We were glad we did! We had a good time exploring the "caves". It was a unique and fascinating experience. The blue in the glacier is phenomenal!!

Once we got back to the car, we decide to eat our lunch by the lake...a picnic! It is such a pretty afternoon. We enjoy the scenery tremendously! This place is spectacular when you can see it!

We had enough daylight left (you have enough light to hike until about 10:00 at night) to go and do the East Glacier Loop...the same trail that the ignorant ranger sent us on yesterday only we will take it in the opposite direction. This is another 7 mile hike. This trail is actually in decent shape and we move pretty fast. We are hoping that this takes us up above the waterfall on Nugget Creek and has great views. A little more than half way up, Don sees a side trail. Having read that there are mining ruins in this area we follow the trail. We are not disappointed. We find all sorts of large machinery, cables, wood beams and even things like bed frames. Most of the stuff was being covered by the sphagnum moss and understory flora growing in the forest. It is being reclaimed by the forest. This trail did take us to the top of the falls, sort of. Because of all the trees and such grown up, you could hear the falls, but you couldn't see it. Oh well. The views we could see on the way down were still beautiful! We have now totally experienced the Mendenhall Glacier!

A day or so ago, Don had a call from our friend, Mark Lauman. His nephew, Zach, is working on a yacht as first mate for the summer here in Juneau. Mark asked us to contact him and Don had left a message with Zach. Random. "Hey, you don't know us but..." Zach called us back between hikes and we made arrangements with him for dinner. The boat is docked (moored?...does it matter?) in Auke Bay which is close to our campsite. There is not a lot of places to eat to choose from on Auke Bay, so we try the Thai food place. We pick up Zach at the dock area. What a blessing our time with him was! We had a wonderful time of fellowship. The Thai food was pretty good and afterwards we continued fellowshipping next door at The Waffle House, which is a waffle, coffee, free wi-fi place. A popular local hangout with the young people. It is open until 11:00 each evening. With it staying light so late, it is easy to be up at that time of the night...that coming from me who is usually in bed by 9:30!!! We left Zach praising God for our new friendship, and being blessed by the whole evening!! It is so neat when the Lord does things like this!

Thursday,July 8

The sun is shining again!! Glorious!!! How do we spend this sunny day? The subject of whale watching had come up the night before with Zach. He had mentioned that they go out of Auke Bay. So we got going early to go check it out and ended up getting on an 11:00 tour. I am excited! We had some time to kill so we once again drove up The Road pulling off at various turnouts to check out the view on a clear day again hoping to see whales...none today. We had seen this sign days before when we drove up The Road...The Jensen-Olson Arboretum...we turn in to check it out. This looks like someone's private home looking out over the coastline. It is covered with beautiful, well kept gardens. Lovely!!! People are welcome to mill around, sit and relax on one of their many benches or even bring a picnic lunch and spend the afternoon. All around the house were blooming flowers...with the ocean right there and the bright blue sky, it was a beautiful setting. We wanted to stay longer, but it was time to go whale watching.

We were going out with Dolphin Jetboat Tours. Guaranteed to see whales. And whales we saw!! Whale spouts, tails, breeching, fin slapping and even bubble feeding!!! Very exciting!! We got some good pics and movies. It is a challenge to get good pics...regardless, we had a good time!!!

Afterwards we hit up the wacky Waffle House and try out their soup. It's pretty good.

We still had a lot of daylight left, so another hike was at hand! Today we are doing the Mt. Roberts Trail. It is a 4 1/2-5 mile hike gaining over 3200 feet in elevation. We don't have to bushwack, but we do get the slogging. The first 1 1/2 miles is major slogging through the rainforest. After that the scenery opens up as we work our way to the top. This is a butt-kicker hike but worth every bit of effort to get there! A beautiful sunny afternoon, views forever in all directions, blankets of wildflowers, soaring eagles and aerobatic ravens, and paragliders thrown in there for fun. This is by far our favorite hike so far...incredible!!! We still have to go down...ugh! But we get down safely (thank you Jesus that we can still do this) and are back at the car around 9:30pm (not bad considering we didn't start the hike until after 3:00 and we stopped alot to take pictures and enjoy our surroundings).

Side note: there is Mt. Robert's Tramway that begins in Juneau and goes up the mountain. You meet with the top of the tram after hiking the first mile and a half...the worst part of the trail. There is a restaurant up there, a gift shop, and even the Juneau Raptor Center live eagle display. You cut out all the slogging through the forest by taking the tram up the hill. Next time we will take the tram!!!

We mosey back to Auke Bay and stop at the Waffle House for coffee and Don had a late night snack...a waffle of course! The local college kids were enjoying a rousing card game. They were a very enthusiastic group having good clean fun...refreshing to see.

What a day!!! Thank you, Jesus!!

"But now ask the beasts, and let them teach you; And the birds of the heavens, and let them tell you. Or speak to the earth, and let it teach you; And let the fish of the sea declare to you. Who among all these does not know that the hand of the LORD has done this, in whose hand is the life of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind?" Job12:7-10