Our 12 week stint in Juneau has come to an end. As I write this, we are on
the early morning ferry heading up to Haines, where we will begin our road trip back to Portland. There are many things we are looking forward to, but
for now we will take a brief look back at our last month in Alaska.
The weekend my Dad came to visit was one of the worst
stretches of weather we have had. That forced us to do more sheltered
activities; like museums, the salmon hatchery DIPAC, a historic bar, driving the
entire length of the main road, and watching the movie Wonder Woman. We did get
lucky on his last day and had a nice 5 hr window of dry weather, during which
we rented kayaks and ventured out to the Mendenhall Glacier to play around in
the ice caves. Julia and I had hiked to them before but they are constantly
changing and seemed even cooler than last time. Just being able to get that
close to a massive glacier is an awesome experience.
After my Dad left, the countdown began with only 3 full
weekends left to cross things off our Juneau to-do list. First up was ascending
one of the peaks on Douglas Island. With some low clouds, we opted for the
easier hike starting at Eagle Crest ski area. We followed the access road along
the chairlifts until they ended. From there it was a nice trek along the ridge
to High East peak. The low clouds prevented us from seeing further east, which
was the goal, but the view down the valley was nice.
The following weekend we had to move out of our scenic apartment on Douglas Island, due to our host having visitors. The last 2 weeks of our stay was in a place we found on Airbnb in the Mendenhall Valley area. It is a clean side apartment, attached to a fairly new house with bikes and a bbq. Before I start talking about those last 14 days, I will show you one last picture of the main thing we will miss about our old place; the sunset view.
One of the hikes on our to-do list was Mt Juneau, the end point of a large ridge that looms above downtown. We were running out of days so we hiked amongst the low clouds. It was a good hike, up through a thick forest to start before breaking out into a lush open meadow hillside with multiple waterfall crossings. The top was very cold and visibility was only about 80 ft, but we got some nice cloud breaks, and views of the city and cruise ships below during our descent.
Now onto our last full weekend in Juneau. We had so much to do and so little sunshine, thus we did some things that don't require blue skies. The Salmon Creek Reservoir hike, with it's great blueberry picking and low altitude scenery, was perfect. We got some exercise, saw a large body of water, and ate some fruit.
Afterwards, we drove across the highway to the mouth of the creek to watch hundreds of Salmon fight their way up stream during low tide. It was actually a sad scene. So many of the Salmon get stuck on the shore as the tide goes out, and all that remains is the part of the carcass the birds don't want to eat. It also smells little, but I still walked around and took a bunch of photos.
Afterwards, we drove across the highway to the mouth of the creek to watch hundreds of Salmon fight their way up stream during low tide. It was actually a sad scene. So many of the Salmon get stuck on the shore as the tide goes out, and all that remains is the part of the carcass the birds don't want to eat. It also smells little, but I still walked around and took a bunch of photos.
Julia's goal all summer has been to catch some fish in Alaska and conveniently her friend Nani is a boat captain for a fishing charter company. We had been checking their Facebook page daily for a last minute deal and we were fortunate to land one on our last Monday in town. Nani's boat was full, but we went with her boyfriend Wyatt on a 4hr Salmon trip. It was a blast to be out on the water and the weather was basically perfect. Julia reeled in 2 Silvers (or Cohos) and I caught a pair of nice little Pinks (or Humpys). Wyatt really knew what he was doing and it was fun to watch him work.
Back on dry land, we hit Costco on the way home to buy a vacuum sealer, and began the process of getting our 15 lbs of fillets to Portland. Luckily, one of Julia's coworkers was flying into PDX 2 days later, so we packed our goods in a flexible cooler with some gel packs and arranged a meet with my Dad. All went smooth and we are excited to feast on Alaskan salmon for the month we are home.
Speaking of catching salmon; one of the afternoons Julia was at work, I walked down to Mendenhall Glacier to get a final glimpse. As I was strolling a boardwalk area, a ranger informed me that a momma black bear was with her 2 cubs up ahead, and that I should be aware. I soon saw a group of 20 people crowding the railings, trying to get the perfect photo. The bears took turns eating a salmon the mom had caught earlier, before she was off again to the creek trying to catch another. As the 3 of them weaved through the woods, all of us gawkers quickly walked along the boardwalk to keep up and stake claim at the next great viewpoint. Julia soon arrived after work, just in time to see the momma send her kids up a tree while she got serious about finding food. Once running under a bridge we sere standing on, chasing a salmon down stream unsuccessfully. But mostly she ate grass. Although we were standing on a protected boardwalk and in no real danger, it was still a cool experience to observe bears in the wild.
Another thing to note at this time was the filming by BBC/PBS for their Wild Alaska Live show. They had cameras setup all over the Mendenhall area in an attempt to view wildlife in action. I was initially confused by the large cables running through the woods and many British people doing official things, but it all made sense later. Apparently they have about 70 crew members in Juneau working on the broadcast and multiple other filming locations in the surrounding forests. I haven't seen any of the footage but if any of you have and saw the black bears in the photos below, then we were not far out of frame.
Speaking of catching salmon; one of the afternoons Julia was at work, I walked down to Mendenhall Glacier to get a final glimpse. As I was strolling a boardwalk area, a ranger informed me that a momma black bear was with her 2 cubs up ahead, and that I should be aware. I soon saw a group of 20 people crowding the railings, trying to get the perfect photo. The bears took turns eating a salmon the mom had caught earlier, before she was off again to the creek trying to catch another. As the 3 of them weaved through the woods, all of us gawkers quickly walked along the boardwalk to keep up and stake claim at the next great viewpoint. Julia soon arrived after work, just in time to see the momma send her kids up a tree while she got serious about finding food. Once running under a bridge we sere standing on, chasing a salmon down stream unsuccessfully. But mostly she ate grass. Although we were standing on a protected boardwalk and in no real danger, it was still a cool experience to observe bears in the wild.
Another thing to note at this time was the filming by BBC/PBS for their Wild Alaska Live show. They had cameras setup all over the Mendenhall area in an attempt to view wildlife in action. I was initially confused by the large cables running through the woods and many British people doing official things, but it all made sense later. Apparently they have about 70 crew members in Juneau working on the broadcast and multiple other filming locations in the surrounding forests. I haven't seen any of the footage but if any of you have and saw the black bears in the photos below, then we were not far out of frame.
We tried to make the most of our last full day in Juneau. There is another somewhat easily accessible glacier in the area that is not as impressive as Mendenhall, and it's name it Hamilton. The trail is flat and wide, making it perfect for riding bikes the bikes that came with our Airbnb rental. We enjoyed it, and hiked the last mile to a viewpoint on a hill. The glacier view was a little obstructed but all-in-all it was a fun ride.
The rest of the story is that we packed all of our belongings back into our car (minus the TV, which we sold) and drove onto the previously mentioned ferry. The little video below shows the views from the boat. We will miss those views and all the people we met during our time there. I will save the details about everything we did/saw on our road trip back to Portland for another post. All I will tell you is that we took the long way home.
