North of the Lemon Tree

 Does a hike count if you forget to take any pictures? I sure hope so.  This week we again returned to an old favorite but with a twist. At the bottom of the Treadwell Mine Trail there is another trail heading up into the hills. I've been unable to find it on any maps, but it is well maintained and some hikers I talked to said it led to one of the Treadwell Glory Holes. That might be true, but at the Private Road sign we turned back, the only thing to show for our efforts was a steep climb. 

Downtown at the seasonal crepe stand.  S'mores in the rain with Girl Scout friends. You knew there would be more bears. Didn't you? Same picture as above, zoomed in. I bet you didn't expect a porcupine in a tree. This big bear was in the yard across the street. Walking up and down the stairs and eating the apples from the tree. We were standing in our doorway watching her for at least 10 minutes and could hear the crunching sounds from the apples and the other plants. Eventually she walked to the next house over and used their stairs to disappear up the hill. The must have accessory of 2020.

 Now that school is back in session, the Summer Hiking Challenge is officially over. The Fall Hiking Challenge (FHC) has begun! Since there are (so far) no live meetings for school on Wednesdays, it is still the perfect day to hike. For this first week, we chose an easy, repeat hike with a detour. Trail of Time at Mendenhall Glacier was our planned detour on the way to Nugget Falls. I say "planned" because a little ways into the loop, we came across this mama bear and her cub. It is entirely likely that we could have quickly continued past them, but we turned back (actually backed away until we were out of sight) and decided to leave Trail of Time for another day. After talking to a park ranger, this bear is Nicky, from our first bear encounter in Alaska! Near the visitor center, there was a pile of scat and a sign explaining the importance of studying scat. See? We're still learning!  After learning about scat we continued on to Nugget Falls and spent some time playing o

Since the end of the last school year was unusual, and the summer was not what we are accustomed to, I thought that our traditional back to school sundaes should be a little unusual as well.  And so, I attempted to make fried ice cream. I'll need to work on the technique - I think larger ice cream balls might be the key. Of course I made hot fudge (a staple!) but also made pineapple topping (not found in Juneau stores!). YUM! I pulled the kids away from their sundaes for this line-up, I mean last day of summer photo. Hot fudge faces are a bonus. The next morning it was Back to School from various locations in our house. We tried to get a picture overlooking the Channel like last year, but the fog was too heavy and the lighting was off. The front yard, while wet, had better results. Alex and Zachary log in to each of their classes throughout the day. There is typically a lesson and then they are released from the class to finish the assignments. Mady works on assignments in the morn

Mady's berry haul from the hike, washed and sorted.  Berry empanadas and berry crisps. It's possible Mady was overzealous in stuffing the empanadas, but then again, the crisps bubbled over too.

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Of course it was rainy again, which makes choosing trails a challenge. This week's hike came with a decision about a mile in.  Do we hike to the meadows or to a cabin? The kids chose the cabin hike.  Leading up to the trail split, the trail was nice and wide and full of bridges over streams/small rivers of mountain runoff. After the decision point it became a little more questionable. Mady's gymnastics class is paying off. Alex and Zachary both stepped out of a shoe while jumping across particularly squishy mud patches. (The shoes were easily retrieved). At least there was a trail of planks...even if it wasn't perfect and had a tendency to sink. We finally made it to the cabin and a much needed snack break. The heater was on in the cabin and it was quite toasty warm. (Alex is hiding behind Zachary. Look closely and you'll see his leg.) There were a few other hikers around the cabin, picking blueberries.  Mady picked a few as part of her snack, but we didn't have a b

 It's official, we've been in Juneau for 1 year. And what a crazy year it has been.

We were solo this week and decided to try a longer adventure and headed out to the  West Glacier Trail. The trail started out easy with a nice wide trail through the woods with glimpses of Mendenhall Lake. Some nice, sturdy bridges across mountain streams. This was the first indication that the trail was a little more intense. This appeared after a steep switch-back. Things became serious quickly. At a break in the trees, looking at Mendenhall Lake and Mendenhall River. In the far distance is Gastineau Channel and downtown Juneau. Another break, further up opened to Nugget Falls and the face of Mendenhall Glacier. We kept climbing, up a couple more staircases cut into the granite and then we were confronted by this washout. While there was a "bridge", we followed my better judgement and turned back. A view of the top of Mendenhall Glacier. At the top left of the picture you can see the glacier continue up towards the main ice field. We stopped to talk to some ladies who were