North of the Lemon Tree

 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 ...

Peonies in the front garden. Eagles stalk the fishermen and take the carcasses. Things are getting crazy at our bird feeder. The neighborhood bear tried to break into my car. Salmonberry jelly and Salmonberry seed paste. Alex and Zach heading out to meet a friend. This eagle let me get right to the base of the snag. Chum salmon returning via the fish ladder.

Suicide Basin, created by a glacial dam, released, causing Mendenhall Lake and Mendenhall River to flood. Phil, Mady and I returned to the lake to inspect the flooding. The area in the forefront of the picture is usually swampy, but not like this.  The beach by Nugget Falls is underwater. There were many little icebergs in the lake. This bear was sleeping beside the trail. She was in an area surrounded by the boardwalk and on the high ground from the flooding. The water created this island.

Zachary was invited to go camping with the Boy Scouts.  The older Zigmund boys are also in the Troop. Since three of the boys would be camping Wednesday night, the Thursday hike was in need of adjustment. After dropping the boys off at camp, Mady and I joined the rest of the Zigmunds for a couple of short adventures. First we took a quick loop around the Shrine of St. Therese. This is typically a hot spot for whale watching, but we didn't see any whales.  There were a bunch of marmots on the rocks though. Next up, we drove out to Eagle Beach. This was a nice trail in the woods, along the river.  We didn't make it all the way to Eagle Beach, but found a wide spot along the river to run and play.

Treadwell Ditch and Mine Ruins This trail system is behind the ice rink, so I have spent many hours wandering through the ruins. There is a gate across the path at the top of one of the hills and since I am usually alone, I've never gone beyond the gate. Today we took safety in numbers and journeyed down the other side of the hill.  The beach is more rocky on this end, and littered with old steel pieces from the mine. We found ourselves trapped on the far side of the cave in pool, and the kids found a "path" up from the beach to the mail trail.  The path was narrow and steep, but it did lead us back.

This week we planned to hike to the Dan Moller Cabin . It's a longer hike, so we packed sandwiches and headed out. The trail started out fairly steep and continued along a boardwalk through the meadow. When we came to a T in the road, our map said to continue up to get to the cabin. Unfortunately, we did not see a trail continuing up and decided to go south instead.  The southern trail led back to the neighborhood below.  We decided to take our lunches to the beach and try this trail another day. Many of the kids decided to wade in the water.  And of course hang out on the beach.