West Glacier Trail 09

We had a nice walk on the West Glacier Trail. As we started out it started to rain but we were prepared for it. By the time we got done with the 5-mile hike it was pouring and we were very wet. Its always nice to get back to the nice, dry car and shed the sticky layers.

The first part of this trail would be a great little bike ride but it quickly starts uphill with switch backs and some boulder climbing. We have seen bikers on the upper trail but I'm just not that good of a mountain biker to attempt it.


Of course when it is cloudy you the blue of the old ice really shows better.


We haven't been up here for a couple of years but you can definitely seen the glacier mass decreasing in just that short time.

September 2009:


August 2007: (Boy that was a nice day!)


You definitely get a different view of the glacier from this side – here is Nugget Falls and the Visitor's Center from across the lake.


The trail – the rain had steadily gotten worse since we started out and the trail became a small creek bed!

Jami, Doug and Darby

We spend an afternoon with our friends from Sitka who were on their way over to Haines and the Yukon Territory. A walk at Mendenhall Glacier seemed like a good place to have a nice walk and a good visit.

At one point, Darby decided that walking wasn't fast enough and decided to slide down this big piece of granite.



I think maybe it might have been easier (and less of a burn) if there had been snow covering the rock facing! Those are some hot pants!



Darby had fun finding pieces of white quartz amongst darker rocks. We didn't see any gold seams in the quartz though. darn


Nugget Falls was really running after the rain we had earlier in the week.

Robyn goes to Juneau

We had an awesome visit with niece Robyn at the end of May. It was a busy weekend with hiking, eating, sightseeing, shopping…a bit of everything. Here Tim and Robyn look at the view from one of the foot bridges along the Dupont Trail.

A visit to the Mendenhall Glacier provided lots of entertainment. There were about 4 cruise ships in town so there was lots of activity. Its is always interesting what tourists find intriguing. We watched an older asian couple who were fascinated with the dogpoop bag dispensers.

We didn't see any glacier calving but there were many icebergs in the lake.





Nuggest falls was flowing with winter melt-off water:

We had a brilliant day-hike to the boy scout beach for our June coast survey. The weather was awesome. Unfortunately we planned our hike when the tide was really low so there was a lot of beach to cover. But it has such a nice day that we didn't seem to mind. I will admit that I insisted we should take a short cut since the tide was so low. This resulted in having to jump over a little crevass where I immediately turned my ankle. After a couple of minutes I was able to continue on the hike. It didn't really bother me until we got home. Its been a little tender since then.




and here is what they were looking at:


And what overnight stay at the Olson's would be completed without a picture with Cappy!


Thank you Robyn for your visit!

Weekend Skiing

Despite the rain, snow, and slain-slush we've had this last week, Terry invited us to go for a ski out at Dredge Lakes along the Mendenhall River. This is a great place for bird watching in the spring and riding bikes in the summer, and now skiing in the winter. I guess we can laugh about it now but the conditions weren't that great and I didn't think I would make it around the trail without hurting myself. We still haven't figured out how to wax for Juneau weather. Everyone else around here has waxless skis and that seems to be the best choice. Our skis aren't waxless and we never had any problems with waxing while in Fairbanks. After our attempts last winter I had purchased some softer wax in hopes of finding the right combination. It didn't work.

At first it was ok - it seemed we had kick and glide. But after a few 100 feet I noticed that the snow had started to clump up under my foot and started to collect. Soon I had no glide and had a lump of snow about 4 inches in the middle of my ski. And then I did a face plant–womp–flat on the ground. I thought about just staying there until the rest of our party could come back and get me but I slowly got up. That was the first of many falls as I became over confident my skis would glide along instead of collecting snow like a magnet. We went through some slush and that seemed to solve the problem until we got out of the slush back to the soft wet snow where it started all over again.

I know my sisters will remember going fishing with our dad and walking through the muck and clay. Our tennis shoes with their flat soles quickly became high heels that we wobbled around on, giggling all the way until one of us fell in the mud and then it wasn't so funny anymore (at least to the one in the mud).

We finally turned around when the slush became a pond and went over our boots. We knew it went over our boots because Tim sacrificed himself and went through it. He started off on top of the thin but then sunk into the cold, cold water. He has determined that his boots are NOT waterproof.

But we did have a nice view of the Mendenhall Glacier from the river side. And we made it back to the car without being twisted too far out of shape. And now the hunt is on for some waxless skis!

More Mendenhall Glacier

New Year's Day was another blue-sky day for Juneau and the temps were hovering around the single digits. It doesn't get this cold here very often and days like this remind me so much of typical winter days in the interior. We decided to head out towards the Mendenhall Glacier to see what the waterfall looked like and to take a walk out on the lake towards the head of the glacier. The waterfall was pretty much frozen over except for two or three spots where you could still see flowing water. We didn't get very close but I bet you could see the flowing water underneath the frozen top layer. It would have been cool (!) and probably risky to see.

It felt like we were on a pilgrimage to pay tribute to the mighty ice. As we headed towards the face of the glacier, there were two pathways, most likely set for x-country skiing, that had been packed down by skiers, snowshoers, and walkers. There was a constant line of people walking out and back towards the glacier. I almost felt like we should be chanting or something. I settled for a "Happy New Year!" or "Great Day!" as we passed other worshippers.



I don't know if you remember but I took a couple of pictures on a previous visit and posted them that showed ice skaters right up close to the face. At that time I didn't think that I would ever venture on foot to the same spot as they were. But we did - we got up as close as we could.


And yes, it was windy cold and my face was frozen! As we approached we started hearing all the popping you would normally hear on the ice - movement of water, the glacier advancing, sunlight hitting the long-frozen ice chucks. We didn't dawdle for too long and felt much more comfortable about 100 feet farther away.

The walk away from the glacier had the wind to our backs and the sunshine on our faces and I was actually hot when we got back across the lake.

I don't expect to ever get this close again - certainly would not do it in a kayak!

Freeze at Mendenhall Glacier

We enjoyed another brilliant, but cool day here in Juneau so we thought we'd go out towards the Mendenhall Glacier and see what things looked like out here when its all frosty out. There's not much snow but we've had a week of 20 and lower temperatures so it appears that all of the lakes are frozen - enough for skating, at least.

We probably saw 50 people skating or playing hockey. We also saw a few skiers and a lot of walkers.

Nugget Fall was pretty cool with some thawed water coming down the frozen water slide. Too bad we don't do ice climbing- this would have been a challenge!




We saw some goats way up above the waterfall - hard to pick out in the snow.



The glacier looked really blue - probably the most blue I've seen since being down here.



Those little black dots are people. They must be pretty close to the face of the glacier. (Better click on this picture to get bigger view.)

Taking advantage of the Sunshine

When the sun is out and you don't want to drive a long way for a walk the best place to go is the Airport Dike. Its a relatively short trail and there almost always someone else here and on a sunny day it can be packed. But its a great way to soak up some of the eliusive rays.

Depending on the tide you can venture out into the flats and walk towards the channel so there are places to go where there aren't too many people. We don't mind the dike trail on a sunny day. You always see interesting dogs and often you run into someone you know or recognize.

There a covered bench at a little past mid-way and then an upper and lower trail that continues on to the end of the runway. Its a great place to look back towards town and see Mt Juneau.



And heading back towards the car you can see Mt McGinnis and the Mendenhall Glacier on the right. This is the Mendenhall River that flows into the channel.

Must be a Bear Weekend

So we had the bear come by the house Thursday night, obviously trying to to find its way back to the woods as it zig-zagged its way from one end of the beach to the other. At some point he must have found his way or was "guide" by people back up the hill towards the woods.

We stopped by the Mendenhall Visitor's center on Friday to see what the glacier looked like. Its the end of the season and there was only one small cruise ship in town so there weren't too many people around. We started down one path to the lookout and there was a nice sized black bear giving a show.


The Naturalist said that sockeyes come in from the Mendenhall River through Mendenhall Lake to these small steams and creeks and provide a good buffet for the bears.






It was a little cloudy out which usually brings out the blue of the glacier. Here sit Todd, Claudia and Tim.

Weekend Ski

We had a really windy weekend with gusts up to 75 mph here at the pier house. It really rattled the windows and the metal roof. We are located in one of the windiest spots in the area – the wind blows right over the mountains directly at our house. You can usually see the gusts come over on the water. The water starts to ripple and then it hits the house with a blast.

We thought that it probably wouldn't be as windy out by the glacier and we were right. The other 75 people had the same idea but the area is pretty big so it didn't seem too crowded. We skied around the lake and only had wind for about a quarter mile while we were heading to the north. It didn't take long for the track to get filled up with blowing snow. I bet with the wind chill it was -15 - similar skiing weather in Fairbanks. It wasn't too bad and most of the time the wind was at our backs. It wasn't blowing enough to push you along, dangit!

It was really nice to get outside during the daylight!