Perserverance Trail

One of my favorite hikes it still the Perseverance Trail just east of downtown. Its a good climb up but it eventually levels off and doesn't feel like the 3.5 mile one-way hike that it really is.

This is looking back towards town following the pathway of Gold Creek.


I guess one of the reasons it doesn't seem such a tough hike is that it really was once a road. Its all pretty wide and most of the grades aren't too much.


Its a great place to see waterfalls like Ebner Falls


and the pathway pretty much follows gold creek and other tributaries.

There are clusters of trees where warblers like to hang out, as well as thrushes and robins. There are so many salmon berry bushes just full of blossoms and seeds that will lure us back in about 6-weeks to fill our berry buckets for the winter.

There are beautiful wildflowers and a chance to see Dall's sheep and bear on the hillside...its a real treasure, especially since its so close to town.

Perserverance Trail 2009

Information about the Perseverance trail.

We had a great hike last weekend along the popular Perseverance Trail. The trailhead is very close to the downtown area and if you can make it passed the first uphill section the trail follows the Gold Creek up the valley at a moderate incline.

Ebner Falls - probably the second most popular falls photographed in Juneau, falling second to Nugget falls at the Mendenhall Glacier.


Here's a look at the pool at the base of Ebner Falls. If the cliff hadn't been so steep (may 100 feet down?) a quick dip in the cool water might have been inviting.


This is a view from the upper trail looking down the Gold Creek valley.

Gold Creek - one of Juneau's water supplies and an important asset to mining operations in this basin.


This is the falls from Icy Gulch


Towards the end of the trail a spring flood must have taken out the boardwalk/bridge over the stream that comes from icy gulch. But the water wasn't so high that we couldn't make it across. Luckily I relied on my skills honed as a balance beam gymnast in 7th grade. I guess Tim has had practice from always walking a thin line...jk


Here is more evidence of flood damage - we had a lot of warm weather early on in the summer so I'm sure that the accumulated snow had a fast melt.



Unbeknownst to my hiking partner, the real goal for this hike was to find and pick salmonberries. One of his co-workers had mentioned seeing a bunch of berries along the trail earlier in the week. I had our trusty berry-picking bags in my backpack and quickly whipped them out. We taste tested on the way up and as we progressed up the trail they got better and better and then as we climbed higher we noticed that they weren't quite ripe yet.

We hit the mother load and came out with more than 3 gallons of berries. And if we had had the proper gear and had felt like crashing around in the bushes with the bears we could have picked more.


Salmonberry Jam! YUM

Perseverance Theater - Battles for Fire and Water

This last weekend Tim, Barb and I walked up to the Perseverance Theater to see their newest play called, Battles for Fire and Water, a portrayal of the Tlingit and Russian conflict in 1804 in Sitka. The production was very good and the acting was great. The part of Baranof was very well executed and the physical characteristics were so very close to what I had in my mind when I think of that Russian America Company leader. I'm constantly impressed with the quality of productions that come from the theater. The production was spoken in three languages: English, Tlingit and Russian but it didn't seem confusing or repetitive. Even the actors took on contrasting roles: sometimes they were the Tlingit and other times they were the Russians. The Empire has a good synopsis.

The play was inspired by Anooshi Lingit Aani Ka, Russians in Tlingit America: The Battles of Sitka 1802 and 1804 by Nora and Richard Dauenhauer and Lydia Black. All authors have done a lot of research on the Tlingits and the Russians. I have heard very good reviews on the book as well as on their other works.

Since I'm taking an Alaska History class this semester, this play was a great review for me and I really enjoyed some of the more obscure word choices and actions. I guess the only way I would have enjoyed it more is if I understood Russian and/or Tlingit!

Granite Creek-Perserverance Trail

Back in Oct Tim and I took off on a Friday afternoon hike up towards Granite Creek Trail off the Perseverance Trail. There were some clouds but it was a relatively dry day compared to the rest of October. Because of all the rainfall, water was coming out from everywhere! This was along the higher cliff as we walked along the Perseverance trail gaining elevation and overlooking Gold Creek.



There's been some trail work here this year and they have widened the trail, trying to stabilize some of the landslide areas. So a lot of boulders and debris have fallen down the steep slopes. Some of the large boulders have actually changed the look of the creek. There are now some nice large pools of water where they weren't before. This is looking down towards Gold Creek and Ebner Falls.


We took the Granite Creek turn and continued to climb up and over to the next little valley where Granite Creek runs. Then the clouds started to collect, the temperature dropped, and we started seeing snow patches from last winter that hadn't melted yet. And then it started to rain.

We reached the creek and had to bypass this ice bridge to continue on up the trail.


And then it started to snow. We were soaked and decided to head back to town before the sun went down.

Google Map - look for Granite Creek