BACK TO JUNEAU

August 21, 2016


The weather in Juneau today was as dramatically good as last Sunday’s was dark, rainy and overcast.  To celebrate, Bonnie and I booked a local tour up to the Mendenhall Glacier.  Had we tried to go out last week with Kyle and Cathy, we would have reached the site, but have seen nothing but each other and our $40 per person tour group – sorry they missed it!

Our bus driver’s name was Matt (probably still is), and he had a small pony tail held in place by some sort of device, and his right ear was pierced with three studs – one red, one green, and one white (no idea the significance, and I decided you don’t ask an Alaskan such questions).

He gave us good commentary as we toodled along.  We went right past the governor’s mansion – the front door is perhaps 20 feet from the road and there was no security in sight.  Interesting.  He pointed out the store – Fred Meyers – where everyone goes to buy groceries and most everything else they need.  There is no Walmart in Juneau – a definite plus.

Juneau can only be reached, he told us, by boat or by airplane.  The roads in Juneau stay in Juneau.  There were plans several years ago to build a road to Skagway, but the tree huggers stopped it.  Sounds rather short-sighted to me, especially with all the trees in Alaska!

As Matt turned off the main road to go back into the glacier, he told us that Mendenhall used to come out this far (2 miles) but over the years it has drawn back – thanks Al Gore and global warming!  In all seriousness, he said that the locals say that within 15-20 years, the glacier will be a cube of ice floating in an extra dry martini, shaken, not stirred.

And speaking of the ice – several chunks had calved off from the front of the glacier and were floating in Mendenhall Lake.  One was close enough to shore that I could hook it with Bonnie’s cane and pull it in so we could touch the glacier.  As we walked away, a family of 3 walked up and began to pull our glacier-cube out of the water.  The man picked it up, the woman opened their backpack, and the man and boy worked the ice into their backpack.  Everyone gets different souvenirs, I guess.  No one seemed to have told them, but I hope they poured drinks over it quickly or got three straws.

I noticed a round rock about 2/3rds the size of my fist along the shore, the water lapping up over it.  I know it’s a rock!  Work with me on this!  I picked it up and put it in our backpack.  I’ll bet my Mendenhall souvenir will last longer the Icy Trios!

As we walked down to the lake, one of the park rangers told us there were still some salmon in the stream beside of us.  And we spotted one, which she said was a Sock-eye Salmon.  Large, and red.  I’m guessing at least yard long, and swimming at leisure behind a beaver dam which blocked off the inlet.  It would be incredible, I think, to see a run of salmon swimming upstream.  Maybe next trip.

Me,Me,Me!!

  After having to search for a while for our tour that was to leave at 2:15 but really left at 2:30, we loaded into a small van and headed out to the Glacier.  The guide, who had lived in Erie for some time, was very good. He told us about Juneau and drove us about 15 miles out to the glacier. He drove by the sub division where he lives and said the houses ranged in price from $450,000 to a million. They were not any bigger than our house. He showed us a fairly new one a little farther down the road that started at $650,000 and literally where within two to three feet of each other on the sides. No yard at all!! And even smaller than our house. Oh my. These were all on the road that lead to the glacier and was the land that had once been covered by the glacier in the 1800's. Wow! 

  The glacier was beautiful, the surrounding forest great. We could walk right down to the water’s edge and look over at it. The trail to the nearby falls would have taken an hour for normal people so we didn’t go because we only had an hour. There were some young adults, girls and boys some in shorts, that had paddled a canoe
over to the glacier and back and were getting their canoe out of the water. Young and full of vim and vigor.

  We rode the van back to Juneau and Mark said since we were his last trip, he could drive us back to the ship.  And we said yes. Everyone else got off in town.  One couple wanted to be taken to the salmon hatchery but he said he didn’t go there. They said they had been sold a package that was to take them to the hatchery. I wondered if they had gotten on the wrong van.  He told them to go back to the booths but by the time we got back there were no booths open.

  All in all it was a very nice day. Nice guy and it was a pleasant trip.