Ice on Lake
Spawning Salmon
Subject: My Day 26 – Juneau and Auke Alaska
This morning while walking in the rain to the Visitors Center at Tongass National Forest - Mendenhall Glacier I spot a sign for the Nugget Creek trail saying it’s “Off the Beaten Path” and at 3.5 miles and just what I need. I know those words extremely well - “off the beaten path” to me they generally say - the location is secluded and not frequently visited and also not widely known. At first I thought, it just a stretch of the imagination for the forest service; to call the nugget trail “off the beaten path” but then - I run into several landmarks indicating where Mendanhall glacier used to be back in say 1916, 1925, etc. Yes, maybe today the glacier did recede some more and I am truly walking off the beaten path.
This hike, like all my hikes since I started this journey will be remembered by me – any time I look at any of the pictures I’ve taken. Lots of broken glacial ice is scattered about the entire lake. Russell who arrived on his Jeep Cherokee by ferry ahead of me called to tell me about the lake jam breaking loose and flooding the entire place.
Just down the stream I spot salmon making their last ditch effort run upstream to reproduce and die. The nugget trail was extremely wet. If someone told me that I was hiking in the Pacific Northwest possibly the Olympic peninsula – I would’ve believed them – except for the large glacier that kept showing up from time to time.
The other explanation for “off the beaten path” by my forest service ranger person Linda is because the trail is not maintained and overgrown with devil’s club, alders and nettles. At the time she was talking I made a mental note to acquaint myself with devil’s club, as I kept hearing about it from the locals? So here it is – a large shrub native to these moist cool forests noted for its large palmate leaves and erect, woody stems covered in brittle spines. Find a picture and don’t touch the plant.
Last night I arrived at Juneau by ferry and prior to the ferry docking and before my droid died I made hotel reservations. Note to self – when you see a one star by a hotel do not stop. The price seemed right at $70.00 so, how bad could it possibly be? The Alaska Hotel & Bar is dead in the middle of downtown Juneau and also smells that way. This place is possibly on the historic register since it opened back in 1913. The original owners were three miners who struck it rich in the nearby Coast Range. To signify that their hotel would never closed they took the original keys, tied them to a helium balloon and released them. Apparently this is also a true story but another true story is that the place was condemned in the 70’s until supposedly rehabbed by its current owners. Any of the local drink ‘em up and shoot ‘em up folks or as we call them in LA – “tweakers” would love this hotel.
My assigned room faced the not in the day time seedy street side of downtown Juneau with two beds, a sink and Wi-Fi, who could want more? How about sanitary conditions and sleep? Shower, tub and bathroom down somewhere down the hall. Could the ambiance be the stink of former beer binging gold seekers; and could that be why the original carpet laid down when the place was condemned still is on the floor?
To show you how two different people can look at the same thing and both come up with totally different opinions here is Ken’s review of the Alaska Hotel & Bar! “Adequate with old time charm. Pros: Location, high Victorian ceilings, Wi-Fi, great beach/bath towels and lots of hot water, lots of TV channels, flat screen, and great large remote and across from popular bars. On the negative side he did bring up the fact that drunken homeless wandering souls on the street level at night did become a little loud.” Truly an understatement! Several times during the late and wee hours of the night I woke up to the outside noise by the young and the alcoholic and wondered if I had somehow screwed up and was now part of an insane asylum complete with the shock therapy noise and the lobotomies.
Runner Girl wrote on the other hand wrote - don’t stay here: “We had to stay one night at this awful place. The room had a private bathroom but it was filthy and smelled like stale Tijuana Pine Sol. The window was wide open and could be accessed from the hill outside. The shower had no hot water, the carpet had stains, hair, who knows what else. The drunks from the bar downstairs kept trying to open our door and brawls could be heard all night long. In the morning, a cockroach was spotted crawling on the bed. Totally gross!!
I now have exactly eleven hours to kill and so I’m starting at the Auke Alaska, Waffle Shop – because it’s raining outside. Auke is between downtown Juneau and the Haines ferry to Bellingham, Washington. It is a small community that contains Auke Lake, the U. of Alaska Southeast, and a branch office of NOAA, an elementary school, a church, a post office, a bar, a Thai restaurant and the waffle shop. The Thai place was my first choice but, no Wi-Fi. So far I’ve organized all my photos; started two PowerPoint presentations on my over 10,000 mile traveled trip; by foot, jeep, Ferrari, jet boat and now marine highway ferry. If you add it up it comes up to 702 miles by foot on the Pacific Crest Trail before I jumped on the jeep and traveled approximately 7,000 miles by jeep; then I met my friend Petr in Anchorage and we traveled 500 miles by Ferrari; then 300 miles by jet boat and now about 1200 miles by Marine Ferry from Haines, Alaska to Bellingham, Washington. This 10,000+ mile journey is almost over and no one will be happier than my wife Patti; who told me a long time ago to go take a hike. She is my closes confidant and without her this journey would truly not have been possible. Thank you baby! I am the one who wants things NOW and thankfully I got what I wanted on this journey. It exposed me to some of the hardships of hiking, weather, time alone to think and truly some amazing people who are just living life.
Driving the jeep after hiking any distance is truly a luxury. When you've hiked alone it is usually hard to keep from wanting to break out from any organized group; for you know what they say – the view never changes, unless you’re the lead dog!
See you on the marine highway!
Trawlercat
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