Day 1: Mendenhall Glacier & Tongass National Forest

We awoke this morning in the Juneau International Hostel (the most affordable of our lodging on the entire trip--$10 and a chore). Looked outside and it was drizzling rain. Not completely unexpected, but we had hoped the weather would break. Breakfast at McDonald's of all places, and then we caught the city bus to Mendenhall Valley. We had debated about whether to book spots on a glacier tour bus, and our decision to take the city bus turned out to be a good one!




While waiting at the bus stop, we chatted with a young man who had recently moved back to his childhood home of Juneau after living in Wisconsin and other places for a few years. When asked, he said that he didn't realize how connected he was to this land and how much he missed it. As it turns out, he was one of two bakers at the Silverbow Bakery, where Alex and I planned to get bagels tomorrow morning. He gave us a wealth of knowledge about the area that we wouldn't have discovered otherwise. And the rest of our info came from a few incredibly helpful bus drivers, who evidently are paid, first, to crack corny jokes and, second, to drive.

After arriving at our stop, we had a 2-3 mile walk ahead of us into the forest and toward the glacier's visitor's center. We took the standard tourist photos and then set off on a trail walk: Mendenhall East Glacier Loop Trail, to be exact. It was just over 4 miles, and as we were nearing the glacier and the end of the loop, a trail runner who had passed us earlier was running back toward us. She told us of a mother bear and two cubs on the trail up ahead. She had unexpectedly come upon the bear family, done the appropriate evasive manuever, and retreated. We walk a bit farther passing others who decided not to challenge the mother, stopping just short of where the family was seen, and then we also decided to turn back and backtrack the nearly 3 miles to the visitor's center.

But that wasn't enough adventure for us! We walked a short way around the side of the trail and ended up at the foot of a 500+ feet tall waterfall. In fact, waterfall isn't a good word--gullywasher of a waterfall is more like it. Leigh and I stripped off our boots and socks and stood in the freezing cold water for about 10 seconds before retreating to the warmth? of the sand and pebbles. After an hour of gazing, snoozing, and just "being" with nature, we walked back to the bus stop, amazing at the what the first day in Alaska held for us--blue skys, friendly people, bears, glaciers, waterfalls, and many, many laughs!

Tomorrow it's supposed to be raining, but you never know. It was supposed to rain today, too!