Day 4: A Day of Reading & Mount Roberts Trail

We spent today in reflection on our time in Juneau. As we prepare to leave tomorrow--doing laundry, packing, preparing to say our goodbyes to our friends here at Juneau Hostel--we are sad to leave the town and people who welcomed us into Alaska...and the "Southeast." However, in retrospect, we are leaving feeling that we have done so much more than we initially thought we could do without feeling rushed. Today, we slowed our pace even more, spending hours at various quiet spots in town (Paradise, Silverbow, bookstore), while Jen and Jake visited with the sled dogs.

Sans Jen, the five of us made our way to the trailhead of Mount Roberts, which was at the top of the stairs at the end of Sixth Street. Due to snow, ice, and an avalanche warning, we couldn't hike to the Gold Ridge, the Gastineau Peak, or the Mt. Roberts summit. Instead, we decided to hike to the where the tram meets the trail, only 2 miles up on the trail. Leigh and I were wearing sandals, even in the cold weather, and thought that 2 miles didn't require waiting for the hostel to reopen to get our boots. So we trudged on in Chacos and Keens with fleece and raincoats. The trail proved more difficult than we expected in the short 2 miles.

The rain made the trail slick and muddy, but the mud didn't have nearly the potential to ruin our day as the melting snow and ice. As we soon discovered, ice pack melts from underneath rather than on top, leaving unbelievably large holes just under the ice's surface. I "sacrificed myself" to demonstrate the bone-breaking potential of the holes. In other words, I took a step and fell into a hole up to my hip. For the first time since ice-skating with OAC in Gatlinburg (January 2006), I was thankful for having a big, well-padded backside. It was the only thing that kept my other leg from falling through as well, especially since the lower leg was dangling above the ground under the ice pack. Since I was wearing shorts, a few scrapes and bruises instantly began to appear. Leigh witnessed the fall, and the guys got a good laugh out of it when we caught up to them. A laugh that eased my skiddishness about the fall. These folks have such a way of including me by teasing me just as often as they tease one another. We finished the climb to the Mt. Roberts Nature Center, saw an injured eagle, viewed a filmstrip about the area, and then rode the tram back down the mountainside to downtown Juneau.

We're now preparing to spend our last night in Juneau before leaving for Skagway tomorrow afternoon. Juneau has been good to us, but our adventure has just begun!