City life again...Juneau

We have now traveled over 1,500 miles since getting the boat, all of it during daytime, and all of it virgin territory seeing it for the first time as we navigated it. There is so much to see and do, but more importantly, to learn.

After arriving in Juneau, we received several pictures e-mailed to us by other boats traveling into Tracy Arm...this one was send to us by Walli and Duane of Feisty... and also The ice was quite an experience, and we will be doing more of that in Glacier Bay between the 13th and the 18th.


The first thing we did was follow Niki's suggestion of hiking the Mt. Roberts trail above Juneau. This trail climbs 2000 ft. and you can ride a tram down. Great day!

Chris, sitting next to the memorial for the dog "Patsy Ann". She died a few years ago, but was the town mascot, roaming around getting fed and petted, but mostly renown for her ability to predict when ships would arrive. She was deaf, but had the uncanny ability to predict not only the time, but the pier the ship would dock at....most of the locals speak of her today.


Any city placed on the side of a hill will have plenty of these, but Juneau is special in the regard. The steps climb to every house on the hill heading up toward Mt. Roberts.



Sunsets are always neat...we are in Harris Harbor in downtown Juneau. This is really convenient.


Looking NW in Gastineau Channel..


This is Gastineau Channel looking SE. You enter it from the SE, and head NW. You are in protected waters, and the scenery is good. The city of Juneau is on the right (east shore) and Douglas on the west shore. If you continue up the channel, you get to Auke Bar, which is dry land at low tide, but barely navigable at high tides. You need a spring tide (higher than average, seen at full and new moons) and local knowledge to get through. Leaving Juneau this way would save about 30 miles on our trip to Glacier Bay, but we will not try that. Rather we will head back SE, around Douglas Island and back up to Auke Bay Harbor. Greg and Jan will join us on Friday the 11th, and then we will head to Glacier Bay.


Unbeknown to me, Chris had made a deal with God while rounding Cape Caution, so we searched out the Russian Orthodox Church here so that she could meet her part of the bargain. Solsititsyn has visited, so we did too...


There are many great trails out of Juneau. This one begins as the Flume trail, which was the first electric generating plant in the Pacific NW. It opened in 1893, only 14 years after Edison did his thing with the light bulb, and was owned by Alaska Power and Light Company, still in existence..


A view from the trail..the bridge crosses the channel, connecting Juneau to Douglas.


The trail has been well crafted and maintained, with boardwalks for about a mile or so.


This is Gold Creek, which extends miles up the valley behind Juneau..the trail parallels this creek.


After getting back to the boat, this King Salmon was being cleaned, and we acquired about 6 lbs of it...


But the most fun was noon on July 4th. Juneau has the first fireworks display at midnight on the 3rd, and we slept through that. But on the 4th, we watched a terrific parade through town..