TUESDAY,
JUNE 11:
Another
beautiful morning . . . ate breakfast outside again. A local woman walking her dog stopped by,
chatted, and volunteered to take our picture.
Another example of everyone’s friendliness and openness here.
Morning tide out
After lingering a little over breakfast, we got on
our bikes (the regular ones, not the recumbents because the back tires on both
of them are dead – Bill thinks it’s because of all the shaking they took on a
few roads. We’ll buy new tires for them
in a larger town). Rode the 5 mile bike
path (actually, just a wide sidewalk) to town.
It parallels the ocean. Then
parked our bikes and hiked up the ¼ mile trail to Mt. Dewey. This is a small tree-covered mountain (hill,
really) accessible from town. Like the
Rainbow Falls trail, it had boardwalk steps in place instead of an actual dirt
trail, due to the almost constant wetness of the soil. They call this boggy soil “muskeg,” and lots
of place names include that descriptive word –e.g., Muskeg Meadows Golf Course
here.
Climbing stairsteps instead of a trail really
gives you an aerobic workout! The top of
the hill gave a nice view of the town and Zimovia Strait. John Muir climbed this hill and wrote about
it in his Travels to Alaska book.
Stopped
at an IGA grocery store to get a few things..
The basket on my bike was now fully loaded, as was Bill’s backpack. Newly provisioned, we headed towards
home. Stopped at a harbor area (the town
has 2 or 3 harbors) which had great views of mountains surrounding us in all
directions.
We both felt quite tired as we made it home. The
bike path was a gradual uphill slope leading into town, but we made it fine
without getting off our bikes. So of
course I anticipated a nice easy ride downhill on the way back. But No – it seemed I was pedaling most of the
way home, too – what’s up with that??
Maybe it was the extra weight from my basket, or the fat tires on this
bike, or were our parents not fibbing when they told us they walked 5 miles in
the snow to school – and uphill both ways!?? At any rate, both of us worked up
a sweat – I think the first since we left home! So as soon as we got back, we
poured ourselves some cold soda, and collapsed into Jonathan’s chairs
outside. Promptly fell asleep under the
warm Alaskan sun and beside the sparkling water.
Before
starting dinner, we went over to our neighbors Rob & Karen. Rob was unbelievably organized for their trip
– had a 3-ring binder filled with printed web info on RV parks at every stop
they’d be making. We chuckled, as he and
I had evidently gone thru much the same process in researching and determining
where to stay – we’d used the same RV Park Review websites, and usually ended
up choosing the same campgrounds. He was
just a lot more organized and thorough and had the information at his
fingertips. I’d asked if we could look
at his binder again (he’d shown it to me yesterday when Bill was moving the RV)
and jot down notes; he replied that he’d already written down his
recommendations for us to use. What a
class act! They invited us into their RV. It was gorgeous! A vaulted ceiling, flat screen TV built-in,
and fireplace! Made our little home seem
quite shabby. But everything’s
relative. Who’d have ever thought that
we’d be able afford to take these long trips – our home on wheels, modest as it
is, makes it possible. This is Rob &
Karen’s last nite here – they take the ferry to Juneau tomorrow. I’ll miss their cute little Canadian accents,
eh.
We cooked
the crabs given to us yesterday, as well as the halibut. I overcooked the
halibut a little, but the crabs were delicious!
A real dinner treat.
Took Pappy out for his evening constitutional . . .
went down to the boat slips in the marine here and wove in and out as we looked
at some of the boats. Three bald eagles
soared in graceful formation right over us!
The sunset tonight was sublime – I don’t think I’ve ever seen lovelier, not even in Hawaii.
The sunset tonight was sublime – I don’t think I’ve ever seen lovelier, not even in Hawaii.
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