SATURDAY, JULY 6

SATURDAY, JULY 6:

     After our breakfast treat of pastries we’d picked up yesterday from the Breeze In, recommended by our RV park host, we headed out to do some hiking.  It started out to look like the sun might come out today, but that was only fleeting.  But no matter, we still had a wonderful day.

     Drove over to the northeast section of town, where 3 of the most popular trails begin.  Just getting there was a mini adventure in itself!  We had no idea that this city is built on hills – and narrow, winding streets.  Makes San Francisco look flat!  Utterly charming and  picturesque.  But we couldn’t imagine how residents got in and out normally, let alone in snow or ice!

    First found a little trail which went over an old mining plank road.  This was really just a nice walk alongside a steep rainforest hillside, with many little seeps and waterfalls.  We met a very nice woman and her companion (?), who was a little strange.  But she was very pleasant, and offered us some good suggestions for hikes, etc.  A really nice, leisurely walk to get started.

     After a false start up the Mt. Roberts trail (we decided way too steep for us), we decided on the Perseverance Trail.  I’d read in my guidebook that it was a fairly gentle trail, that it went past some old mining remains, and was Juneau’s most popular trail. That’s pretty much all it said.   I figured it was popular because it was relatively easy, and historical (it was actually Alaska’s very first road – built for the gold mine here; this is the spot where a Tlingit first showed Joe Juneau  gold in the stream, [Juneau had offered a reward for anyone who could lead him to gold-bearing ore]  and the rest is history . . .)  

  OhMyGosh – were we in for a surprise!  The scenery on this trial was spectacular!!  Paralleled a cascading stream (appropriately named Gold Creek) for a good part of the way.  “Cascading” is only mildly descriptive – “tumultuous” might be better.  Over and over boulders the stream coursed downwards, creating rapids & falls around every turn.  And the water is crystal clear, glacier-ice-blue tinged.

 

All against a backdrop of impossibly tall, steep, forested snow-dappled mountains.  Alaska at her absolute finest!  We finally had to turn back, as it was 5:00, and had been walking since mid-morning. 

  

 

 

 

 

But not before one final glimpse of Alaskan majesty!

 

 

 

We couldn’t figure out why the guidebooks didn’t mention the stunning scenic beauty of this trail.  Oh well, all the better for us, to be wondrously surprised.  Our pictures dont’t really do justice to what we experienced this day – need more expensive equipment than we have to capture all the nuances of color & detail on a cloudy day like this!

     To add to the  magic memory of this hike – soon after we’d started out, who should be among the people walking back down but my old college dorm next-door neighbor from UCLA, Mary Claire!  We were good friends back then.  In fact, she was in my wedding  and I remember flying to the Bay Area to attended hers (both of our firsts J L).  I knew she’d moved up to Juneau years ago . . . we’d kept in touch sporadically.  But it’s been at least 20 or 25 years since we’d had any communication at all.  I guess she’d been on my mind since we’ve been in Juneau, knowing that it’s really a large small town, and thinking how uncanny it would be if I ran into here. (And I’d looked her up on FB before we ever left St. Louis to see if she still lived here, and saw her picture there – easily recognizable).  So it didn’t take too long for it to register that it was HER face I saw coming down the trail.  I did have to stare at her a little to make sure, and then looked at her and said, “Mary Claire??”  Her response:  “You look familiar!”  When I told her my name, she just couldn’t believe it.  We tried to catch up on 40 years in a few minutes.  She was leaving town tomorrow to go to a cabin she & her husband own at Tenakee Springs, over on a nearby island, for a couple of weeks, or we’d most certainly have made a date to get together.  So we’ll have to make due via Facebook.  WOW – what are the odds??!

     When I expressed my envy at her getting to live here, surrounded by this beauty, she did say that they have a home outside of Tucson, where they go for the winters, to get some sun.  So even the magical beauty of mountains draped in mist has its limits.  Still . . . to be able to escape from downtown in less than 10 minutes into scenes like we saw today . . . well, one of the fortunate ones!