Juneau

Juneau is the capital city of the state of Alaska and has the honor of being the second-largest city in the United States of America by area. Juneau was named the capital of Alaska in 1906, when the government of what was then the District of Alaska was moved from Sitka as dictated by the US Congress in 1900. It was another one of those Sitka-like decisions: the ferry schedule dictated either no time in Juneau or six nights. We opted for the latter… We had some absolutely magic weather for our cruise on the MV Matanuska from Sitka to Juneau last Saturday, more porpoises and whales on our eight hour route between the islands. We spent the day with another canasta marathon, and Lisa and I completed our 16 laps around the boat while the kids caught up on some rare screen time. Quite a tranquil way to spend the day with some phenomenal views of Mendenhall Glacier as we cruised into Juneau’s Auke Bay in the early evening.

Everyone prepped a very nice Father’s Day for me on Sunday (Father’s Day here in the US is in June for those Aussies reading this…): breakfast at the Auke Bay Cafe following by a memorable hike to Mendenhall Glacier on the West Glacier Trail. The hike was a seven mile/11 kilometer trek through the Tongass rainforest, the middle few miles quite a strenuous bushwhacking experience to get through the overgrown trail onto the scree surrounding the glacier. Lilia almost gave up the ghost a mile-or-so from the glacier’s edge, but some encouragement from Mum had her back on track. Amazing how much the glacier has receded in the last 100 years, and also quite interesting to see the landscape rejuvenate after being under the ice for thousands of years.

Max’s passion bucket was overflowing like I’ve never seen it overflow before as we wound our way across the scree to the glacier’s edge. “Dad, this is the best day of my life! This is the best hike I’ve ever been on! I can’t believe I’m about to touch a glacier!” Exploding froth. It was pretty special, I must admit, being able to walk up to and touch a 3000 year old chunk of ice. We wound our way along the northern edge of the glacier towards the stream flowing out of the ice to find the ice cave that had formed this summer. Absolutely amazing to walk underneath the glacier into the glowing blue ice, the kids were in awe as were Lisa and I. A long day for the kids but oh so worth it! Couldn’t have asked for a better Father’s Day.

We set up shop for the week at the Mendenhall Campground east of Auke Bay, another exceptionally well maintained Alaskan campsite where we were treated to electricity and water for our stay. It didn’t take long for the mosquitos to find us, an annoyance that we had experienced intermittently in Sitka but were more of a plague in Juneau. In all my travels, I had not experienced anything like the mosquitoes in Juneau: the size of small birds, they could fly in the rain and they could sting through clothing. We were so thankful for for the trailer! Max’s sweet-tasting skin was a favorite, especially his hair-free forehead, the poor kid left Juneau looking like he’d joined a new religion. The kids didn’t seem to mind that much, however, and enjoyed roaming through the moss-covered forest surrounding our campsite from sunup to sundown with mosquitoes in tow. They also made friends with some kids from Oklahoma who were camped next to us, nice for them to have a break from Mum and Dad.

The weather only cooperated about two thirds of the time we were in Alaska’s capital, like locals we made sure to take rain jackets with us every time we left camp. On one of the days – our last in town – it rained cats and dogs for 24 hours straight. Not much else to do in the rain except explore the quaint downtown area of Juneau and visit some of the great brewery taprooms Juneau had on offer. Devil’s Club (founded by the same brewmaster we met in Sitka at Harbor Mountain Brewing) was a family favorite: excellent brews coupled with some delectable lunch fare. The Alaskan Brewing Company taproom was also excellent: no food on offer but the beer was exceptional. It reminded me a little of our travels through Tasmania, where all the best wares are kept for the locals! There were a couple of taproom-only brews that were oh so good. We also spent a rainy afternoon at Forbidden Peak Brewing in Auke Bay, beers not on par with some of the other breweries in town but it was a great spot to watch the weather come in from the west over the islands.

There are three glaciers to which one can hike from the road system in Juneau: Mendenhall, Eagle and Herbert. On one of the other days during which we had favorable weather we biked and hiked out to Herbert Glacier in the northern section of the borough. The biking section – roughly eight miles/13 kilometers round trip – was a beautiful cruise through the spruce forests alongside the Herbert River. The hiking portion was similar to the bushwhacking we endured to get to the Mendehnall Glacier: an overgrown trail with lots of clambering over streams and rocks. It’s difficult for the forest service to maintain the sections of trail near the glaciers because they change so much with each snowmelt. There was some rope climbing and scree clambering to get to the Herbert viewpoint, we couldn’t touch the ice but enjoyed some sandwiches at a picturesque viewpoint above the raging torrent of the Herbert River. Two glaciers in one week!

There’s a smattering of MTB trails around the Mendenhall area, which we explored one afternoon when the skies were clear. Some seriously technical roots on some portions of the trail, we were all walking here and there. Pretty lucky to roll up next to a black bear with her cubs during the middle section of the ride! Mendenhall is a very heavily trafficked area so they weren’t at all perturbed by the presence of people. The elevated ladders and gap jumps on a descent called Paydirt had me yearning for my other bike, but one can’t have it all… A great way to explore some of the forest trails around the campground for sure.

Without a doubt one of Max’s most memorable experiences of the trip thus far was catching his first fish solo (he’d reeled in fish before in the Sierras before with Pop Pop, but for this one he cast, hooked, reeled and landed all by himself). We were fishing next to the DIPAC hatchery north of downtown Juneau, the Dolly Varden char he pulled out the water was an excellent specimen. He also landed another Dolly one afternoon when we were flicking some lures into the ocean following our Herbert Glacier hike. Pretty sure Wild Man won’t forget the fishing in Juneau and will no doubt be telling his kids about it one day.

From Juneau we’re off for one more quick ride on the ferry to Haines, after which we’ll drive through Canada to the Alaskan mainland. To pass through the Canadian border north of Haines we all had to take COVID tests whilst in Juneau, lots of anxiety from Lilia about the swab but it ended up being a nonevent. So, armed with negative COVID tests, next stop: Haines.