On a Thursday afternoon I decided to do my run on the Herbert Glacier trail. I had heard that the trail had been significantly upgraded such that it was now flat and smooth enough it would be an easy place for the kids to ride their bikes. On the way out we split into two groups. Lexie walked with Natalyn and David. I ran with Ty and Dallin. We didn't intend to get all of the way to the glacier (it is about 4 miles each way). After what felt like a good run and too much whining from the boys we turned around to meet Lexie. I was thrilled with the quality of the trail and happy with how well I did running. After meeting up with Lexie we walked back to the car as a family. On the trail there is a very old rusted out car. The kids had a lot of fun exploring the car and pretending to drive it.
I had a great run on the Herbert River Trail.
The Herbert River
The kids enjoyed exploring a rusted out car.
When Lexie lived in Alaska the first time one of her favorite thinking places was AJ falls about a mile up the East Glacier Trail. For all of our intentions to make it out there we still hadn't and so we decided to devote the next Saturday for a family hike up to the falls. I had forgotten how beautiful the East Glacier Trail is. I was also very surprised at how different the vegetation on the trail is when compared to the West Glacier Trail on the other side of the lake. The kids enjoyed looking at the several creeks which ran under the trail. After I finally gave up on David's pace and put him on my shoulders I found that the East Glacier Trail felt even more familiar with weight on my back. Almost all of the other times I had hiked the trail were in route to climb Mt. Boulard. The children enjoyed playing by the water fall. We all agreed that Lexie did have a great thinking place.
The family in front of the Mendenhall Glacier.
David had his own pace for the trail. Appropriate in a way I suppose a glacial pace on a glacial trail.
Dallin by AJ Falls.
Sundays did get a little better for me after I figured out to generally avoid talking to people because that reduced the likely hood of bringing up the fact that I had come to Juneau for a funeral. I found church very empty and lonely in as much as my memories of Juneau church building were tied to attending with the Turley family. Kim and all of his kids have left the church. Between having a death to think about and having the "all a big lie" position the rest of the family took about the church I felt very torn and isolated. As I am writing this I am realizing that I brought on a lot of my isolation by pushing people away. With that said it is hard for me to see another way to do things in as much as with such charged and emotional issues when people get too close they get hurt. I find myself in hell thinking about the doctrinal choices of A) The church is lie or B) The Turley part of my family is cut off for being faithless sinners. At any rate I haven't found a lot of comfort in religion when dealing with Barb's death.
With time in Juneau winding down we finally decided to splurge on a trip to the Salmon Bake. I worked three summers at the Salmon Bake from 1992 to 1994. Coming back it was amazing to realize that 14 years had passed. I was delighted that the fish was every bit as good as I remembered. I found myself a little antsy every time a bus of people came up in as much as it felt strange not to be doing anything other than eating. I was a bit surprised that the kids didn't eat more salmon, normally we can't have a meal with fish without the kids insisting that we take a picture of the fish they like it so well. They liked the salmon they just found several other things in the buffet they also liked. I didn't mind the kids having fish on their plates because it saved me a trip back to the grill to get more salmon. I finally stopped eating because I was starting to worry if I ate anymore I would throw up and I thought that would be embarrassing.
The Salmon Bake was great!
After dinner we walked to a waterfall that is directly behind the Salmon Bake and then came back to roast marshmallows. Being at the Salmon Bake was great in that it offered a great place to think about life and its changes. I had spent so much time at "the bake" as we called it that for a while it had literally become my world. It was funny to me that I was still finding myself getting excited talking about things like the decision to put the salad bar in front of the grill instead of behind the grill. Things that seemed so important when I worked there such as sauce consistency, an even fire and perfectly cut fish were almost meaningless. Not meaningless in that they were all done well and made for a great meal but didn't carry any of the meaning I felt they did when I was there. Out of body would be an overstatement of the experience of being bake at the Salmon Bake but it would get one thinking in the right direction. The roles of that kind of work are so tightly defined that it was almost like being able to sit back and watch myself and think about who I used to be.
Ty and Dallin enjoying themselves after dinner at the Salmon Bake.
Even though it was late having been at the Salmon Bake got me excited to go back to the old location of the Salmon Bake where I worked my first two seasons. The drive up to Gold Creek was a lot of fun in that I explicitly remember the way but would find myself knowing when to turn. It seemed that every corner brought back memories.
As a funny note about how our two year old David is learning about his world from a different perspective than our other kids is that almost every time we drive by a propane tank David will get excited, point and say "PROPANE,PROPANE!". Finding places to fill propane bottles just didn't make the other kids "need to know" list at that age.
Friday night we went to Turley family friends, the Lohrey's house for dinner. I met John and Diane the first year they moved to Juneau which I believe was also the first year they were married. It was every bit as much fun as I remembered visiting with them. I learned John has a through hike of the Appalachian Trail if not formally on his life list at least high on his would be nice to do list. I got really excited thinking about how much fun the trail would be. I can't see how my current life situation would allow such a trip. The hike is over 2000 miles long and takes about 6 months. But I found I did really enjoy thinking about it. Before leaving on a mission Mariann and I had been talking about doing the Great Western Trail which is a trail that goes from the Canada/Montana border down to Mexico. Between kids college and marriages we haven't made it yet. The Appalachian trail is interesting in that it would be a much easier trail. Funny to put a word easy any where in a description of a hike like that but it really would be easier in that since the east is so much more populated there are many more places to resupply. In fact some people do the trail with day packs and sleep at motels along the way. Lexie had trouble seeing what the point of such a hike would be if you were just going to go to restaurants and motels. I can't think of many things that sound like more fun than coming in from a twenty mile day to an all you can eat restaurant and then crashing in a motel. The hike would not be a wilderness adventure but it would be a lot of fun and I believe it could be a soul adventure. There is a part of me that needs to know if I am one of the people who starts and finds a reason not to finish or if I am one of the people who can undertake a trail that size and hike it to the end. For my current situation I am satisfied with the thought that if I can get far enough ahead on my work once we are back east I am going to have Lexie drop me off for 20-40 miles of the trail and meet me at camp sites with the trailer.
Our Saturday in Juneau we spent whale watching. My cousin Kathy was able to get us onto a tour for free. I was very impressed at the great views we got of the whales. The whales didn't do much other than breathe and go down for more food but it was still nice to get so close to them. Hearing a whale breath is quite spectacular. It seems odd to say we spent the day on a 2 hour tour but that seems to be the way days work lately. We went shopping and then went over to Kathy's for dinner and the day was over.
A wet but wonderful whale watching tour.
More fodder for the thought of getting a camera with a good telephoto lense. That is a whale and its baby from as close as it is legally allowable to be.
We got a treat on Sunday in that four black bears came into the campground. Lexie and David were the only ones to see all four but the rest of us were able to see two of them. They were climbing on some of the campground equipment. I got the feeling that the bears were having fun. In the haste of getting out I unfortunately forgot the camera but decided it would be better to just watch the bears than risk missing them while I went for a camera.
We were scheduled to leave at 6:45 AM on Monday which meant we needed to be up before 4 to get to the ferry terminal the required two hours early at 4:45AM. Things went smoothly and we didn't have any trouble getting there. I continue to be thrilled after being somewhere for a few weeks how easy our house is to move.
Back on the boat ...
This was a great idea that didn't last nearly as long as it should have.
The ferry ride was great. We were on the Columbia which is the biggest of the Alaska Marine Highway's ferries. Even though it is bigger than than the Malispina which we rode south on it has a smaller solarium and smaller play area. With that said on the Columbia the play area is inside the lower observation lounge which has tables in it. So it was easier to do other things while the kids played. I was even able to get a little bit of work done on the game. They had 120 volt outlets so I didn't need to worry about battery life on the laptop. I think that parts of the ship may have even had wifi access to internet. I saw a wireless network named Columbia but it had low signal strength and I didn't try connecting to it. Try as I might I couldn't justify the expense of traveling to Prince Rupert instead of Skagway for the return trip. At some point I would like to do a ferry cruise through South East Alaska. The ferry charges the same no matter how long you stop at any city. It seems like it would be a lot of fun to go up the coast jumping off at each town for a couple of weeks at a time.
My last Alaskan adventure was that due to an unattended vehicle without keys in front of me it was required that I back off the ferry. In the end it turned out to be easy in as much as I had four people helping me and I didn't need to actually back on the dock but was able to make a three point turn inside the boat. The 10 minutes it took to get off the boat were plenty to have four previously lively kids sound asleep.
The kids went from hyper to asleep in the few minutes it took to get off the ferry.
Going up the Chilkoot Pass got me excited thinking about the gold rush days. I read a little about the history on the ferry. After a few early casualties in the gold rush the Canadian mounties enforced that anyone crossing the border needed to be carrying a year of provisions with them. This came out to about two thousand pounds. That meant that people would make about 20 trips up the pass shuttling their supplies. I was inspired to think about the drive it must have taken to make such a trip.
Into Canada ...
There is gorgeous Alpine coming out of Skagway into Canada.
Our first night we found a beautiful camp site by the swift river. I am happy with the pictures I got but the beauty of the place really didn't fit into the pictures. In the morning we took a quick little walk to explore a bit. I am not sure how the vegetation we saw is described if we were in Florida we would call it a swamp but I don't think they are called that this far north. The river got me thinking about how much fun it would be to do a river float trip. The water was very clear.
The kids playing in a meadow in our swift river camp site.
On one of our stops at a gas station there was a house behind a field full of dandelions. Natalyn got very excited and said "mommy, mommy, it's a wishing house!".
Natalyn's wishing house.
The kids knew we were going to go to Liard Hot Springs so we had to answer and reanswer several times through the day questions about how long it would be until we got there. The hot springs did not disappoint. This time since Lexie knew about the cool pool she brought her swim suit and joined us. There were several small logs the kids would use as small boats.
Ty enjoying Liard Hot Springs.
A nice father son moment.
Natalyn taking a jump by the log.
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