Hiking City, USA

You have to love a place where everybody tells you the first book that ya gotta get a copy of is called "90 Short Walks Around Juneau." So, Julie and I got our copy, and set off to start ticking them off. This was the first we hiked, back in June. Called the Herbert Glacier Trail, it leaves a trailhead near Mile 24, and goes thru the woods, following the creek, pretty level, about 4.5 miles to a sandy clearing at the foot of the Herbert Glacier. We were probably about another quarter to half a mile away from the actual glacial ice, but the trail stops and the shrubs get thick. Next time, we take sandals and walk thru the water to the gravel bank and then up to the ice. Or snowshoes, if we do this in the winter.

You can't see the Herbert unless you hike in, or take a helo. Well worth the walk... and some interesting 80+ year old automobiles along the trail, rusting into the landscape. And we got up close and personal with a very young porcupine that didn't seem to care about us at all. It was all Julie could do not to try to pet the thing...

The clearing at the trail's end might make a good backpack destination, except for the sand. Oh, and the tourist helicopter-inspired flashbacks to "Apocalypse Now." Darn tourists, making a noisy nuisance even way the heck out here.

When the summer sun doesn't go down until really late, you can start an adventure at 5pm, pack a dinner, and go. We went up the Spaulding Meadow Trail on a beautiful afternoon.

There are a series of alpine meadows, a sort of treeless marshy bog, as you climb the ridge. It is a fairly rough, muddy uphill slog thru forest, emerging into the sunlight of the first meadow. The view looks out to the southwest, with Auke Bay and Douglas Island right there. Here's Julie on the boardwalk.

Here's me...

This was the "clean" us, on the way up.

The climb thru more forest to the second meadow followed a very wet, very muddy drainage, lots of standing water, and places where the trail became hard to follow. I think beyond the first meadow, this is mainly a winter snowshoe, because it was just ugly. But in the end, it's only mud, and once you have that up to your shins, it can't really get worse. I think Julie was secretly digging the dirt. Anyway, the second meadow was worth the effort, but we really couldn't get more than about half the way thru the mud from there up to Spaulding Meadow at the top. We walked down knowing that we gave it a vigorous try, and we would be back in the snow when we can follow the blue diamonds on the trees instead of the least muddy path.

This Sunday we ticked off two more: the East Glacier Loop, and the Nugget Creek Trail, on the east side of the Mendenhall. It was lightly raining all day, and the Nugget is less travelled, and so has lots of underbrush to walk thru. Julie once again learned about wearing cotton jeans, as she was thoroughly soaked by the end of the 8 mile trip. Lots of old gold mining remains being absorbed back into the landscape, and a funky old mining cabin-like shelter at the end of the Nugget. The trail climbs along a gorge cut down from the icefields far above, with a roaring, milky torrent rushing by.

Water running in motion everywhere, frozen or liquid, with lots of either kinetic or potential energy. This seems to be a common thread in SE Alaska. This is the A J Falls, not related to the Nugget Creek, but a short walk off the East Glacier Loop, and so typical of the landscape. Water moving everywhere, constantly working the rock.

KML