June 15th to 24th
Juneau turned out to be one of our favorite stops due to the great hiking with in walking distance right above Aurora Harbor on the Perseverance Trail system. It also is a great place to provision with bulk goods/liquor at the COSTCO and Fred Myers. Fred Myers also has frozen herring for bait, 1/3 price of other places, for Halibut fishing in the far right front side of store which you cant find unless you ask.
Also for breakfast/lunch the Sand Piper cafe has excellent food and breakfast all day long.
Decided to leave Petersburg after we got back from glacier tour to knock off some of the 105 miles to Juneau by anchoring over night once we round Cape Fanshaw. Got back just about on the money at 12:30pm from glacier trip in Petersburg. We said our good byes, walked dogs, paid up set sail around 1:30pm. Had a nice cruise across Fredrickson Sound and then Stephen’s passage. These are big bodies of water with the potential to be really nasty but today was smooth as a baby’s butt. One whale and 2 or maybe 3 glacier sightings…more goodness. The whale was just sitting there with one fin stuck in the air.
Got to anchorage around 4pm and anchored directly east of the Duck Point marker in 6 fathoms in nice sand/mud bottom as shown below at the elbow in the track from Water Dog. Was slightly exposed from the SW but we had no problems with waves during the night.
Sat a bit, showered, ate amazing crab fried rice, a bit of tv and to bed. Juneau tomorrow. Palm Beach sans Alex for me the day after and Alex moves into Juneau for a week while I visit mom. Mom stable medically but quality of life is not good. Needs to get better. Love you mom. Terra used the poop deck to urinate 3 times. Holly held out. 1st time we tried not launching dinghy and they seemed fine. A big key was a good pathway on rubber mats to the front deck so Terra does not slip on way out.
June 16th Duck Point to Juneau
Nice flat calm morning. Saw two sets of whales breaching a few miles away and some backs nearer. Also had nice pod of dal’s porpoise surf the bow for a bit. Long day though 75 miles. Got here around 2pm seemed later as we had gotten up at 4pm and left at 6am. Got a good spot in Aurora harbor.
Took a nice walk to gold creek park, through town, up to chicken ridge with tiny cool houses and a historical house and the back to boat.
I fly out tomorrow. Alex will stay and work on boat and take care of doggies. ?
June 17-24th
PJS flew to Florida for mom visit. Alex stayed with dogs in Juneau. Hiked a bunch of trails, socialized with neighbor’s Jill and Doug whom are on the dock in a motor sail boat behind us..
Had a dinner with Mana Kai and Grand QTR folks out and in (lasagna on our boat). Last day I think Alex changed every fuel filter possible in engine room, 13 total! Got a lot of filters with two main’s and two Genny’s with dual primary’s and one on engine filter on each and one fuel polishing filter.
Albert and Jeanette started their visit on the 23 rd and visited for 10 days or so.
There are great hiking trails above the marina if you walk up through the cemetery to Cope Park and take stairs next to the dog park and then through neighborhood to Basin Road.
On the upper portion of Basin Road you will find Perseverence Trail and many other trail heads.
Perseverance Trail is an old mining road so is a nice easy wide graded walk where you see a nice water fall about 1 mile up. Ended up walking up Perseverance Trail to Red Mill Trail to Glory Hole where their are great views. Took the Mount Juneau Hike a few day’s later. Very nice views but the trail is very narrow and footing hidden by plants at the bottom. Would call this a pretty tough hike with 3000 ft elevation so take water, lunch and good hiking shoes!
Glory Hole Trail dead ends at a wooden fenced stop!
The beginning of the trail has a lot of vegetation so it is hard to see where to put your feet, the entire trail is very narrow so watch your footing.
The view from the top of Juneau and surrounding area is spectacular!
At the top some one is the past tried to start putting a cable car up to the point but only left a small building and some cables.
June 25th-27th Juneau Mendenhall Glacier Hike
Monday as PJS flies back to Juneau, I arrived late on 10:17 flight. Had a small bit of wait to get ride to marina but accomplished.
Tuesday we stayed to go visit Mendenhall Glacier.
We rented a car (rent a wreck) and drove to do west glacier trail. Long walk with some climbing with final destination the base of glacier via West Glacier Trail. On the map below you take the Cairn Route on the right fork of West Glacier Trail where you see the red dots for the Ice Extent Cairns.
The trail is pretty easy going along the edge of the lake below the glacier until you get to the end where you have to do a little rock scrambling to get over a ridge. Along the way are a dozen or so cairn markers marking the spots where the glacier used to be in years past as it recedes to it’s current position.
Once you get near glacier you have have to walk a ways down the left side on muddy unstable paths to get the the edge of the glacier itself.
Collected some glacier water for ice. Touched and walked on glacier. Fun time had by all. Long walk though.
