Alaska Day 9, Look Up...Bears

Day 9

Sunday June 10, 2018

      So much for June being the dry season.  It wasn’t raining when I woke up. It wasn’t raining when I packed up my knapsack and headed out for the morning.  The weather guessers were saying the chance of rain went up after noon. 

     So, I chose the East Glacier trail for my morning’s excursion, with of course the seemingly obligatory stop at the overlook where I knew I could get cell service, even if it was weak.

       The trail I chose for the morning begins directly behind the visitor center and covers a three and a half mile loop.  There were stairs and a few rocks to step over, but overall a pretty easy trail. 

      A two minute side trail to AJ Falls...

      Back on the main trail and through a series of switchbacks...

      From another side trail to what surely must have once been a glacier overlook.

        From another overlook on the way down...

       When I got back to the car, there was a group of people with cameras all pointing at the adjacent tree line.  There were even park rangers with radios.  So, I walked over. There was a mother bear and three cubs up in the tree.

       The crowd gathered and more rangers arrived.  Now they were pushing us back and directing traffic.  Where we were standing was a regular crossing spot for the bears.  When they climbed down from the tree, they continued to nosh along the side of the road.  At that point all traffic stopped.

     In the end, they simply faded back into the woods and everything continued as normal.

     I worked my way back to the room, at which point the rain began to splatter.  It quickly turned into a light, but steady rain.  So much for that six mile loop trail I was thinking about.  Instead, I simply took a nap.

     An hour and a half later it was still raining. Instead, I drove back into downtown to a local place called the Triangle Club Bar..  It’s been in this spot since the 40’s.  Unlike the last place I visited in town, I was the only tourist in the place.  It’s definitely a local’s bar.  All good. 

      I tried a Denali Brewing Single Engine Red.  It’s a remarkable smooth amber ale and quite good.  I was on my second when I met Bob.   He lives in town and has been coming here since he moved to the Alaska Territory in 1957, two years before it became a state.  He spent his life as a civil engineer planning and building roads.  He told me some stories about the immediate neighborhood visible from the bar window. 

      When he first came to Juneau, everything south of this corner was on a  dock.  Environmental laws were mostly non-existent.  Bob told me if the owner had been in, she would have shown me the trapdoor under the storage room.  Back in the day, they simply opened the trapdoor and used it as a garbage chute.  The tide would do the rest.

     Bob was later joined by John,  a retired fisherman.   He gave me some advice on things I would see along my route.  He also told me some stories of places he took his own boat. A couple of years ago, he went to Glacier Bay and anchored it in a well known spot.   He strung a hammock over the aft deck and listened to the whales frolicking all night. 

Coming Up,

Sometimes when the unexpected hits you, you suck it up and move on.  Sometimes it’s just really frustrating.  And somethings it can make you clench your fists, want to pound them through a table and let out a loud scream.  I called it Monday.