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| Skate skiing at Mendenhall Glacier |
When the sun is out, YOU too, need to be outside. That is common knowledge in
Southeast. The problem occurs when
the sun stays out for so many days, and you fill them with hiking and kayaking,
and more hiking, that you almost hope for a rainy day just so you can be
content with sitting still. It
seems every weekend has been nothing but sunshine this spring, so Ben and I
have stayed busy, squeezing in every minute of adventure we could in the sun.
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| Ben on his teles |
For Ben’s big
3-0, we traveled to Juneau for a weekend full of “shredding the gnar” (aka
skiing – for anyone not familiar with ski lingo). As typical, the hospitality was amazing—Lindsay picked us up
at the airport (which I might add was a true sacrifice—we arrived in Juneau at
6:45 AM on a Saturday!) and then drove us up to the mountaintop to ski at
Eaglecrest. We were able to trek up to Pittman's Ridge above the highest ski lift for
views of Admiralty Island and the bay.
It was gorgeous! The only
thing lacking was fresh powder (due to the aforementioned abundance of sunshine-
turns out there are benefits to precipitation).
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| Up on Pittman's Ridge |
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| Ben starting to head down from Pittman's Ridge |
The skiing was still a blast, though, and the snow was
fairly decent as the sun warmed the slopes as the day went on. After waking up at 4AM to get on the
early plane, and skiing all day long, we were pretty wiped out by 6 PM. But the fun kept coming. That evening
in Juneau, we were treated to a DELICIOUS enchilada feast by some of Lindsay’s
friends, Katie and her husband, who are quickly (we hope!) becoming our friends
as well! We crashed at Lindsay’s that
night, dreaming of smooth turns, our skis carving against the mountain, and the
spring sunshine warming our bodies.
We awoke to (not surprisingly anymore) another sunny
day. It was recommended by the
Juneau crowd to go skate skiing at Mendenhall Lake. We couldn’t reject the recommendation
when our friends Tristan and Jess offered to let us borrow their skate
skis. Even better, they are both
about the same size as Ben and me, respectively, so everything fit
perfectly! To add to this great
deal, they gave us their car for the day to get out to Mendenhall. Does it get any better?? Do people get any nicer?? These were the questions going through
our head as we drove out the road to the glacier.
Despite our senses and common sense telling us NOT to go on
a “frozen” lake with temperatures in the high 40s and pools of water starting
to accumulate in places, we did anyway because “everyone else was doing
it.” There were many people out
walking on the lake, cross country skiing, and skate skiing. If all these
Juneau people felt so comfortable, it must be safe, we reckoned. Probably not the smartest choice, but
thankfully we didn’t have to regret our decision. The lake, true to everyone’s recommendation, was perfect for
skate skiing.
We skied around the
lake, skirting the impressive icebergs, and then
ate lunch right at the base of the Mendenhall Glacier. Not a bad view. We ended the weekend by going out
to dinner with Lindsay, Tristan, Jess, and Phoebe and probably laughing harder
than we had for awhile from the entertaining Juneau crew. Thanks to all of our Juneau friends
that made this trip so memorable!
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| Birthday Boy |
Although there have been many more weekends of fun to report
on, the last one I will add to this post was this past weekend. We were invited on a Hunter
Family trip up Mt. Edgecumbe, which means we must be doing something right to
get that prestigious invite.
Readers will not be surprised, but the day was……SUNNY. Nothing but blue sky! The trip started auspiciously with our
arrival on the shores of Kruzoff Island.
We were greeted by 45 seals swimming in the bay, whale spouts visible
nearly every few minutes, and many, many seabirds floating in the emerald green
water. It is the end of the
herring season in town, so the marine life is still quite abundant. It was hard to leave the beach behind,
but we gathered up our energy and made the trek to the peak of Mt. Edgecumbe.
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| One of the many large groups of seals (all those black dots) hanging out in the bay feasting on herring |
There were a few notable differences between this trip and
our previous one in February:
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| Hanging out on top-- enjoying the lack of wind |
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We had an abundance of daylight this time—no need
to run up the mountain to get back by dark
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There was actually some snow on the mountains—we needed
snowshoes
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Due to the snow, we were able to glissade all
the way down the mountain—quite the ride
- There was a lack of wind, THANKFULLY, this time at the summit! Much different than in February
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The bears are out and starting to be active
again—we got a call on our VHF radio from the captain of the boat coming to pick us
up, alerting us that just down the beach from where we were standing (precisely
where he wanted to pick us up) was a bear. We were quite surprised since we had all been running around
on the beach enjoying the abundant marine life. I was always taught the adage, “Never turn
your back on the ocean”, but as it turns out, in Sitka anyways, it does pay to at least turn your head to the side to look
down the beach…..thankfully the bear ran up into the woods and we were able to safely get on
the boat without trouble.
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| The ice on the post from back in February is quickly melting away...this one crashed to the ground right after I took this picture |
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| Chena leading the way with Jessica, Bob, and Matt making their way up |
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| Me doing a beautiful handstand on top...not really....I wish. This is the talented, Jessica |
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| The Hunter Crew |
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Starting the descent
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| Back on the beach waiting for our boat pick-up |
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| Chena, finally tuckered out after a long day of hiking |
We are so thankful for the invite from the Hunters to join
them and can’t wait for our next trip to Kruzoff! This weekend it is looking like its supposed to rain, which
could finally give us a chance to relax and lounge around….but you can never
trust that Southeast weather….it just might be sunny again!
