What have we been up to?

Saturday we were able to attend some of the activities at Gold Rush Days, in between our morning and afternoon Cruise Departures.  Saturday was Miner's Day and Sunday would be Lumberjack Day.  Miners from Kensington and Greens Creek Mines competed, showing off their mining skills like Jackleg drilling and mine support building.

The above picture is of our landlord, Travis,  giving his best during the drilling competition.  This is how he use to do his job while working in Montana.  Now, I guess, they have a machine that actually does the drilling, so he just pushes buttons and levers to maneuver and push the drill.

Above is another friend, Ben, during his attempt to be the fastest "Spike Driver".  

When we left the competition to finish working,  the one that was is in the lead was the 65+ year old man who was a miner most of his life. (He also lead in the Jackleg Drilling.)

After work, we went hiking over by Mendenhall Lake, as we heard that an ice dam may have let loose Friday night and it was flooding.

When we got there it was very high water.  There was a Canoe Trip of the Mendenhall Glacier preparing to take off.  We were able to take some pics of the replicas that are used for the native canoeing tours.

Sunday we were able to get on one of the tours that Allen Marine offers.  We tried a "Whale Watching and Orca Point Lodge Salmon Bake.  While whale watching and on our way to Orca Point Lodge we were able to see a couple of eagles building a nest on the support of an old channel marker.

We were also able to view two different pods of Humpback whales bubble net feeding.

After watching the whales for a while we headed for Orca Point Lodge.

We had a great meal of grilled Salmon, grilled chicken, rice, cranberry coleslaw, steamed vegetables and brownies (not pictured).  Wait...where did that brownie go?...

Then we hiked Sunshine Cove where Gwen and I found many rocks to collect and we saw Sea Anemones, Loons, Humpback whales and eagles. There was even a sea lion that swam around near us, calling out in his hoarse barking voice.   Alaska is an amazing area.....

As I am writing today's blog we are experiencing our third thunderstorm in three days and the fourth one of the summer.  It is like a midwest weather system.  It will warm up all day till a storm rolls in to cool the day off.  A lot of the residents are saying this is really weird weather for Alaska.  After the first lightening strike today all of the neighbors were out looking up.  This is not normal for Alaska...

From a rain forest to the moon and beyond?

Yesterday we started a hike that began in a rain forest on West Mendenhall Glacier Trail.  It was lush and green and about 78 degrees.

Two hours later and about 1500-2000 feet higher it seemed like we were on the moon.

It was stark, barren, rocky, windy and about 20 degrees colder.  We had made our target.  We were standing on a large Alaskan ice cube known as Mendenhall Glacier. 

It was not what I had expected it to be.  You hear and read about the glacial silt, but the glacier was more black than white on the surface.  All that blue ice that you see is not on the top or the sides.  I guess 1000s of years of grinding through the mountains must take a toll on ice.

Once on the glacier everyone told us to look for the waterfall, "You will know it once you see it" they said.  We found it and hiked, traversed, slid and dodged boulders to the base of the waterfall and then we turned around.... there it was, a large mouth staring at us...

...the mouth of the Mendenhall Glacier ice cave.  Many said, "Enter at your own risk.  The first 25 yards is the danger zone".  "Watch out for falling ice and rocks."  So do I enter or not?  Do I risk the entry for the experience?  Do I venture into the belly of a 1000 year old ice flow?  

Another hiker came along and asked if I wanted to go in with him...He would if I would.  Without even a pause I said, "Of course!"  So, with Gwen staking out the entrance as our Safety Officer,  Ryan and I ventured into Mendenhall Glacier.

Once past the entrance and light from the outside and past the "danger zone" we entered a world of total blue.

To say that it was "amazing" is an understatement.  We actually went from the rain forest, to the moon, to a different planet.  This ice has been in the glacier for 1000's of years and I was able to walk in and view it, experience it, be dripped on by it,  and I even touched it...The belly of a glacier.

Now, I still have 100s of images of water flows on the glacier, formations from the glacier and rocks in the glacial ice.  But for today that does not hold a candle to the experience of walking under a glacier.  Fear not, those images will come soon.  I just need a few rainy days so that I can process them.  For the last 4-5 weeks it had been unseasonably sunny and very little rain.  Great for taking pictures but bad for sitting inside and processing them.

P.S. the rocks even help you sometimes...

Really? Another week is almost over? Really?

We have worked over 45 hours in the past five days. ( I know our son Gabe will not think that's a lot of hours.)  We think it is a lot when you add three to four hours of hiking after!

Yes, it is hard to get Gwen away from her fascination with rocks and searching for that perfect rock. We were hiking the East Mendenhall Glacier Trail last night, where we saw many amazing rocks in streams and along the path.  There were several of these huge boulders just teetering on their edges.  Gwen saw this little stick "propping" one up.  She wanted to see what would happen when she pulled it out....

When you add an environment with large mountains, large ice fields and large rivers and waterfalls, who knows what we might find!

It seems like I keep getting more and more topics to cover and more and more images to process...with less time to get them done.

Such is life in Alaska.

What should we cover next?

What a weekend!

First, it started out with breaching humpback whales.  Then we headed out to the Tracy Arm fjord.  Was that amazing or what? The Tracy Arm area reminded us of maybe a mix of Scotland and Yosemite.

 Should I cover the blue ice that you might start seeing even before you enter the fjord?

Or should I cover the scores of Harbor Seal pups that were taking refuge in the fjord?

I could even cover the scores of water cascades that are in the area from all the rain and melting snow.

Then, today we wandered upon a mother black bear with three cubs eating on the side of the road.

 I guess later this week I will have to cover each of these areas in more detail.  But until then...

A weekend off! Yeah

Well, after a 56 hour week last week and a 43 hour week in 4.5 days, we got this afternoon and this weekend off.  At first we were going to go up the Mt Roberts Tram.  Then we found out that we could go on the Evening Whale Quest.  So, we did.

First, we saw the Faust Rock buoy which is a favorite hang out for the Stellar sea lion.

Then we headed past Point Retreat lighthouse for some cool shoots.....  That is when the Evening Whale quest began....

This was Gwen's first shot with my small camera.  Not too bad, I would think.

And the little guy would not stop breaching...

He played and entertained the guests for over 20 minutes.

Tomorrow on our day off we will take a trip to Tracy Arm (a fjord about 2 hours south of Juneau).  From what I understand it has two tidal glaciers that calve directly into the ocean.  It is a seven hour round trip.  Will definitely have to take all three of my 8gig cards for that one.

Working late...

Last night Gwen had a later Check In, so while she greeted her passengers, I was able to wander the harbor for about 30 minutes.  You can see the variety in the size of the ships in the harbor as well as the variety in the light.  Yesterday was a very weird day as we had a variety in weather too...both blue sky and torrential downpours.  

The first image is looking south towards blue sky and the second image is looking north.  

When we got home it was still raining in the "valley".

I also found an older fishing boat, but will save those images for another night.

What to talk about tonight?

 I want to share some more about our jobs here in Juneau.  As Tour/Dock Reps we go through a lot to move people from one boat to another boat.  Many days we work in the rain.  This was one of those days:

In both of the above images Gwen is working on the docks checking in an Evening Whale Quest tour. We make sure that people get back from their evening tours in time to board their ship before it departs. These people were excited that they had seen both adult and juvenile Orca breaching, even with the rain.

Here are some pics of Juneau in the rain:

 I also wanted to congratulate Gideon on his correct observation about the blog!

 Until tomorrow...