Elfin Cove and Juneau Alaska Easy Hiking Trails

Isa came up to visit and we played (and worked) a lot! We did three hikes: Brotherhood Trail, the Flume Trail, and Mt Roberts (to the tram). Isa also took a side trip to Elfin Cove to visit her dad who was fishing there with some clients at the time. Here's a recap of her visit:

Kaxdigoowu Heen Dei (Brotherhood Trail)

I've wanted to see this view for a long time and never knew where it was until this season.

It's super easy to get to if you have a car, which we don't, but not hard on the bus either. From downtown (Federal Building), the Route 4 Mendenhall bus took about 35 minutes. Just go out past Safeway and stop as soon as you cross the river. There's a little parking lot there and this view of the fireweed and Mendenhall Glacier is literally from the parking lot.

Exploring the Treadwell Mine Ruins

I went for an exploration jog yesterday and two of my housemates decided to come with. We jogged across the bridge to Douglas and over to Sandy Beach, about 3 miles out. Just past Sandy Beach is the old ruin-town of Treadwell, full of ruins and broken down machinery.

It's one of those old abandoned places that I imagine grunge bands would use for some cd art or something.

Obviously, we are not a band.

Mt Roberts, Gastineau, and Gold Ridge Trail Guide

Two down, three to go. (Of the five peaks in Juneau)

Tanner and I (and Panda, who had to bail early to go to work) hiked Mt. Roberts today. It was much longer and more difficult than we had anticipated. But much more worth it than I thought it'd be.

Douglas Island (left) and Downtown Juneau with Mt Roberts Tram station (center) and Father Brown's Cross (far right)

We started hiking around 9:30am. Well, I left my apartment around 9am (at sea level) and hiked up to the interns' apartment on 7th (already at 200ft although it feels like way more than just 200ft). We took the 6th Street entrance because it takes so much longer to go around to Basin Road.

No longer maintained, but not technically off limits.

There are a few landslides and downed trees that you have to traverse and the trail itself is a little overgrown, but for the most part it's an easy-to-follow trail. It takes about 45 minutes at a good pace to get up to the Mt Roberts Tram Station (1800ft). There you can refill water bottles, buy some snacks if you'd like, watch a movie about the history of the native people here, and say hello to Baltimore, a chill bald eagle rescue. This is also your halfway point to the top of Gastineau Peak, so it's a nice time for a break. 

There's also a nature center with trail maps and a helpful guide who told us there's too much snow up top so don't attempt Gastineau or Mt Roberts. We didn't believe her, but it's nice to get a guides perspective anyways. I think she could sense our blasé attitude so she asked us to please check in on our return to make sure we came back safely and didn't fall off a cliff.

Above the tram we started to see some wildlife, with this Rock Ptarmigan.

Why can't you hear a Ptarmigan go to the bathroom? Because the P is silent. Bwahhahahaa.

We also saw a bear cub scampering off. I didn't get a picture, but you can see him in the video at the bottom.

Helicopter up to Mendenhall Glacier

Today was epic.

As a reward for all the employees and interns that stuck it out until the end of the season, we treated everyone to a once in a lifetime experience: riding a helicopter to Mendenhall Glacier. We got a sweet deal through Temsco (THANK YOU!) to make this possible.

Here's a video of the entire experience, and then read below for more details and photos.



We had to split the team into two helicopters. Here's chopper 1:

Isa and I were in chopper 2 (along with three others), which meant we were able to follow them and get some sweet pics of the helicopter with the mountains to really show some scale.

The views were amazing and so drastically different from one minute to the next. From lush green valleys to jagged cliffs to the beautifully serene Juneau Icefield.

The Juneau Icefield was a highlight for me. I saw it briefly on a flight to Skagway back in July, but the weather wasn't nice like today. The sheer size and beauty of the icefield is astounding.

We had arranged to land on the icefield, but as you can see, there was a fresh blanket of snow across it so the pilots couldn't tell where a safe place to land would be. So we turned and headed over toward Mendenhall Glacier.

The pilots found a good spot to set us down and we disembarked and wandered the glacier with our crampons for grips (although they still weren't super trustworthy).

We tried not to fall into any crevasses, but at the same time we tried to get as close to them as possible to see how deep they went (DEEP!).

We took lots of pictures and drank the COLD water right from the streams (that's in the video).

After about 30 minutes of playing around on the glacier, we got back in our helicopters and flew straight down Mendenhall Glacier for some more sweet views.

Mendenhall Glacier with Mendenhall Lake and Auke Bay in the distance.

And then back towards the airport for the end of a fantastic adventure.

Juneau and then some

So remember back in April, I made a list of things that I was planning on? They all came true. I went to Utah, I had dinner with my aunt, I went to Sitka and made it ridiculously successful. Just thought I'd update you on that.

I'm probably not going to run the marathon though.

Last week they moved me up to Juneau to help run the store there. It's bigger and faster paced, with anywhere up to 6 big cruise ships in at any given time. I love it! The added ships, coupled with my trying to catch up on two months of sales, means I'm working about 14 to 18 hours a day. So if you're coming from YouTube and you're wondering why I haven't uploaded a video until now, there you go.

I still go back to Sitka every few weeks to check in and to see friends. Sitka still feels like home, much more than Juneau does, at least.

The season ends here at the end of September. I'll probably be back in Utah for a day or two, and then fly back to NYC. I plan to be in the City before October 5th.

Plans are in the works for Turkey and Greece in March/April next year. I'm stoked. :) That'll give me about 4 months (minus the christmas season) to get my book published (it's all done, I just have to mail it to my friend Savannah out in London for her review).

Life is very good. I'm extremely happy with how everything is playing out.

Leave a comment if you have any questions that weren't answered.