Blogs from Juneau, Alaska, United States, North America - page 9

We arrived in Juneau at 2:00 PM on Wednesday. The city of 30,000 people is a small, compact town with a single bridge that connects Douglas Island. The downtown area is walking distance from the docks. Our time in Juneau was split between two major sight-seeing destinations, a glacier and a bar. Lani and I signed on to tour the Mendenhal Glacier and Juneau’s salmon hatchery. The Mendenhal Glacier is roughly 20 minutes down the road from downtown. We learned that Alaska’s great ice fields are constantly shifting with all glaciers either receding or expanding as the ice moves. Mendenhal is one of the receding glaciers. We saw photos of the glacier in the 80s as compared to today. The changes have been significant and you can see the results in the landscape of the hillsides. ... read more

So, Juneau’s awesome! The weather was a little shitty in the morning – spitting rain and overcast, but by 10am the rain stopped. Good timing because at 10:30 we headed out on our excursion! We took the bus up to Mendenhall Glacier – our driver was fun, full of jokes and stuff. We had 1.5hrs at the Glacier which really wasn’t enough… I easily could’ve spent another couple hours there to hike around the trails. (Even if there was a sign indicating “possibly bear encounters”, I was game) I love glaciers, I really do. The colours are just amazing, and the patterns within the ice are mesmerizing. A got a bunch of photos of the ice flows in the lake at the bottom of the glacier, and then of course a ton more photos of the ... read more

I can't believe that my trip is almost at an end. It has been such a blast here in Juneau! I got to do so much more than I thought I would and even experienced some new things. After my last update, I went camping with Les, Louie, and Sara. On Monday morning, we headed off to Douglas and hiked up to the Dan Moller cabin which was about a 2.5 mile "more difficult" hike from Blueberry Hill that has an 1800 feet elevation gain. It was another gorgeous sunny day with some amazing views of downtown. I was a little nervous since Michigan has no hills and I haven't been hiking in a long time, but my time at the gym swimming really paid off as we took to the trail around 1 or so. ... read more

I've been in Juneau for about three days now and so much has happened that I decided to split my spring break trip into two blogs. Well the last time I wrote, I was in the Detroit airport just getting ready to take off. During the whole trip out here, I kept thinking about my committee meeting and the sturgeon and what I was going to do to just make everything work. But a nice lady next to me kind of cheered me up as she told me all about how her little boy loves sharks and wants to be a marine biologist and if I could recommend any good books. I told her all about Ray Troll :) And then when we were flying down into Seattle, I looked out the window, saw the mountains, ... read more

Just a quick practice message to all my friends and family. I just returned from the Bald Eagle Festival in Haines, Alaska. Had my first experience sleeping in a yert, with a view of the river valley below and soaring eagles waking me in the mornings. One of the bald eagles I have been working with was released during this event. She took a swim, but made it to shore and succeeded in stealing a salmon from a full grown eagle, so I guess she will be fine. I look forward to sharing our adventures in Australia this winter. Cheers, Liz... read more