Dateline Juneau, AK-Sunday, August 26

John & Nickie: Mendenhall Lake & Glacier

We awoke at 6 am this morning to our ship pulling into its birth in Juneau. Nickie had her hair “done” this morning in the onboard salon and John worked out (AGAIN! Not that he needs it).

This afternoon we left the ship and went on an excursion to Mendenhall Glacier, only a few miles north of Juneau proper. On the way, we saw many Bald Eagles around the harbor and alongside the highway. Mendenhall is one of thirty-nine glaciers in the Juneau ice field, and a large one at that. The glacier terminates in a pretty blue-gray colored lake, which is in turn drained by the Mendenhall River. We took a rafting tour of the glacier, its lake and an impressive waterfall that takes glacier melt into the lake in unimaginably large quantities. The lake was also full ice flows which calved from the glacier. Then we (with a guide and some other tourists) rafted down the Mendenhall River, which is fast moving with many rapids, some quite intimidating. Everyone that boarded the raft also arrived at the end with nary a scratch, although there were some damp clothes. We stayed pretty dry through the ordeal. Our guide explained that the water temperature ranges from 34 to 36 degrees in the summer, since it is all new ice melt. The glaciers have been retreating in recent years due to melting, but Juneau on the other hand had its coldest and snowiest winter in memory this year. Go figure.

After our white water rafting adventure, we toured downtown Juneau, which is mostly now for the benefit of cruise ship tourists. Juneau is the capital of Alaska, but it still has the look and feel of a pretty small town-there are only about thirty thousand residents. It was formed as a gold rush town in the late nineteenth century, and to this day has no trains or roads leading in or out (although there are of course a few roads IN town-cars are brought in by ferry). One must come by air or sea. Like all the Alaskan towns we visited, it is rimmed by stunning high, craggy coastal mountains. The harbor is a very busy working one; in addition to tourism the economy is driven by commercial fishing and some mining.

This evening we took in an onboard floor show and sat down to a fine dinner in the main dining room. Tomorrow it’s off to Skagway and a trip up the mountains on the narrow gauge, mining era railway.