Juneau, Alaska

The entirety of last week Reed, my roommate, trekked us (my roommates - Justin,Ricks,Mike,Eliot) around the wonderful landscapes of Alaska. We had many great adventures on our trip.

(make sure to click the links below to see amazing trail information along with pictures!)

We started out by doing a hike up to Peterson Lake. The hike up was pretty hard for me. There was still a fair amount of snow on the ground. We would not have been able to do the hike without the snow shoes that Reed supplied us with. There was bridge that had about four feet of snow piled on it. It had no handrails, and I almost fell in. Reed helped me by carrying my pack across the second time. We got a little detoured, and by the time we got to the lake I was dead tired. I couldn't move, Justin went to the cabin and came back for me pack. Nice! At the top the lake was frozen over for the most part, so we stayed inside the cabin most of the day anyways. The cabin did have a heater though! It was great! The hike down was not too bad. We spent Saturday and Sunday evening at Peterson Lake.


Monday afternoon went back to Reed's house, had lunch, and re-supplied for our next adventure, Camping Cove. We spent Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday night here. It was amazing! Some of us hiked in, while Reed and I rode the boat right up to the cabin. We saw sea lions, bald eagles, marmosets and even some whales at one point! We did a day hike to a lake and a separate beach. We even went crabbing with the boat, caught some crab, boiled them up and ate them! It was delicious! The cabin was nice and roomy, definitely a place I would like to return to. Thursday morning we packed up and hiked out. It was a relatively easy hike, mostly along the beach.

That night we stayed at Reeds house, woke up the next morning and hiked the Mendenhall Glacier. It was absolutely amazing! We were able to get right up on the glacier itself. We explored a small ice cave and even drank some glacier water! So refreshing! It was a short hike, so we returned to Reeds house for lunch, showered, and headed downtown.

We rode the Juneau tram (thanks to Reed's dad) and caught some amazing views. We walked through some shops, and later drove by Sarah Palin's mansion. Unfortunately we didn't get to see the governor herself. We ended the day by stopping to purchase smoked salmon. And later went out with Reed's parents to Bullwinkle's pizza parlor.

I had a great time, and am thankful that Reed gave us this great opportunity. He and his family made a wonderful trip for us. Reed's mom makes great snicker doodles, if you're ever in Juneau make sure to request those!

--
_Daniel R Nelson_
www.dtmland.info
--