Alaska cruise - Skagway

We woke up to a beautiful clear day, perfect for exploring Skagway.  Kip and I had planned a long run, John went on a big hike, and Bob and Cherie rode the White Pass train, so everyone was excited to have some big views.

Ah, lovely Alaska mountains.  Much of this post will just be more of this:

Kip and I started our run by crossing over the Skagway River heading west:

Playing around at the workout stations on Yakutania Point:

We climbed up to Dyer Road, happy that the trails connected to it:

Later we found a paper trail map that is quite excellent - I had searched all over online for something of this quality.  Here's a piece of the map, in case it helps anyone else in the future:

(Next time - AB Mountain!)

Such a pretty morning, happy to be here:

I've not heard of a "trail unit" before, neither have I seen this particular pose - there was some giggling involved:

The road bridge at the Chilkoot trailhead:

Yay, we made it to the Chilkoot Trail!

Someday maybe we'll hike more of it, like to Canada:

For now we were happy exploring the first several miles:

Following the Taiya River:

Bridge monkey:

I'm guessing I took this picture because I'm happy it's not poison oak?

Having a fun running day:

Kip looks excited, I'm not so sure about this:

Just to be safe?

The funny thing was that there was no warning sign coming from the other direction, so on the way back we ran across together.  We noticed it once we had crossed back, wait what?  Guess we got lucky!  Or maybe they are exaggerating just a little...

We reached our goal of running to the beaver ponds and still had a bit of time to explore that section before turning around:

Checking out the materials that were staged for some trail upgrades:

Beavers have been busy:

A new boardwalk trail, very nice, and very long - I did a pace count, can't recall exactly what I calculated but I think it was over 200 meters:

Multi-tiered beaver dams, sort of a beaver mansion:

Yep, definitely beavers:

Yay for a fun trail run!

On the way back we spotted some rafters on the river:

We had noticed a little campground cafe that appeared open, so we stopped in on the way back.  They didn't have much (it was late in the season and early in the day) so we decided what the heck, let's try an Alaskan beer or 2 (it was good!).  Maybe that makes us "real trail runners" now:

Admiring the braids in the river as it makes its way toward the Pacific:

And admiring this little truck from Austria, very cool:

Some kind of camp that might be part of a shore excursion party/cookout?  Good for a funny pose at least:

And another pose - not sure what these are:

I'll never get tired of the scenery:

Running down to Yakutania Point:

More monkeying around:

Almost back "home":

We were happy to have a full day docked at Skagway so we could wander the streets and pop into several shops.  Beards sure do get around!

Local wildlife (since I hadn't been able to get a good photo of the real ones we saw):

Public art:

OK, so there must be another thing called a "dolphin" that I'm not aware of.  At least, I hope so:

John did his own version of walkabout, up into the hills to the east of town.  I'll let him describe it in pictures:

He wins the elevation challenge of the day!

We need to come back for more Alaska mountain hiking:

Maybe with an RV or travel trailer...

Thanks for the great photos, John!

And thanks for an excellent long run, Kip!

Alaska cruise - Juneau

Like a Christopher Nolan movie (idea credit to Kip), this blog is jumping around in time.  I'm sort of keeping up with reality, but leaving key pieces behind to pick up later.

In the spirit of "I'll get to everything eventually!" here's the next chapter from back in August.  Our Alaska cruise!

We went from Mount Rainier to Seattle to pick up Kip, Cherie, and Bob at the airport.  The biggest disappointment was that Jenny and Jerry (John's parents) all of a sudden couldn't make it due to an emergency trip to the hospital for gallbladder surgery a couple days prior.  This would have been their first cruise, and it would have been a good one.  Happily everything went well with the surgery, just the timing was really bad for getting on a plane and a ship.  We missed you Jenny and Jerry!

Parentless in Seattle:

City waterfront as we sailed out:

We went on a tour of the ship, led by crewmember Sunny - who was carrying a Star Trek water bottle!  I had to ask her about it, and indeed she was on the NCL Jade last January for the Star Trek cruise, and we'll be seeing her again this coming January!  Funny thing was we heard her call the Spinnaker Lounge "13 Forward" while she was giving the tour, and I'm not sure she realized she was doing it.  Loved it.  Great to meet you, Sunny!

Duck!

The library was an excellent place to hang out and watch the world go by... I even saw whale spouts out the window one morning, super cool.  This is most definitely not a Caribbean cruise.  We started carrying binoculars around.

A bit of rain and clouds couldn't dampen our enthusiasm for the voyage:

Kip's porthole (not a euphemism) - he paid a little bit for a room upgrade, not sure it was worth it, but it did make for some conversation (plus a guest spot in this blog post):

Dressed to debark at Juneau, our first stop and first time in Alaska:

View of the port and another cruise ship:

We took a Juneau Tours shuttle (highly recommend them) over to Mendenhall Glacier.  What a great place for a visitor center!  Even with the less-than-ideal weather and low visibility, the view of the glacier was pretty stunning:

John, Bob, and Cherie took a walk on the trails - good thing everyone brought rain gear:

Nugget Falls is impressive (and wet), regardless of the weather:

Nice shot, John:

John took an up-close video of thundering Nugget Falls, with a little peek over at the glacier at the end:


Kip and I went for a run, starting at the falls and then up a steep climb into the wet woods:

Lovely views from higher up:

More waterfalls:

Markers indicating the previous edges of the glacier; the speed and extent of its retreat are fairly stunning.  Hard to imagine this area was all under ice not that long ago:

Brief convergence on the trail  :)

John tells me they saw salmon in the creek, but it's hard to see from his photos.  No worries, we'll get another chance to watch them swim upstream at a later stop.

The sky was clearing up by the time we got back from the run/hike, yay for another even better view of Mendenhall!

One other shout-out, for Twisted Fish at the port, delicious food, and they have Impossible Burgers for my vegetarian husband.

A very nice start to our little vacation.