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Sunday, October 08, 2006

Did Juneau

Date: Oct. 7
Total mileage: 22.5
October mileage: 145.5
Temperature upon departure: 45

I finally got around to hiking Mount Juneau today. It almost didn't happen. I woke up - late again, of course - to a blanket of thick fog smothering the valley.


"What's the point?" I asked Geoff. "We won't be able to see anything up there." I thought I wouldn't have time before work anyway. I told him I would just go for a quick bike ride instead. He talked me into it.


Before we hit the trailhead, we were already climbing out of the clouds and into the bald blaze of a rare clear day. And then we just hiked - up, not out. The mountainside was so steep that we could peek over the edge at a nearly direct vertical drop into town. If I owned a base-jumping parachute, I think I could have landed on top of the capitol building.


As we watched the cloud cover slowly thin and drift away from the channel, all I could think about was how amazing it was that I could be standing there, on a mountaintop,


less than two miles from my house, on a warm and sunny Sunday morning, two hours before I had be at work for my regular shift,


and I thought, this,


this is why I'm a happy person.

13 comments:

  1. unbelievable photos. wow.... can't imagine what it's like mtb'ing up there.

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  2. Wow.

    I woulda been tempted to call in sick:-)

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  3. Amazing pictures...as usual! Even if you didn't write a word, I'd still enjoy coming to this blog for the pictures alone!

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  4. I'm starting to see why you would move to Juneau.

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  5. Looks similar to the vertigo view from atop Mt. Marathon, except, of course, from there one overlooks Seward.

    Nice.

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  6. Jill, You are living my dream. I am jealous, but thanks for your blog so I can live in AK - virtually.
    t

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  7. It's great hiking through the clouds and breaking through them. The world takes on a whole new meaning...

    BTW what's the elevation of Mt Juneau?

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