Mendenhall

 

Our flight to Juneau was a couple of hours late and by the time we arrived in the early afternoon it was almost dark. Juneau is pretty far to the east in the Alaska Time Zone and at this time of the year it is dark by 4 PM.  But at least the sun is up by 8 AM.  We were too late for Eaglecrest and wanted to get in a ski.  Jerod suggested we go cross country skiing at a place with groomed ski trails at a campground by Mendenhall Lake.  

So immediately after leaving the airport we stopped at Fred Meyers for some REALLY bad sushi (our worst meal in Juneau - and not a place suggested by Jerod), and then off we went to the Mendenhall Valley.  On this first trip it was pretty much already dark by the time we started to ski, and we did not see much beyond the towering spruce trees covered in snow.  And it was really cold.

But the Mendenhall Valley became a sort of touchstone.  We went back to the same campground 2 more times.  Once to ski and once for the sunrise while on the way to the DMV.  

We had to go to the Juneau DMV because Nora lost her driver's permit and needed a new one re issued.  The Kodiak DMV is dysfunctional and we had made an appointment at the Juneau DMV before we even left Kodiak.  Of course when we made the appointment we had assumed 9:30 AM would be in the pitch black before sunrise and not get in the way of our skiing.  But by 9:30 AM on our visit the sun was long up and Nora was itching to hit the slopes!

On our last visit to the XC ski area we went early in the day on a day it was snowing.  We knew it was supposed to clear off and wanted to get to Eaglecrest a bit later.  The XC skiing was a good choice.  We could see the lake and the glacier off in the distance on the other side.  We had wanted to ski to the glacier but were a tad worried about getting lost in a white out on the lake if it started to snow really hard.  So we just enjoyed the groomed trails and the towering spruce trees bent down in new snow.

Patrick