Juneau, a capitol idea!

Ah Juneau. For the longest time we had no idea what we were going to do here. Maybe take the tram up to the top of Mount Roberts? Maybe take the bus to the Mendenhall glacier? Maybe see the capitol building? Maybe take a brewery tour? Nope, can't do that as I was only 20 when we were in port.

About a month before the cruise, my cousin suggested we hike the glacier... Hmm, hike a glacier? Is that possible? How much is it? How long is the hike? Are we in good enough shape to actually do it? Are we crazy?

The answers: yes, $165 a person, 6 miles round trip, no, yes.

Well decided to do it anyway, after all, we had a month to train. And I learned that a month is not enough training time. Either that, or I didn't train hard enough. Or I didn't train the right way.

We pulled into Juneau in the early morning, got off the boat and walked over to where our guide would pick us up. We waited a pretty long time, almost to the point where we were worried we had gone to the wrong place. Eventually, a van pulled up and out walked a guy in flip flops. "There's no way that's him", I thought. "He's wearing flip flops!" Turns out, it was; he didn't like driving in his boots as it's either 0 miles per hour, or 100.

After a drive not reaching 100 miles per hour, we arrived at the trail head and get our packs and waterproof gear on. At the trail head is a sign that says something to the effect of "DANGER! WOLVES!" Good thing I only noticed as we were finishing the hike.

The first mile or so of the trail is maintained well, and we make good time. After that, the trail pretty much disappears and you make your own without falling down the steep hills. Steep hills! No one said anything about steep hills! The hiking guide website said elevation gain of 300 feet, not net elevation of 300 feet! Come on, I'm fat, and that's important information! Oh well, we sucked it up and continued on to the rock scrambling portion. Oh boy, rock scrambling. It was fun going up, but I knew it would be the exact opposite on the way down.

Finally we reached the glacier and fuel up on granola bars and sugary snacks. We donned our crampons to help us walk on the ice, and we were off. I was kind of unsure about this so I stomped into the ice to give me the most grip with the crampons. Turns out, stomping on ice takes a lot out of you and you don't even need to stomp to get a grip on the ice. I was dead tired and sure that I would in fact die on this glacier.

I decided to rest up on the glacier while the others go up higher, and sucked it up on the hike back. The rock scramble down wasn't as bad as I had imagined but still quite nerve racking. It was a rush though, and once I was on solid ground I enjoyed it.

But remember those steep hills? I sure do. This time, though, we would be going up. One foot after another, I make the climb. One more hill. One more step. I finally made it back to the level maintained trail and leaned forward and let momentum carry me the last mile. I remember saying to my cousin, "We are going to have the thighs of gods when we're done." And we did.

All the sweat and effort was worth it. We had fantastic views and could claim something not many people could. We had conquered the mighty mighty Mendenhall!

Ketchikan!

Ketchikan was the first of four ports of call on our Alaskan cruise. Dubbed “Alaska's First City”, Ketchikan was a must have on our itinerary. Being a huge fan of the Discovery Channel's Deadliest Catch, the Bering Sea Crab Fisherman's Tour had me super excited.

We got off the ship setting first foot on Alaskan ground. I think a Neil Armstrong quote made its way through my mind. After getting the obligatory oohs and ahhs out of our system and taking pictures of the snow capped mountains and the surrounding islands, we attempt to find where we need to be for our excursion. I noticed a man in the signature rain gear worn by the crabbers on TV and as we wandered closer we could see that he was holding a sign for our excursion.

Greeted in the most amazing New Zealand accent (it's now my favorite accent), we were given directions to the Aleutian Ballad. Down the ramp to the left of the restrooms, past another ramp and we were staring the Ballad in the bow. My group and I handed our tickets over to the crew, and I was slightly disappointed in the fact that they weren't as salty or blue as I had hoped. In fact they had what they called a swear jar.

We tried to get some first row seats, but we could not find a set of four together in the front so we settled for third row seats which weren't bad at all. The entire lower level was heated, although I would have liked it to have been colder to get a sense of the coldness that crabbers work in. I was so excited to be on a crab boat I became Mr. Obvious pointing out all the equipment, “Oh that's the coiler and that's the pot launcher! Wow, it's the block. Ooh, that's the hot chocolate maker?” They even provided great hot chocolate and water.

With a safety briefing and an explanation of how fishing crab not in season is legal, we were off. It turns out that we would be fishing in sovereign Indian waters and they would allow us to fish for a cut of the profits. Hooray for Fish and Game loopholes.

The Ballad is about 800 feet or so shorter than our mega liner so it rocked a little more. Now I was getting happy with the realism. Granted, it wasn't as extreme as 40 foot waves, we were in between the outlying islands with one foot seas. As we steamed our way to the fishing grounds, the crew shared anecdotes about the history of the ship and crew, the differences between circle hooks and j hooks and the proper technique to dislodging a hook from a human.

Well, if you must know, do not try to pull the hook out. Instead, push it all the way through until the barb is exposed and grind it down and then pull out the hook. Note: this only works when the barb can be pushed out of the person, if it can't, kneel on the person's hand and rip it out. It will also help to pour alcohol on the wound. Don't forget to run!

Anyway, we pull a few pots, some had orange King Crab, and some had Opilio Crab. The crew passed a few around in case someone would like to hold and be photographed with the crab. That someone was me and a few others. They also threw out some bait and attracted some bald eagles. There must have been 40 of them! It was incredible; I can’t recommend this tour enough. And after the crab and the eagles, they had an octopus for us to see!

After putting the octopus back in his (or her) home, we set a course back to the dock and we feasted on some crab dip and looked around in the gift shop and chatted with the crew. It was a great time and one that I will never forget.

Getting back to the dock we had some time to spare so I and a few others wandered around “downtown” Ketchikan before boarding the ship and preparing for our next port of call, Juneau, where we would be hiking the Mendenhall Glacier.