July 30: Mendenhall Glacier
The Mendenhall Glacier is the one thing that everybody has been telling me I must see while I’m in Juneau. Today, that’s what I did.
It was not a good day for visiting it. Actually, it was a good day to visit — the rain and clouds kept the tour buses away, I’m told — but it was not a good day for photographing it.
I enjoyed a leisurely cup of coffee while I waited for it to stop raining. At about 10 AM, it was only barely raining, so I hopped on the bike and negotiated my way through a series of intersections along the Egan Highway to the Mendenhall Loop Road. Four miles or so later, I was at the Visitors Center. I spent most of the rest of the day hiking the various trails which start at the Visitors Center. The Steep Creek Trail was one recommended to me as one where I would likely see salmon in the stream and bears fishing for those salmon. I saw plenty of salmon — Sockeye, I believe — but no bears. I was told the bears are attracted to the streams when they hear the sounds of the salmon splashing in the water. Well, the stream flow is high enough still that the salmon don’t do this very often. Thus, no bears.
After leaving the visitors center, I took the “back loop” of the Mendenhall Loop Road. There’s a lot less traffic on this section because it’s a longer way to get to back to the Egan Highway. When I returned to the bridge across the Mendenhall River, I took a paved bike trail called the “River Road” which goes through a dense forest along the Mendenhall River for about 3 miles. I was a little nervous about surprising a bear on this trail. I decided it must be a bear-free area because there where plenty of people out on the trail walking their dogs.
Here are some of my favorite photos from today’s outing:
When I returned to the hotel, there was a package for me at the front desk — my replacement Dexcom receiver arrived!
