Greetings from Alaska!

Hi all fellow VFTT'ers....

Got into Juneau yesterday evening to beautiful weather, bright blue skies! It has been raining for days and days here... Had a great view of Rainer and the Cascades on the flight out from Newark... Had even better views of amazing peaks and valleys on the islands on the route up here.

Today we toured the Juneau area with my buddy that lives here. Can you say STEEP! Holy crap... outside the hostel is Mount Juneau, literally like a wall outside the edge of town. Spekaing of Juneau, imagine a compact San Fran, stepp narrow roads, hills that make you dream to be soap box derby racer. All the tourons from the cruise ships keep looking at the stores when if they look up there are these beautiful peaks all around. And I mean all around...

Tuesday morning we are taking a ferry to Skagway to hike the Chilkoot Trail on Wednesday morning. We plan to take our time and do the whole hike from Wednesday to Saturday or Sunday, up in the air, depending on the miles we do each day and how we fell after crossing the Chilkoot Pass.

That's all for now... Just wanted to let you know that VFTT is representin' to the folks in Alaska!!!!

Catch you all later, LOTS of pictures will be posted soon!
Kevin

Cool, did the Chilkoot trail about 3 years ago. It is a FANTASTIC hike, one of my all time favorites. The view once you get up and over the Chilkoot pass is amazing, a very very pretty spot with glacial fed lakes and kettle ponds.. Cold water and just beautiful scenery as well as a very interesting history as a gold rush trail and more importantly, an indian trading route.

My friend and I flew into Juneau but took a puddle jump on Skagway air to get there, but we did take the AMHS ferry back to Juneau on the return due to the frequently bad weather there. It's a nice change of pace!

Jay

The wind blows both ways in Southeast when it comes to travel modes. My wife and I once rode the ferry from Seattle (yes, back in the day) to Haines and disembarked there for the drive to Anchorage. The boat continued on to Skagway, the last stop. They got within sight of the dock and had to turn back -- couldn't tie up because of the wind. It rattled the windows hard that night in Haines, I can tell you.

Looking forward to seeing the pictures.

A Partial Chillkoot Trail/Alaska Update

Well, I made it back safe and sound from Alaska, although a bit beat up. I ended up enjoying an interesting vacation that allowed me the privilege of being a guest of the Alaskan healthcare system... I had to be flown off the trail due to a bad case (is there a good case?) of hypothermia that was brought on by exhaustion and dehydration. Everything that I knew NOT to do, it seems I did. It really sucked, I did not end up finishing the trail, I was flown off just before the 'good' part actually at the Golden Stairs. I will have a longer TR posted in a few days with details...

Here are a few photos that my buddies took after they left me at Sheep Camp, and where I was handed the new trailname of Bear Burritio.

The photos are of the Chilkoot Trail in Canada. My photos that include more of Juneau and Skagway as well as the Chilkoot will be posted over the weekend.

Alaskan Photo Albums on Webshots

Overall the trip was a lot of fun, the weather was crappy for the most part, about 3 days of sunny-ish weather, the rest was clouds, fog, drizzle, showers, rain... Very depressing to someone that needs sunlight like myself. We met LOTS of interesting people, saw quite a bit of wildlife; we were the only ones to see bears on the Chilkoot and there were a few dozen people hiking at the time, we got to see a mother black bear and her two cubs for a few seconds before they ran up a tree and we back tracked to give her space.

I will be returning next year to finish up the trail, projects are fun, but I really wanted this one... Oh well, brains in the back country is better then brawn some days, but you need to use them apparently. Plus the trail is not going anywhere...

Catch you all later...
Kevin

Damm, that's too bad Kevin, but do go back, it is that special. Funny, we had the most perfect weather when my friend and I did it but we had the worst weather on the train ride back from Lake bennett. All we could see the entire train trip back was white. Oh well... Cool about the bear, I think we missed a bear that was hanging around sheep camp just before my friend and I arrived there.

We didn't get a chance to do much in Juneau, but we did take a taxi from the AMHS dock to the airport!

Jay

Kev, I missed this last week. Wet and cold, sorry to hear about the evac, but that must have been some (sort of) experience ! Some great photos, regardless. Glad you did okay and made it to the wedding !