Category: Alaska

It’s that time of year to say farewell to summer and fall, and prepare for frosty season. In Juneau we’ve already had our first dusting of snow, and morning are nice and frosty.

For the house, this means winterizing, and cleaning out my garage so I can actually start parking my car inside for the snowy season. For the blog, prepare for a roundup of loose ends to wrap up the summer and fall, and end Season 2. Loose ends to wrap up:

Juneau Hikes

I have a whole pile of hike notes to publish. I had a goal starting in April to try a new hike every weekend. I have like 5 go-to spots within walking distance / short drive from my house that are beautiful, but I wanted to try out other spots. It wasn’t perfect, but I accomplished my overall aim and managed to explore a ton of new trails around town, including:

• 4/5/20 – Sheep Creek. Uphill, arduous, rugged.
• 5/2/20 – Breadline Bluff Trail. Footbridges, cliffs, dagobah.
• 5/10/20 – Eagle Beach. Beachy, bubbles, sand.
• 6/28/20 – Rainforest Trail. Trees, rocks, waves.
• 7/16/20 – Arboretum. Flowers, beach, trees.
• 7/19/20 – Windfall Lake. Berries, bear bell, river.
• 7/26/20 – Herbert Glacier. Car, river, runners.
• 8/16/20 – Point Caroline. Bah bah bah.
• 8/19/20 – Perseverance Trail. Bridge, sunshine, new friends.
• 8/23/20 – Spaulding Meadows. Washboard, planks, mud.
• 9/12/20 – Mt. Roberts. Pride, summit, forever.
• 9/19/20 – Eagle Crest muskeg trail. Boggy, mossy, beautiful.
• 10/17/20 – Juneau Boardwalk. Whale, hello, there.

I plan to keep this up as we move into winter.

Summer adventures

Although it feels like a black hole swallowed the whole summer and most of the fall, and just yesterday it was March and everything was starting to shut down, it also feels like a lot has happened in the last 6 months or so. I did at least a few interesting things to keep me busy this summer:

• Rifle range
• Backyard wildlife traffic analysis
• Pandemic life in Alaska

Homework

I think an update on house project progress is warranted.

Season 3: What’s next?

The whole season thing is just an artificial breaking point to chunk some posts together, but it feels like I’m moving into another phase of things, so time to end one season and begin another. I hope to write more about the following in Season 3:

• Northwest Coast Design – the traditional native art I’ve been studying for over a year now. I’d like to write about how that learning process is going, what it’s like being a cultural outsider, and what I’m learning about the history of the artform.
• Things I learn about Alaska
• Photography – I have goals to revive my practice to fully take advantage of my environment and (try to) capture some of it. I’d like to write about photo trips and projects.
• House stuff. The project that never ends.
• More new hikes.