Wide Open Nothingness

One of many iconic symbols that dot this beautiful city

I left the office for about 45 minutes today to take a walk and clear my head.  Within just a few minutes I came across a house for rent that looked like a decent place, and even though I am seeing a REALLY nice home Out The Road on Sunday, called the number (do not want to let any possibilities pass by).  As with many homes for rent in the Juneau area, they do not accept dogs.  My beautiful Jamie-dog - if they only knew what a sweet girl she is......

As I continued walking down the road I found another house that I had seen for sale on the local real estate lisitngs.  This is yet another home that I had been following for a few months, and one that I always seemed to keep coming back to.  As I walked by the house I had a good look at it, and it was indeed a very nice home at what (in Juneau terms) seemed like a reasonable price.  I spoke with a real estate agent earlier in the week though, asked him about this house, and found out why it has been on the market for so long - it is in an avalanche chute.

Yes.  An avalanche chute. 

Moving on.  And a few minutes later I came across what looked like a gnarly and unkept trail that headed directly up into the mountains.  I was wearing fairly casual clothes, and shoes sturdy enough to carefully walk through the mud, downed trees and ice, so decided to explore for a bit and determine whether or not this wanna-be trail was worthy of a longer look at another time.  I did not want to go far, because I needed to head back to work fairly quickly.

I did not go far on this trail until I came across this.  I'm not sure what this pipe is all about (runoff?)

Dressed for work and not having a lot of time, the pipe stopped me from making any more forward progress, so I headed off to the side trails on both sides of this pipe.  It was obvious that these trees have been through a rough time in the not-too-distant-past

After just a short while it was time to head back to work.  This is the view heading back down the gnarly little trail, which in the end is not a trail at all (but rather simply a very large rain and snow-melt drainage) .  The wharf and fishing boats that I photographed yesterday can be seen in the background.  I was pleased to have explored something new and close to work.  My very short adventure gave me the energy to continue through the remainder of my day - not crunching numbers anymore, but rather smoothing out the still very rough edges of what will be a 2 year budget developed in a very tough economic climate.

Tomorrow I test out this mountain bike I have gotten my hands on.  I am excited at the prospect of biking again.  More testing of the knee - a knee that seems to hold up well during physical activity, but which is still tender to the touch.  Should it still be tender?  After two months??  I'm not sure.  I am heading to Douglas Island tomorrow.  I will go north and see how long it takes me to get away from the homes and the other signs of civilization, and into wide-open nothingness.