I am used to being behind the camera........
My Mountain Boy and I headed over to Douglas Island late yesterday morning to take in some of the mining and logging event that was scheduled this weekend at Savviko Park in S Douglas.
We are so much alike - we are both drawn to mountains, water and boats, and even though there were hundreds and hundreds of people milling about across the road we stopped for a few minutes after we parked my truck to take in the harbor and mountains that were surrounding and embracing us.
It did not rain the entire time that we were at the beach, but I don't think that the temperature got much over 50 degrees yesterday.
Summer in Alaska.........cherish the days when it is warm, dry and sunny. Dress appropriately, and do whatever you had planned on doing that day regardless of the weather. Find joy and beauty even in grey and cold days..........
After crossing over to the event we walked around for just a short while taking in everything that was going on around us. Young children and parents standing in line for pony rides. People sitting in the stands of bleachers set up for the weekend. Old machinery sitting unattended and waiting for some upcoming competition. Young people competing in a back-hoe competition. Young children and parents waiting in a long line to play carnival games. A very long line of people standing and waiting patiently to purchase "Memphis Style Bar-b-que." A large red and white tent filled with hundreds and hundreds of people and tables set up by non-profits, cotton candy vendors, political hopefuls. Softball tournaments running non-stop on the adjoining fields.......
We decided to go walk on the beach.
We are also alike in that regard - unless the event is compelling to us, we would rather be where people are not. For two people who can be highly sociable when engaged or required to be, we would both rather spend time away from people and close to nature.
The snow on all of the "local mountains" is almost gone now. And that snow has been replaced by multiple shades of green on the mountains, and abundant wild flowers. Wildflowers cover the sides of roads, the mountains, the trails, people's yards (including ours) and the meadows of this beautiful beautiful town and borough.
Although we drove down to S Douglas a few days after LC arrived in Juneau we had not walked it together before yesterday. I greatly enjoyed showing him this beautiful and interesting beach.
It is filled with sand, water and boats, as well as old piers and old rusty mining artificats - all remnants from the old Treadwell mining days:
I think that my Mountain Boy enjoyed it as much as I did. He loved the beach and REALLY enjoyed seeing some of the old artifacts and structures that are still in place along the easy-to-walk gravel trails that we took on the way back.......
LC had great fun trying to identify these so very interesting pieces of old equipment....
There were some interesting prints in the sand yesterday - not sure what they were, and with my lack of experience in track-recognition, and with all the very big dogs that live in this town, I find it difficult to figure out exactly what I am looking at.
We noticed this morning that we have a lot of ripe blueberries in our yard, and well as salmonberries that are beginning to ripen.
We'll be picking blueberries today before some other animal has a chance to eat them all.
While we were walking on the Treadwell trail yesterday we also saw many salmonberries. Many of them had been picked already, and I agree with LC that it was probably bears - because you can see many places where it looks like a heavy animal has wandered in and out of the heavy growth around the berry plants.
If it WAS a bear he was very efficient because there were very few ripe berries that remained behind - most of those left still need a week or two to ripen by the looks of things.
Regardless, we snacked a little along the trail as we got closer to the park area and civiliation again.
This piece of old mining equipment is located at the trail entrance and is beautifully architectural in its appearance.
Yesterday turned out to be a cold, grey, drizzly day. We had planned on spending our visit at the S Douglas park hanging out with some colleagues and taking in mining competitions. We changed our plans on the fly, deciding that there was really nothing we would rather do more than take a walk on the beach alone, and explore some of Juneau's rich gold mining history.
Big fun together on a cold summer day.
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