Almost To John Muir Cabin

I have travelled the Spaulding Meadows trails a couple of times.

The first time was in the dead of winter in late January.  I hit the trail on the spur of the moment while walking around and exploring the Auke Bay area.  I did not have any food, water, first aid or emergency supplies with me and nobody knew where I was. 

I had been told that it was just a short trail so I thought I would just blow in and blow out of the area after a brief walk.

I had Yak Traxx with me that day, which was a good thing because within just a minute of being on the trail I hit ice and snow and would not have been able to go any further if I did not happen to have them with me.

It turned out of course that the trail was not just a little short trail. 

I ended up reluctantly turning back at a bridge, after having been on the trail for 45 minutes or so. 

That turned out to be a good decision, because on the way back I ran into other hikers carrying snow shoes, cross country skis and overnight packs with them, so I knew that had I continued on, I would have hit conditions beyond what I was capable of managing while carrying no supplies.

About two weeks later I hooked up with a local hiking group and we hiked all the way up to John Muir Cabin.

The hike was fairly long, and sure enough, by the time we were half way there everyone in the group was donning either snow shoes or skis in the increasing snow.

These trails are very deceiving.

I have climbed Mt Jumbo, Mt Roberts and part of Mt McGinnis and when you are climbing these you KNOW that you are climbing a mountain.

The hike up to John Muir Cabin is along a very gradual and consistant incline, through woods and meadows, on wooden plank trail much of the time to avoid the muskeg and extreme boggy areas. 

It just does not feel like you are climbing as much as you are - until you eventually look back where you have just come from and see the channel below you, and the mountains directly across from you.

I called my Mountain Boy from work on Friday afternoon and asked him if he wanted to walk for a while on the Spauling Meadow Trail.  He agreed to meet me around 4:30, and brought water, a pack with first aid supplies and a headlamp, trekking poles and bear protection.

I knew that with his knee injury we were not going to be travelling very far - but it was Friday afternoon, the weekend was ahead of us and I wanted to unwind before heading home, and I wanted to spend time with my Mountain Boy alone in the woods.

The trail is wide open and gently but consistently climbs right from the get-go.   There is very heavy vegetation on both sides of the trail...... 

We took our time, climbing steadily and taking pictures along the way.

My Mountain Boy with his 454.

And me just carrying bear spray and a kabar.....

After this first bridge the trail becomes a little more serious - a little narrower, a few more ups and downs, and as we progressed further into the mountain the vegetation gradually began to change from the devils club and skunk cabbage to a more alpine environment.

When we got to the trail intersection (Spaulding Meadows continuing straight ahead and John Muir Cabin to the left) we stopped to take a picture of the shot-up sign and briefly discussed which way to go.

Surprisingly my Mountain Boy wanted to head towards the cabin.  I questioned the knee.  He said it was fine, and we continued on.

Still taking our time, still taking pictures along the way and still enjoying our walk.....

There were a few bridges and beautiful streams.  A number of creeks and a whole lot of small pools of water along the trail and throughout the meadows.....

As with many trails throughout Juneau a lot of this particular trail is made up of planks - very slippery when wet, but it had not rained in a few days (even in the mountains) so the planks were relatively dry.  They made foot travel easier and protected us from the mud in low lying areas.

A tree torn apart - maybe by a bear looking for grubs.....

We alternated throughout our hike between thick vegetation and open meadows.......

Me....

As we climbed higher we came across a combination of  small gnarly pine trees and these tall, wind blown and twisted trees..........

By the time we got to this place we had been climbing consistently for almost two hours.  My Mountain Boy and his back and knee were beginning to hurt.  I wanted to turn back.  He wanted to continue.  He wanted to see the cabin.

We continued but honestly by this point I was not certain why we were still forging ahead.......

Tall trees that were still standing, and logs along the side of the trail, all began to show strong signs of severe wind damage.  I had never seen trees that were so twisted and misshapen......

Only when we looked back at where we had come from did we really realize just how much we were climbing.

This is a very beautiful place.

I have seen the top when I went to the cabin over the winter.  The walk is worth the effort, because at the top you are surrounded by mountains, and wide open views of the channel and the city of Juneau far below.  It is very very beautiful.

Wooden planks wedged between trees and bushes, patiently waiting to be layed on the trail.....

Juneau is down there..........

Eventually the beautiful meadows and wooden plank trails gave way to this mess - an extensive rooty, rocky, water logged, muddy mess..........I kinda liked it to be truthful.........

The one and only time I have been to the top was during the winter when the place was covered in snow.  I thought by the time we got to all the roots (which I remembered) and then more wooden planks continuing upwards (which I also remembered because they were only partially covered in snow during my last outing) that we were not too far from the top.

We had started onto the trail at 4:45pm and it was 7:30pm by the time we began to find our way onto more inclining meadow.

I had not intended to go this far this late in the day.  We did not have any food with us.  My Mountain Boys' knee and back were both hurting, and even though I had really enjoyed myself during the walk I was worried about:

1.  LC really injuring himself worse than his bum knee already was

2.  Running out of energy because we had no food

3.  Running out of daylight (we had one headlamp in my pack but I did not want to be walking around in the dark in bear country)

I ran up ahead to see how much further the cabin was.  And I was disappointed to realize that at the pace were we travelling it was probably still another 30 minutes to go.

I got back and strongly suggested that we turn back.   It would just have to wait for another day.  Which was very OK with me. 

I really wanted to get back and out of the woods before dark.

LC was disappointed to have not seen John Muir Cabin on our late afternoon walk, because he had pushed hard to get to it. 

But after a long climb up there, and after having left too late in the day, it will all still be there another day when we can plan our timing and our trip a little better.

One last look at a beautiful stream on the way back down the mountain.

We set a fast past on the way down, taking a little under 75 minutes.