Don't Get Complacent

An Alaska Airlines passenger jet coming in for a landing.

The Dike Trail is immediately adjacent to the airport.

LC, Jamie and I were all walking on an icy trail when we heard the incoming plane behind us. 

I saw the plane in the distance and scrambled to turn my camera on, zoom it in and get the plane in focus before it disappeared behind the trees.

I managed to catch it just in time..........

A lot of snow had melted, the temperature gauge on the porch read 35 degrees, and it was not snowing or raining or blowing.

After not leaving the house at all yesterday, LC and I decided to go out for breakfast this morning and then walk on West Glacier Trail. 

LC had not seen Mendenhall Glacier from the perspective of being above it, and I knew from experience that the view of the extensive ice field behind the glacier in one direction from the top of the trail, and the wide open and endless view of the islands and channel in the opposite direction were extraordinary.

I was surprised that my Mountain Boy wanted to go up there, but also very excited.

After packing up a lot of food, water and safety gear to take with us we piled into the truck with Jamie and headed to the Valley.

Actually, before we could head to the Valley we had to get my truck out of the driveway, turned around, up a bunch of hills and out to Glacier Highway.

Usually what I do (rather than trying to back into our very narrow driveway) is drive the truck straight into the driveway, and when I am ready to leave drive down to the bottom of the hill, turn the truck around and then drive up and out of the holler.

We drove down to the bottom of the hill this morning and the entire turnaround was a skating rink.  Nothing  but thick and uninterrupted ice.

LC got it turned around with a bit of unnerving slipping and sliding even in 4 wheel drive, then successfully got it up the hills and out to the highway.

It is New Years Day.

And we found out this morning that very few businesses, and even fewer restaurants are open on New Years Day in Juneau.

After driving to three different restaurants we finally found one open that would feed us some breakfast.

After leaving Henrys we looked up at the mountains and knew that there was no point in trying to make some epic climb up to the top of West Glacier Trail because everything at elevation was covered in a thick layer of fog.

I really want LC to see that place, but with partially melted snow, thick patches of ice and a wall of fog, it would have been a difficult climb with no outstanding views at the end as payback for the effort.

Another journey for another day.

We decided to walk on the Dike Trail by the airport instead.

I was looking forward to this Plan B because last time we walked this trail was during the summer. 

We did not go far on that day, but the trail was filled with wildflowers and in the winter it would be a quiet and nice and wide open wetlands walk.

The Dike Trail also turned out to be the wrong choice.

As soon as we got out of the truck we were greeted with treacherous trail conditions.  The gravel trail was almost a total skating rink.  Ice everywhere.

We had both (stupidly as it turned out) left Yak-Traxx at home and we spent the entire trip walking extremely carefully - eyes focused more often on the ground than the scenes in front of us.

And it was cold.  Very cold.  Very windy.  Freezing wind gusts coming off the lake.

We completely underestimated the weather today, and were lulled by the rain instead of snow and the above freezing temperatures.

Both of us were underdressed for the temperature.

All-in-all an unsatisfying, treacherous, freezing cold, damp walk.........

This very friendly lab dog followed us for a good part of our walk today.

Jamie humored him for a while and then eventually growled and snapped at him.

That whole "doesn't play well with others" thing kicking in again.

Our new friend, who we christened Ralphie at some point during our icy walk, disappeared for a while only to reappear on the trail again about 30 minutes later.

We saw Ralphie off and on throughout our hike, and each time he succeeded in annoying our spoiled princess.......

Water being moved from the overflowing lake on one side of the trail (home to many float planes during the summer) into the channel..........

The mountains of Juneau and Douglas were all around us, but truthfully in the wind and cold and fog and ice, this was not one of my favorite walks.

In hindsight we should have picked a trail that was protected on both sides by pine trees.

There are no shortage of such trails in this area, but I am still glad that we took the time to be outside for a while..........

A huge animal footprint, with LC's boot as a reference for size.

A dog?  A wolf?

I still cannot tell, because there are many very large dogs in Juneau and I still have a hard time telling the two tracks apart......

Jamie watching Ralphie's approach along the trail...........

Ralphie...........

A large and noisy flock on geese...........

This is my truck sitting in the parking lot in downtown Juneau on Friday around 4:30pm.

It snowed heavily all through the day and the parking lot had not been ploughed in many days.

Thankfully my truck made it out with no problems at all.

There are more trucks parked up by the mailboxes close to the house right now - the same place I was parking my car.

Now that I have seen the kind of ice we can get "down in the holler" I realize that there will also be times I have to park my new/old truck there.

We live in the country in Alaska.  We got a little complacent this weekend, and we need to not get complacent.

We need to always pay attention to the condition of all of the roads and always need to pay attention to the weather...............

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Have a wonderful 2011 filled with love, laughter, good health, many friends and cherished family.