Fish Creek Trail

After eating brunch at the Prospector Hotel downtown late this morning LC, Jamie and I went for a drive over on Douglas Island North.

Most residents of Douglas Island live in houses, condominiums and apartments on the south side of the island.

On the north side there are some duplexes but primarily single family homes, and the density level is much less.

When I first moved to Juneau and got to know the area over that first couple of weeks on the ground, I quickly decided that I wanted to live either on Douglas North or Out the Road.

I looked at homes in both places, and although Douglas Island is a very wild and untamed and absolutely gorgeous area the weather is also much worse than Out the Road.

More rain, stronger winds that come down from the glacier and are known in the area as Taku Winds (capital T and capital W), and more shade.

Thankfully the Unabomber Cabin came up first and I was very happy to move out where we now live.

The turnoff to the left that takes you up to Eaglecrest Ski Resort is about 9 miles from the Juneau-Douglas Bridge.

Once you pass the ski hill turnoff there are no more homes, and driving further out the road is a wonderful and solitary experience filled with channel views, mountain views, boat ramps, small waterfalls and numerous trails

We drove past the ski hill turnoff, past the boat ramp of my freezing bike ride back in February, and eventually pulled into a slush and ice-filled parking lot where Chris and my Mountain Boy walked and fished last August.

Unlike our freezing walk of yesterday, it was not windy. 

Also, unlike yesterday we were not on a trail that is widely used by the locals. 

Today was rapidly turning into a much better day for walking and being outside than yesterday was, and I was excited to be out..........

The last time I was at this place was in August with my fishermen.

They stood on the rocky shore close to the parking lot for a while and then eventually caught up with me.

While they tossed in their lines, getting snagged on rocks more than getting bites from fish, I first walked along the rocky beach and eventually picked up a gravel and dirt trail just before the tree line.

I followed the trail all the way around the cove until I again came to rocky beach and a long rocky point at the end of the cove.

Today all of that was underwater..............

Because there was still more ice than slush in the parking lot and on the dirt walkway leading down to the beach - and because there was very little beach - we decided to keep driving.

I had seen a bridge and turnoff to what looked like a creek a few miles back and wanted to go see what was there.

On the way to the creek I asked LC to stop the truck a number of times along the side of the highway so that I could take pictures of the frozen waterfalls.

He smilingly obliged my picture taking compulsion and pulled over on request.

I was grateful for a man who humored my desire to take pictures of frozen water when we live in a frozen wasteland, but also disappointed with the pictures, because they do not do justice to all of the wonderful icy details that I saw in real life.

There is something incredibly beautiful and artistic about the frozen energy of these falls ............

Fish Creek in both directions, taken from the highway..........

We pulled off the highway and onto the slushy road leading down the parking lot.

I looked through the leafless trees and could see a large frozen lake, and knew that we were about to discover something special.

I silently wondered how I had missed this place in my travels over on Douglas.

And then I started putting the pieces together.  Someone I know was talking this past summer about watching a brand new bridge being erected near a trail on Douglas.

I looked at this bridge and realized that this HAD to be the one he was talking about.

It was obviously a brand new bridge.

It is very beautiful, but since no motorized traffic is allowed on it I also thought that it was perhaps a little.........overkill.

A whole lotta bridge for simple foot-traffic...........

LC is standing on the same bridge in the picture at the very top of this blog.......

My truck.

I'm liking my truck very much.........

Once we had crossed the bridge we followed the snow and slush covered trail not having any idea where we were headed, but truthfully it did not matter.

We were both in the mood to explore, the temperature was in the upper 30's, there was no wind, and unlike our misadventures of yesterday everything seemed to fall into place today, to ensure that we would have a wonderful and quiet adventure.

We could see various trails throughout the area, and could also see both lake and channel all around us.

Very good deal..........

This sign finally told us that we were on Fish Creek Trail.

There was a trail map on the sign, and also fishing rules posted for both Fish Creek Pond and Fish Creek.

As we continued to explore the trails and the waterways, LC and I were very excited about finding this very beautiful place.

We had it to ourselves.  No people.  No noise.  No wind.  It was all very good.

And it became very obvious in our travels that this may very well be a great fishing place.

A fishing place to explore this coming Spring and Summer.............

While walking on one of the trails we saw what looked to be signs of beaver.........

We saw a number of trees that looked like they had been chewed on by beavers, although we never saw a beaver dam anywhere.

While still wading through the slushy snow, walking and talking about the beavers in this quiet water and mountain and pine tree place, my Mountain Boy told me this joke......... 

The mole family was moving up through a tunnel close to a farmers house.

Papa Mole popped through the ground, stuck his head up and said "Mmmm mmm I smell fresh country ham"

Mama Mole stuck her head up through the ground beside Papa Mole and said "Mmmm mmm I smell fresh baked biscuits"

Baby Mole still down in the ground behind Papa Mole and Mama Mole said "All I can smell is Mole-asses"

Now imagine all of that foolishness being told with an eastern Tennesee Mountain Boy accent and it is easy to understand why this wonderful fool makes me smile...........

A very beautiful and quiet place..........

There are a few places in Juneau where you begin walking along a mainland beach and eventually come to a thin strip of land with water on both sides, that quickly leads to a circular island that is filled with pine trees.

The Shrine of St Therese has one of these islands (connected to the mainland by only one thin strip of land).

There is another one at Auke Village Recreation Area.

And today we unexpectedly found one more............

This new camera I have zooms much faster than my old one, and here is one more picture of an Alaskan Airline passenger plane coming in for a landing..........

The point leading to the pine tree filled island and heading towards open channel..........

The view looking back from where we had just walked.........

This is SO incredibly cool!

Donald Duck painted on the plywood surface of an abandoned and beached boat..........

Other views of this unexpected find on the beach in the cove.........

We made our way around to the front of the small island, realized that we could not circle all the way around to the other side because we had run out of beach access, and decided to bushwhack through the woods to get onto the other side.

The walking was challenging because there were no trails.

But there was also no snow in the woods at all, and we both loved doing exactly what we were doing.

Finding our own way.

Blazing our own trail.

Walking with Point Dog who led the way for us..........

Finding our way through the woods and working our way back to the water we stood on the shore for about 10 minutes watching one very curious seal who watching also us.

No pictures of our curious water visitor, just a picture of a buoy.........

Off and on throughout our walk I received regular updates by cellphone from work about an issue on sight.

I was happy to receive the updates.

Mostly I was happy that I had finally succeeded in hiring someone who could solve some of the work issues I have been juggling in addition to my own job for so long............

When we finally made it back to the pretentious bridge by the parking lot, I looked down at the mostly-frozen and snow-covered creek and saw this random object.

What the heck was a pumpkin doing on the frozen water?

I looked at it for a moment, saw the circles in the snow, saw the footprints, and realized that someone had continually thrown the pumpkin off the bridge hoping to break through the ice.

Obviously they got bored with the unsuccessful attempts.........

One final picture of a very very beautiful place on Douglas Island.

I feel like we found treasure today, and can't wait to see what this place looks like when wildflowers begin to grow in the Spring...........