The Most Beautiful Place - Part 2

After a mile or so on ice and snow filled trail, this place finally opens up to the channel and the beach and the mountains.

I always walk the trail filled with anticipation, knowing what is coming up ahead.

It is wonderful.  It is beautiful.  It speaks to me like no other place in Juneau..........

In the Spring and Summer this place is filled with thousands and thousands of wildflowers, many taller than I am.

In the Fall this place is filled with everything brown and gold.

And in the Winter this place is a winter wonderland of snow and ice.

It takes on a mystical quality that touches me in a way that moves beyond taking a walk in beautiful nature.

This place speaks to me...........

A quiet bench along the trail..........

Looking across at Eagle Beach we saw many people walking their dogs..........

Large chunks of ice laying on the shore waiting for the tide to come back in to retrieve them..........

The closer we travelled towards the open channel the windier and the colder it got.

At the pole in the center of this picture there is a fork in the trail.

The right fork heads directly to the sandy beach and the waves crashing continuously in the channel.

The left fork leads to the campsite owned by the Boy Scouts.

We decided as we continued walking that we would head to the left............

Summers in Tennessee are hot and humid monstrosities.

But Fall in Tennessee is a wonderful season.

The temperature is still warm but no longer hot, the evenings begin to cool, the leaves turn every brilliant color you can imagine, and the sky turns a particular shade of deep blue that is only found at that particular time of year in the south.

When I looked at the cloudless sky today it was that same shade of blue.

The blue sky, the dark green pine trees, the snow on the mountains.............

I am not the only one who does the "on the spur of the moment" thing.

We decided to cut through a field and head straight for the beach............

The Boy Scout Trail has a little of everything. 

And it has a lot of everything.

Today we had mountains, channel, streams, rivers, open fields, pine trees, sandy beach, snow and ice covered trails, pine needle covered trails...........

I have loved these three mountains since I first saw them early last year..........

This camera captures levels of color that my first digital camera could not.......

When we finally made it to the beach it was very very cold and very very windy.

The waves were crashing in towards the shore non-stop from three or more directions.

The place looked very wild, very untamed, very rough.

Jamie and my Mountain Boy walked ahead of me while I stopped on a sandy hill to take pictures of the Chilkats.........

Until we moved to Alaska my land-locked Tennessee puppy had never seen waves before.

The first few times she saw them she was terrified of them and did not want to go near the water.

She quickly got over her fear of waves, but still has not gotten over the desire to snap at them.

She loves to run from wave to wave trying to bite at them.

I loved seeing my dog have so much fun today snapping and biting and chasing and then getting splashed by very large waves when they crashed into shore...........

The beach in Alaska in the middle of winter...........

Thousands of seagulls resting on a cold and wet sandbar in the channel...........

My Mountain Boy and my Jamie-dog.........

Me..........

Two of a handful of walkers we crossed paths with at the Boy Scout Trail today.........

I love this picture...........

We all walked on the beach for a long time and then decided to walk through a large clump of pine trees, walk across a large, flat and wide open field, and make our way over to the boy scout camp.

There is only continuous beauty in this place..........

As we got closer I took this picture of the main lodge at the boy scout camp.

The last time I was at this place was with Jamie in early November, and while we were at the lodge then my dog growled quietly - obviously disturbed by something in the woods.

I did not spend a lot of time trying to figure out exactly what that "something" was and quickly moved away from the lodge.  Thankfully we did not have the same issue today.

Today there was a young couple sitting on the bench on the front porch of the lodge as we arrived.

When they saw us coming we quickly made their retreat, and we took their place on the porch.........

There is at least one whale in Juneau who did not migrate south for the winter to give birth.

We saw that whale in the channel today while still making our way to the lodge.......

We tied Jamie unceremoniously to the rail of the lodge, and then sat together on the front porch looking out over this very beautiful place.

We ate granola bars and drank Diet Coke, and talked a lot.

He is my best friend.  He is the only person that I trust completely.

I am glad that we were sitting together in the sun and the cold on a Saturday afternoon in Juneau Alaska.........

LC and Jamie and I spent four very cold but very wonderful hours outside today.

Right now LC and I are drinking coffee and watching an old VHS video of the Matrix on TV.

My dog, as she often does, is sleeping with her head on my knee, and she is stretched out taking up most of the couch.............