It all started Friday night. I got home from work, was exhausted, and really looking forward to eating some simple dinner and then going to my room to watch a movie. I had just finished dinner, taken a shower, and was crawling into bed when my friend Crystal called asking me what I was doing. She said that she and Amy were going to go out to the Boy Scout camp and hike around. Even though I was exhausted, just had a shower, and really looking forward to that movie, I said I would go. So here it's 7pm and we're just starting out on a hike...let the adventures begin...
We get way out the road to the trail. Oh man, was it beautiful!! There was a thick forest of trees, the river right beside it, and a little island thing on the other side of the river. There was a huge tree that fell down on the island that cast some shadows. Me: "Look! There's a bear!" Amy: "There's no bear over there." Me: "Yes there is! Look!!!" Crystal: "That's just the shadow of the tree. There's no bear." Me: "Oh yeah. I see it now. Just kidding!" Amy: "Wait, there really is a bear over there!" Me: freaking out a litlle..."No there's not! It's just a shadow!" duh! Amy: "No, really, there's a bear over there!" Crystal: "I see it! Oh look! It's fishing!" Me: "I don't want to look." But I look anyways. Just then, this bear (yes, it was there!) picked up a salmon out of the river and began to eat it! It was pretty cool. But I was still freaking out.
We continue walking, making loud noises so that the bears wouldn't come to us. We got to a beautiful clearing and there were meadows everywhere. The sun was beginning to set, the mountains in the background, and the ocean right in front of us. As we kept walking, there was a stench about us. It was bad. As we kept walking, we saw the reason: there were so many dead fish, laying there, rotting!!!! I don't know how they got on land - I probably don't want to know - but there they were, dead and rotting. Well, here's a picture of that...
We hung around for a while, and then decided it was time to go back to the car. Crystal: "See Laurie, there are not many bears around here..." As she is saying this, I look to my right, and about 50 feet away, this bear pokes its head up out of the grass and just looks at us. Me; really freaking out at this point..."YOU MEAN LIKE THAT ONE RIGHT THERE?!?!?!!" Crystal: "Yeah! Oh, he's cute! Get your camera out!" Me: "WE ARE NOT STOPPING FOR A PHOTO OP!!! THAT IS A BIG BEAR, IT IS CLOSE TO US, AND WE ARE LEAVING NOW!" Amy: "He's eating, he's happy." Me: "I don't care. We're leaving now." Crystal got my camera, started taking pictures, but they didn't come out. As we're walking back to the car under the forest of trees, we are talking and laughing (me - I'm still scared to death that there are more bears around). We get so close to the car, and I hear something in the bushes right next to me. I look over, and Crystal puts her hand on my back and says, "Just keep walking." Two things I notice at this point: 1. She is not letting me look at what it was = not good. 2. She is talking louder than usual = not good. We get back to the car, and I say, "That wasn't a small animal. What was it?" Crystal says, "It was about a 1 year old bear." Amy: "We didn't want to tell you cause then you'd really freak out." So, all this to say, I was standing 4 feet away from a little bear!!!! Oh man. Then Crystal tells me that the Boy Scout trail is known for the bears. Not cool.
Here are some more pictures from that trip:
So the following day, some co-workers and I decide we're going to hike Mt. Jumbo. I'm thinking, it's a decent hike - the hike book says it's a "most intense" hike, and the round trip should take around 10 hours. So we get our water bottles, juice, lunch, home-made granola bars (thanks Jenn!) and start the trail around 11 am.
The trailhead is in between two houses - no joke. There's this little sign that says it's the trailhead. Welcome to Juneau...So we begin the hike, and it's a little steep in places, but overall not bad at all. I'm thinking, yeah! I can do this! 10 hours of this - no sweat. Soon we get to this amazing waterfall with a little bridge. So peaceful! We're all still pretty happy at this point. As we keep on walking, we come to what we fondly named the Stairs of Death.
Once you get past the stairs of death, you get to the board walk. The boardwalk is at a steady incline, but nothing too unbearable. It goes through this meadow. It reminded me of the Lord of the Rings, in the Marshes. There was this quicksand type stuff everywhere, beautiful flowers, and grasses and small trees. Beautiful! So we hike through the marshes and get to the trees. Now the fun starts...
I kid you not, this was the trail - for about 2/3 of the trip! Intense hiking all the way up! My friend and I kept saying, "K. I think I can see the top! Almost there!" We get to the "top" and see that no, there is another mountain. Oh man. This went on for about 4 hours or so.
When we broke timberline, we kept thinking, "There is a big rocky stump up there. We can't possibly be going that far up. There's no way!" Oh yes, let me tell you, that is in fact the top, and yes, you hike to the top. And what an amazing view it was:
I was in awe of God's artwork! Simply amazing.
So after being up there for a while, we started the crazy hike down. I always think that going up is so hard to do, but it is going down that kills! It took us a little over two hours to get off that dumb mountain! Well, when you have trails like this, you'd understand why:
When we got to the bottom, we could hardly move. We staggered into a pizza place, sat down, and none of us were very chatty - we were so tired! Let me tell you, for the next week, I could hardly move! My legs hurt so bad! But what an amazing experience! Lesson learned: When a mountain is called Mt. Jumbo, it's called Mt. Jumbo for a reason!
I miss you all!
Blessings!
