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| Yes, I'm still hiking! |
Yes, I have been hiking. No, I have not been writing about
my hikes. I have been approached by quite a few people over the past 11 months
(has it been that long since my last blog?), asking me when I was going to
write again. People have talked to me in the grocery store, at yoga practice,
on the ski trails in the winter and the hiking trails in the summer. Last night
at a classical music concert, someone tapped me on the shoulder and asked me
yet again. Tomorrow, I answered. I’m going to write a blog tomorrow.
Let me start by telling you about my first big hike early
this spring. Scott and I did smaller hikes all through the winter due to the
depressingly low snow cover. We also skied over 55 days, thanks to helping to
coach the Juneau Nordic Ski Team, which somehow located enough snow to train on
from December through March. So we stayed in decent shape for the beginning of
the spring hiking season, and felt confident enough to start off with a point
to point mountain traverse – up Thunder Mt and out East Glacier trail – with which
we were not entirely familiar.
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| The Thunder Mt trail starting behind Glacier Valley School is in great shape |
We started on the Thunder Mountain trail at the end of
Jennifer Drive, behind Glacier Valley School. I have mostly climbed up Thunder
Mountain starting from the other side at mile 7 Glacier Hwy, north of the DOT
building, and I was pleased to find the Jennifer Drive trail much easier and
less confusing to follow, even as it began to climb steeply uphill. I have come
down the trail on the Jennifer Drive side once, back in the early 1970’s, and I’ll
get to that story later, but I will remark that the trail was not so easy to
follow then.
The day was warm and sunny, and we enjoyed climbing up
through the trees, following a well beaten route marked with occasional trail
flagging. I kept expecting to encounter muddy sections – the Glacier Hwy trail
crosses some extremely boggy sections – but overall this trail was much drier.
It proved to be a popular route on a Saturday morning and we ran into hikers
heading up and down the trail, admiring those who were up early enough to
already be finishing their hike by mid-morning.
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| The two Thunder Mt trails come together high in the woods a short way below treeline |
Right below tree line we met a larger group of hikers that
we knew and we discovered they also planned to hike over Thunder Mountain and
out to East Glacier trail. Not only that, but they were very familiar with the
route, whereas Scott and I only had a general idea. We gladly joined up with
them, and by lunch time we were sitting on the summit of Thunder Mountain,
admiring the views of the Mendenhall Glacier and surrounding area. There really
is nothing like seeing the glacier from Thunder Mountain, especially on a
crystal clear spring day with snow on the summit. It’s a classic view, made all
the more wonderful by good company and the prospect of a pleasant hike out a
new route for us (or at least a route I hadn’t been on in over 40 years) without
worrying about getting lost.
Flashback to the summer of 1973, my first full year in
Juneau. My boyfriend and I decided to hike up to Heintzleman Ridge from the
East Glacier trail, over Thunder Mountain and down to the Mendenhall Valley. We
had a map, a compass and plenty of youthful energy (no smartphones or GPS
devices back then). My boyfriend had a fair amount of mountain climbing
experience, so he led the way as we plunged through the devil’s club, alder,
blueberry bushes, and mosquitoes, working our way up to the Thunder Mountain
bowl. (Note: this route is best done in spring or fall, when the brush is not
so thick.) From there we climbed up to
Heinztleman Ridge, which is a lovely mountain ridge on one end, but soon turns
into a terrifyingly steep, narrow ridge as you work your way across. This was
the first of many wilderness trips where I became deeply religious, promising
all sorts of miraculous conversions of the soul if God would only save me “just
this one time, please”. I received helpful instruction from my boyfriend along
the lines of “don’t fall here or you’ll die”, and somehow we made it to the
other end of the ridge without mishap. My journal entry for that day casually
reads: hiked up Thunder Mt – peak 3610’ –
down Heintzleman Ridge. Somehow that doesn’t convey the sheer terror I felt
staring straight down into the Lemon Creek valley on one side and the Thunder
Mt bowl on the other with about a one foot wide crumbling rock ridge under my
feet. By the time we were picking our way down through the woods to the
Mendenhall Valley, I really didn’t care if we were on a trail or not, so I have
no memory of that part of the trip beyond stumbling downhill through very steep
woods in the late evening. We did make it out in one piece and I do remember
being tired, hungry, exhausted and probably dehydrated.
A side note on the energy of a 20 year old: After such a
brushy, steep, terrifying, and exhausting adventure, it seemed like the natural
thing to do the next day was to hike up West Glacier trail, camp overnight on the
glacier, and then climb Stroller White. That was also a steep, exposed route
but by then my mind was numb to discomfort and fear. The only note I made from
that outing was: camped at second
icefall, climbed Stroller White, Pooch hit by rock (Pooch was our small brindle
bull terrier, an energetic and fearless climber with more experience than I
had).
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| It helps to have friends who know the way |
Back to the present: You can imagine how lighthearted I felt
as I hiked safely and confidently with an experienced group of friends up and
over Thunder Mt, avoiding Heintzleman Ridge, happily glissading down the smooth
snow slopes into the Thunder Mt bowl. From there we followed the route leading
out to East Glacier trail, marked by trail flagging in a few places and reinforced
by a friend’s GPS track that she consulted at a few key spots. The thing to
keep in mind on this route is to not drop down too soon, but to keep in the
open high meadows, bearing right and looking for any signs of flagging before
locating the trail leading out through the woods. Once you’ve located that
small trail, it’s a pretty straightforward hike down. At one point the trail
follows old pipes that brought water to the Nugget Creek power plant workers.
You finally come out on to the East Glacier trail, a short distance below the series
of steep wood steps on the trail.
Things you can see in the lovely meadows that lead out of
the bowl depends on the season, but you can look for wolf and bear tracks,
wildflowers, berries, ptarmigan, eagles, hawks, stands of yellow cedar, and the
every changing colors of the alpine meadow grasses and plants. You’ll want to
linger and enjoy these meadows almost as much as the views from the top of
Thunder Mt.
By mid-afternoon we were finished with our mountain
traverse, and I am happy to report that I felt extremely happy, well-fed,
sufficiently hydrated, and only mildly tired. While I did not camp on the
glacier the next day and climb Stroller White, I have continued to hike
throughout the summer. I look forward to sharing some of those adventures with
you over the next few weeks and months as I try to get back into the swing of
writing my blog.
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| A happy group after a successful traverse |
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