Yesterday morning we worked out in the gym. That was a weird experience given the seas. Running on the elliptical was disorienting as the ship pitched and rolled. We had intended to work out again…but we didn’t make it as breakfast seemed more appealing…and then the scenery was catching our attention. While we were eating breakfast, a boat was planing towards us as high speed, and then it pulled a sharp corner and matched the speed of the ship, coming alongside, presumably carrying the American pilot coming to relieve the Canadian pilot on board. Impressive vessel handling to bring a tiny little aluminum vessel alongside a massive cruise ship that doesn’t slow down for it, and have an exchange of two people while underway at about 15knots.
The ship docked in Juneau around 1:30pm and the human contents of the ship was released onto the small community. We had decided to rent a jeep for the afternoon/early evening and explore on our own. The rental included a self guided route with an iPad on the dash that proved a pre-programmed route with a narrative along the way. Some of it was interesting, some less so.
Our first stop was Mendenhall Glacier. Pretty cool to live in place where there are trails in an amazingly scenic National Park that contains a glacier only a few minutes from residential neighbourhoods. Fabulous place to go running, hiking, or just taking the dog for a walk…after September and before May…you know, before the ships arrive and tourists descend on all those nice, normally quiet, places the locals must love. I
can’t help but be so thoroughly conflicted about being on this cruise.
But it was beautiful since the crisp nights were starting to bring the northern fall golds to the poplar trees.
We logged a few kilometres and left the main trail to find secondary path and get away from the throngs of tourists that had been deposited by the busloads of cruise ship passengers from the three ships in port. That trail was less travelled and quieter.
Next stop on the Jeep’s map was Eagle Beach State Park. The woman who had handed us the keys had said it was a nice spot for a picnic. It wasn’t exactly picnic weather, but we had packed a few sandwiches, some fruit, and a few cookies from the ship and the spot was quiet. We had it to ourselves and it had that fabulously quintessential West Coast fall atmosphere that I love so much. It was a peaceful spot to just sit and soak in the environment.
When it started to rain again, we packed up and returned to the Jeep to see where the route would take us next.
St. Terese.
Well, it would have if we’d decided to get out. But after the recorded tour guide had spent over twenty minutes going on and on … it was starting to feel more than a little “preachy” and we only drove in and then back out. We did stop at a river that was lightly shrouded in some wonderful mist.
And at that point we basically turned the pre-programmed tour off and went our own merry way. We drove back through Juneau and across the channel to Douglas Island, eventually driving up to the ski hill (clearly not yet open) and stopped at one of the bogs. The colours of the marshes and bogs are always so rich in the fall; gold, burgundy, and heavy greens. They don’t translate to photos that well because of the heavy skies, but they were similar to the colours of the Cariboo-Chilcotin at this time of year. As we were losing light we stopped and looked back across the waters towards the mainland, enjoying the monochromatic scene.
We’d walked a little bit before taking the Jeep, but had retreated fairly quickly as there were simply too many people to make it enjoyable. As we’d walked down one of the sidewalks, a fellow, clearly a local, was trying to get somewhere and had his dog with him. He was muttering about tourists as he pushed through the throng. I can relate….when downtown on any day that the ships are in port in Vancouver I am frequently irritated at how badly the tourists plug up the core. And here we were, adding to his irritation. Juneau is the capital, though there are no roads connecting it to the rest of the state. The only way in is either by boat or by plane. It’s large enough city (~32,000) to warrant a Costco (I saw it on Google Maps when I was looking for something else), but small enough that it was definitely clear that many of the locals find the cruise ships irritating. Given the difficulty to get into and out of the city, I can imagine that it is a relatively peaceful and pleasant place when the ships aren’t in port.
We returned the Jeep at around 7pm and went for a wander in town now that it was quieter. One ship had left and it seemed like most of the passengers on the two remaining ships, ours and the Ruby Princess, were on board having dinner and avoiding the rain. The streets were much easier to navigate and things were winding down for the evening.
We wandered back to the ship, had a late dinner, and watched the lights of Juneau disappear as we left port.
And that was day three.