Hiking

The mountains have been calling my name. Hiking is a big part of Juneau culture most days I've been able to hit the trails after work. My current favorite is the East Glacier trail near my house. These photos and those in the next few days reflect some of the sights seen on the hikes. The ones below could easily have been main-frame. The first is of raindrops settled on a blue-berry bush. The second is a leaf resting on some devil's club. The third is of the moss that commonly covers almost everything in the forest. - www.wyattjourney.com

Water Falling

There seems to be one advantage to all this rain we are getting. We have some very large and beautiful waterfalls coming down the mountains. Sometimes, when the clouds lift, we can even see them. - www.wyattjourney.com

First Day of School Cookies

My mother started a tradition years ago that carries on today. In fact, there are some indications that I went into education solely due to this annual event. I'm not sure how she did it after she started working when I was in third grade, but all through my school years I would return from school on day one to the smell and taste of good chocolate-chip cookies. Since I started teaching, the event has become hit-or-miss. This year I decided it needed to be a "hit" year so I talked my next door neighbor (a stay-at-home mom) into baking some store-bought dough while I was at school. It was sitting on my table when I got home and the sight of it rejuvenated me after an exciting but exhausting day. Thanks Lela. - www.wyattjourney.com

Buds of Education

This tree showed its buds at the beginning of summer and has enjoyed several months of life. It is ironic that as leaves begin to fall, a new bud forms. This bud is formed in the minds of my students. The first day of school sprouts signs of new growth, like a tree in spring. My job is to nurture, prune, and water these future leaders. Soon they will take root in the enriching nutrients of care, respect, and knowledge found in my classroom. My hope is that they grow into mighty oaks and reach to the heavens. (Psalm 119: 7)

Today I begin my 9th year of teaching. - www.wyattjourney.com

Bear Sighting: Day Two

Yesterday, at a different salmon stream, we had two unusual bear sightings. The first was a mother bear and her two spring cubs. I will show those photos tomorrow. The other involved seeing this black bear diving out of the woods and scoop a sockeye salmon into its mouth. It happened very fast but I was able to get a few good shots. It is a little sad for the salmon because this fish was just days away from spawning and now it sits in a bear's stomach. However, it was thrilling for us and for the hoard of tourists who were nearby. - www.wyattjourney.com

Bears in Streams

The rain finally broke for a few hours today so a friend and I hopped in the car and headed out the road to look for bears. This is the perfect season to see them because of the spawning salmon. We saw several black bear but were most interested in this small one and a larger one competing for the same stream. The most exciting moment was when the large one (estimated at 200 pounds) chased the smaller one away from the stream. In all, we saw 5 bears tonight. I am ready to go searching for a brown bear now. - www.wyattjourney.com

Ice in the Lake

Not every town in the world has its own natural ice maker. Pieces of ice break off the glacier and eventually float to shore. Locals are in the habit of going out and getting the ice to fill their ice chests before they go fishing. I remember on several occasions as a kid going out to get ice to cool our homemade ice cream. Dad would put waders on and chip away at a small berg with an ice-pick. We would then crush the ice and add salt. I am not sure the ice changes the flavor of the ice cream but I don't remember any that has tasted as good since. - www.wyattjourney.com

Hiking

It has been consistently raining since I returned home 10 days ago. From what they tell me, it had been raining a good two weeks before that. In fact, this whole summer has been one big rainfest in Juneau. However, I've still tried to get out and hike almost every day since the return. These photos are all from a hike earlier this week. For those who are new to this site, you should be aware that you can click on the photos below and they will open in a larger size in a new window. I encourage you to take a look at some of them. I especially like the leaf photo on the far right. - www.wyattjourney.com

Beaver and Bear

After church last night, I drove out to the glacier looking for wildlife. There are plenty of salmon spawning in the rivers and that has attacked bears. We saw two black bear eating fish along-side the trail. Two steps to the other side was a beaver happily chewing away at his grub. Unfortunately the lighting wasn't too good due to the heavy rain but I still took a few shots. I made this photo B&W because the coloring didn't turn out in the original. I hope to get a better bear photo in the next few weeks but for now the one below will have to do the trick. - www.wyattjourney.com

Fly Fishing

Yesterday morning while on a walk, I happened upon these fly-fishermen. They were fishing in the Mendenhall River near the mouth of Montana Creek. The Fall salmon are running. I don't know if these men were having any luck but they sure were having fun. The thing that really caught my eye was the fog that was hovering over the river. - www.wyattjourney.com

Padens Off

My good friends, Jon (far left) and Jeannie (far right) left the other morning to head back to their winter-home in Unalaska. This year they took their granddaughter with them for her eighth grade school year. They want to give her a unique experience. The rest of their family (son, daughter-in-law, and grandsons) are all staying in Juneau. It was very good to spend time with them for a few days before they headed off. I am considering another trip to see them at spring break. - www.wyattjourney.com

Mt. Robert's Rain

After "enduring" a summer of sunny weather, I am now back in the safety of the Southeast Alaskan rainforest. On Saturday I went on a hike with two friends. We took the tram to the tree-line on Mt. Roberts and headed toward the top. I wouldn't say the hike was a failure. It was still very pretty along the way but we couldn't see any further than a few hundred feet. We didn't make it to the ridge because there came a point, somewhere around where the wind was blowing the rain sideways against our bodies, that we decided it was time to head back down. After the hike, we stopped at the lodge to look at photos of what we might have seen had it been a sunny day. - www.wyattjourney.com

Mosquito Eater

Have you heard of the giant Alaskan mosquitoes? They reportedly are big enough to carry off small animals and can drink up to 2 pints of blood a day. Unfortunately they are camera shy. This is not a mosquito. I am not sure what their proper name is but they are commonly called mosquito eaters. Few Alaskans are willing to kill them because of their name. For perspective, this one was about 2 1/2 inches long and was hanging out with 7 or 8 friends on my front door. - www.wyattjourney.com

Whale Ride

At the beginning of the summer I was invited to go on a whale watching journey. Although it was a grey day and the boat was a little rocky, we still saw lots of humpback whales. Mostly they only showed their back and tales (AKA flukes) but we could still get a good idea of their size. I've only seen whales breaching a couple times but not on this trip. A breach is when the whale hurls itself completely out of the water, rolling on its side and making a big splash. It is quite spiritual. I would love to get a photo of a whale doing that sometime. - www.wyattjourney.com

Lions of the Sea

On the whale watching excursion I mentioned yesterday, we stopped at a seal-lion rookery and watched hundreds of seals sleeping, burping, and competing for space. - www.wyattjourney.com

Hiking Cross

Someone told me recently that Juneau is the city that global warming forgot about. Apparently it has rained most of the summer as I've traveled. These photos were taken before my trip. It is raining this morning but I am determined to hike as much as I can before things get busy with school. In Juneau, if you wait for a "pretty" day, you might be waiting a while. - www.wyattjounrney.com

Back in Juneau

Yeaaaaaaa! Unbelievably after two solid months of traveling, I am back in Juneau. I have missed it. Yesterday I stopped by my classroom and looked at it. Today I am going to go in and consider unpacking a box. Eventually I will get into full gear on the thing. No need to rush and overextend myself.

Here are some photos taken early in the summer on Douglas Island. This is an old pump-house used in the mining days. - www.wyattjourney.com

Sacred Harp

Have you seen the movie Cold Mountain? I can't say that I recommend it. It isn't that great. However, it tangles twice with my life. First, few realize that the movie was filmed in Romania. Second, there is a song it in that sparked a recent adventure with my dad. The song is sung in a church in the movie. The thing that made it stand out is that it is sung acappella (like my church) and they sang it with shape-notes (an old form of music reading). I later found out that the particular style of music used in the movie is called Sacred Harp. Apparently there are lots of Sacred Harp groups around the country that have regular meetings. They don't perform. They gather and sing just for the fun of it. This style has three distinctions: A) The songs are all acappella B) Generally they are hymns from the mid-1800s) They always sing shape-notes (fa, sol, la, and mi) for the first verse. All this is to say that my dad and I enjoyed an evening of singing with a Sacred Harp group in Portland. - www.wyattjourney.com

P.S. If you want to hear some examples, type "Sacred Harp" into the search feature of iTunes.

Being Fair

On Friday I went to the county fair with my parents, sister, and her kids. We had a good day wandering around and looking at the animals. There were also carnival rides and I went on two with my nieces. My favorite was the ring of fire. We all got our blood pressure taken, ate a good lunch, explored the vendors tables, and enjoyed people watching. I think this filled my county fair quota for this decade. - www.wyattjourney.com

Burgerville

There is only one fast-food restaurant that I look forward to eating in. It is only located in the Northwest. As an ad campaign of their said, it is "Inconveniently located throughout most of America." They serve milkshakes, hamburgers, and fries of the highest quality. Everything on their menu is produced in the Northwest. This Burgerville is in downtown Vancouver and was the very first one opened. They still do a lot of business there. - www.wyattjourney.com

I-205 Bridge Adventure

The other day I had a fun adventure with my dad. There is a bridge that spans 3 miles across the Columbia River between Washington and Oregon on I-205. I've always wanted to walk across this bridge but have never made an opportunity to do it. With a free afternoon and our cameras ready for action, we headed off to give it a try. It took a while to find the path but once we did we had a lot of fun. It was less of a hike than a exploratory stroll. There are lots of cool things to see walking that close to traffic. We probably took 300 photos between the two of us. This may prove to be one of my favorite memories of my time in Washington this summer. - www.wyattjourney.com

Sailing

As per tradition, my friend Roy took me sailing on the Columbia River. We were on the boat with another friend, David, and his mom. The wind was perfect and we made it up to our goal in record time. On the way back down to the docks, he even let me try my hand at the wheel. We approached the dock under wind-power and I had the important job of jumping off the boat and securing the first line. This job is called the "splat" but I fortunately didn't live up to the name. It was a relaxing and enjoyable evening. Thanks Roy! - www.wyattjourney.com

Blue Heron

On a drive yesterday we saw a blue heron sitting on a log in a swampy area. We got a few photos before it got skittish and flew off. - www.wyattjourney.com

Missy the Dog

My sister's family got a new dog named Missy. She is cute and friendly. - www.wyattjourney.com

Visiting Vancouver

After a one day layover in Juneau, I came down to Washington to spend 10 days with the family. In a rare moment of convergence, the entire family (minus my sister-in-law, Paige) was together for a few hours. Perhaps some day we will even all be looking the same direction. - www.wyattjourney.com