May 28, 2007 - DAY 2 in Alaska - Mount Roberts Tramway

28 May 2007

May 28, 2007 - DAY 2 in Alaska - Mount Roberts Tramway

Posted by Darrell under: Alaska; My Journal .

Check our Pictures from today in Alaska.

Today’s weather was nice. 50 degrees and overcast. It rained very little, so no complaints from Caleb and I. I managed to shoot 30 minutes of video and take about 100 photos, of which I added about 70 to this site.

Today was our first full day in Juneau, Alaska. Before departing our hotel for the morning we booked a zipline canopy tour for tomorrow. It was expensive, but what Caleb really wanted to do. We also bought tickets for the Mount Roberts Tramway (about $25 each)for today. So, $385 later we were on our way. The tram was awesome, I’ll let you know about the zipline tomorrow.

We walked from our hotel directly down Marine Way which is where the cruise ships are moored and close to the base of the tram. Caleb saw his first float plane coming in for a landing and loved that. We did a little shopping for some junk we forgot (like a watch) and then just sat outside the tram until 11:00.

At 11:00 the Twisted Fish Company opened for lunch. Caleb and I were the first customers and got a table with an awesome water view (where we watched numerous float planes land and take off). We were both starving. The food was absolutely incredible! I had halibut tacos and Caleb had jalapeno halibut burgers - delicious. I highly recommend this place for a meal if you are in Juneau.

After lunch we took the tram to the top of Mount Roberts. We saw our first live bear on the way up the tram. We hung around at the top for an hour or so, taking pictures and hiking the upper trails. There was still snow on the trails and we weren’t wearing snow shoes or tall boots. However, we made the most of it and hiked all over the place.

We decided to hike down to the bottom of the mountain via a trail that was not yet heavily used this season (it might have been closed?). The first quarter of a mile was in pretty deep snow and Caleb fell a few times and I sunk a couple times. After a quarter of a mile the snow began to dissapear and even though the trail was muddy and steep, we had a great time hiking down. Someone had told us that it is about an hour hike for the 2 miles, but it took us over 2 1/2 hours and we were moving along pretty good.

The scenery was breathtaking. Even a city (if you want to call downtown Juneau that) is beautiful from afar when surrounded by water and mountains. We took some great pictures and had an awesome time. We didn’t see anymore bears, though. Maybe tomorrow.

The trail came out on 6th street above Juneau. We just walked through Juneau and stopped at several of the ‘local’ stores. I was looking for some .44 mag ammo (for the back-up gun I brought along). I assumed that it would be easy to buy ammo in Juneau. WRONG. There are NO ammo stores (or archery shops) in downtown Juneau. I was told that I will need to go down to the valley (10-15 miles away) to find ammo or archery supplies. I’ll try to work that in tomorrow. I don’t have a rental car, so I’ll have to try to catch a cab. When we got back to our hotel (around 4:30 pm) we crashed for a little while (and cleaned up) in preperation for getting some dinner.

We went to dinner at Wild Spice, a nice little restaurant on Seward Street. Today was the day of exceptional food because this dinner was incredible. Caleb and I both got what they call Wild Bowls, which are essentially Mongolian BarBQ, with more than the usual ingredient options. I started to order their Elk tenderloin, but changed my mind at the last moment. I’m sure the Elk was great, but I’m thrilled with my decision to go with the Wild Bowl. I highly recommend it! It was lightly raining before and after dinner so Caleb and I decided to go back to the room and turn in early.

Can’t wait to Zip-Line tomorrow.

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