Where in the World?

Today was quite special for me. I had nine bald eagle sightings. I’m fairly certain that four of the nine were the same bird, but that’s not really an issue. I’ve seen more bald eagles in two days than I have in my entire lifetime, which until yesterday was only one and that was in Maine’s Acadia National Park.

Alaska is a special place. I’ve only been here for two full days and I’ve fallen in love with its natural beauty. Nature seems purer, cleaner, wilder and closer to the way things once were and how they can be again.

Erica and I toured the city of Juneau for a few hours, stopping at the shops and visiting the Juneau-Douglas City Museum. Our main shore excursion for the day was a helicopter trip to Mendenhall Glacier. The glacier is about one and half miles wide where we landed. It is an intricate mixture of white and blue ice, boulders, moraine material and running water called mill streams.

We toured the area for about 15 minutes before landing and then we went on a short guided walk across the glacial ice. The 12 mile long Mendenhall Glacier is fed by the Rhode Island size Juneau Ice Field. It was like walking on another planet.

The ice photo is a cascading section of the glacier called an ice fall. The Mendenhall is one of the glaciers that are receding year after year; partly due to natural cycles and partly by global warming.

After our fantastic ride up and back down again, we had a coffee at the end of the day. I sat out on the cruise ship observation deck and watched two eagles in a tree up the side of a mountain about ½ mile away.

I ended my day watching the ship leave the Juneau port, salmon jumping out of the water (being chased by harbor seals), clouds hanging low and kissing the mountains surrounding us while drops of rain spread thousands of ripples on the water between Juneau and Douglas Island. Ahhhhhhh!

We wake up tomorrow morning in Sitka, Alaska about 90 miles south and slightly west of Juneau.

Michael