June 12th, 2014 – Juneau, AK – 0 road miles
Again, I have to stress something that I didn’t know until I started planning this trip: there’s no road out of Juneau. It blows my mind that the capital of a state can only be accessed by sea or by air, but I guess it’s part of the charm?
We were supposed to head out to Haines via the ferry this morning, but as mentioned previously, our boat out had been cancelled. What to do with an extra free day in Alaska’s capital?
First thing – you sleep in! We all got a chance to rest after yesterday’s long hike, and then we eventually got to The Hangar on the Wharf, a former floatplane hangar that now offers a great view while you’re eating. Clam chowder? Good. Beers from Alaskan Brewing? Better. Enjoying both while watching floatplanes land and dock right in front of you? I was a happy boy.
Some more seaplanes came in to join us. Turns out a tour company runs a fleet of 5 planes that will take you out to an island, enjoy a salmon bake, and come back.
While I enjoyed another beer, I filmed all 5 of the fleet taking off:
We decided to explore ‘downtown’ Juneau, which is basically two streets of restaurants and shops, all of which await the constant stream of cruise ship passengers. One of our stops was the Red Dog Saloon, which is the oldest man-made tourist attraction in Juneau.
It’s an over-priced tourist trap (and I remember hearing that it’s actually a replica of the original which burnt down, but I can’t verify that at the moment), and it’s full of fun like this:
On our way back to the bikes, I saw a sign that gave some more details about the fleet of planes we saw at lunch. They have a few options, and they fly the nifty de Havilland Canada DHC-3 Otters that you saw above.
Also in town, the “JnuJeep”, presumably a vehicle used at an airbnb or similar type place. I was just surprised that they’d leave an easily visible note saying where you could find a spare key. Somehow I don’t think that would fly in a big city.
Another important thing on a free day – brewery visits. Bui and Vy were kind enough to humor me for a visit to Alaskan Brewing.
We enjoyed their tasting area…
…which was just in the corner of their lobby. See all the bottles up top?
They’re organized by country of origin, though US beers are split up into states.
Our timing was quite fortunate, as they were about to start a guided tasting of the following.
We had a very entertaining lady give us both the history of Alaskan Brewing, as well as tastes of beer.
Yum.
Happy customers.
I was also a happy customer. I enjoyed the Smoked Porter so much that Vy bought a couple of bottles for me, with the intent of bringing them all the way back to Los Angeles. Whether or not I could resist cracking them open beforehand, and how the hell I was going to find room for them were questions for ‘future Abhi’ to deal with. We also bought a bottle of Icy Bay IPA as a thank you for Paul, the residency coordinator at University of Alaska Southeast that got us set up with rooms. I might not have been riding much today, but at least I was rocking my Wolfman shirt.
How fitting – I packed the beers into my Wolfman Rolie bags that I was using as tank panniers (again, here’s the review), and it was time to grab some dinner.
We saw this guy scamper by as we pulled up to get some gas.
Because Vy loves animals, she took off after it to see what it was.
Turns out it was this prickly guy.
And then Bui had to wait in line to pay with his credit card, leaving me alone to laugh at the fact he looks like he’s just standing in a drive-thru line.
Saw this bald eagle calling out to something, but we couldn’t figure out why…
…until he got chased away by another bald eagle, and we saw that he had a chunk of salmon in his talons!
Bonus eagle action once we got back into the downtown area for one last evening of exploring.
There’s an expensive ($31/person) tram that quickly (2-3 minutes)takes you to the top of Mt. Roberts, where I guess there’s a restaurant and some hiking trails? We didn’t bother.
Though we did enjoy watching the tram itself at work.
Another eagle – I love seeing them in the ‘wild’ so I couldn’t help but take more photos.
Turns out it was actually on top of a Taku seafood warehouse. I’m hoping it was the previous bald eagle I saw, coming back for more salmon.
As you might expect, there’s a bit of Russian influence in Juneau. We noticed a Russian-themed store and had to check out some matryoshka dolls – I think this one had over 30 in it!
Now that’s an outfit for cold weather.
A random mural near the center where they were having the annual cultural celebration.
Continuing with the Russian theme, we got dinner at a place called Pel’meni.
It’s very basic and a bit divey, and the food is good – my kind of place.
They serve tiny dumplings with either potatoes and meat, and slather it in curry. Highly recommended!
As we left dinner, we noticed that a cruise ship, Statendam, which had left an hour previously was still sitting in port. The locals were starting to wonder what was going on – turns out that they’d be there for a total of 5 hours, sorting out a mechanical issue.
Heading back to the dorms in the evening, even if it looks like noon.
Though it says 2012 on it, these were the wonderful Whale Cards that they give summer housing residents.
I realize that fluke is part of a whale tail, but why would you give yourself a nickname that usually means something like ‘lucky accident’? I pondered that while heading to bed, and prepping to finally get back on the road the next day.
Continue on to Day 10
Day 10 – June 13th, 2014 – Juneau, AK to Tok, AK ~530 miles
Go back to Day 8
June 11th, 2014 – Juneau, AK – 0 road miles