Brrrrrr!!!!!

Today Peter, Grace and I went on the Mendenhall River Float trip. Sounded like a good idea when we booked it in warm and sunny North Carolina, and it WAS fun.
But boy, oh, boy, it was COLD. The high in Juneau today didn’t make it out of the high 50’s, and it was rainy. The float trip started in the Mendenhall lake, which has real live actual icebergs floating in it from the Mendenhall glacier. The water temperature there is about 34 degrees, which means the icebergs stay around long enough for the tourists to photograph them, but also makes for a cold trip across the lake. Plus, it’s windy! But we survived, and made it across.

And then the fun began! The Mendenhall river is a fairly calm river, but there are a couple of places where there are class 2 rapids; not enough to flip the raft, but enough to get the people in the front of the raft (or the sides) wet. We were wearing rain gear, and looked a bit like rejects from Deadliest Catch, but it was still cold. Peter and Grace were in the front of the raft, so they got splashed a lot, and I was on the right side behind them, and got my fair share of dampness myself!

The trip was fun, though. Our guide was very good, and really knew the river well. We saw 3 bald eagles, and some salmon(two live and swimming, one dead and headless). No bears, though our guide said he had seen some. Once we were past the rapids, the guide let anyone who wanted to row; Grace did, Peter did not. Grace really enjoyed the paddling, and actually took two turns at it. Once we were through the rapids, it was another 30 or 45 very cold minutes, then we were to the lower end, where we got off the river, and had hot apple cider, venison sausage, and cheese and crackers.

We warmed up a bit as we were eating, and then had a bus ride back into Juneau. It was cold and raining still, so we did get off for a bit of shopping (against Peter and Grace’s will!), but didn’t really get a chance to go into town. Then it was back to the boat for warm showers and hot cocoa; on the walk down the gangway we were strafed by yet ANOTHER bald eagle!

A fun, but cold, day.