Auke Nu Trail

Today was our last day in Juneau.  We were going to catch the midnight ferry and made plans to take Millie for a very long walk so that she would be pooped out for the day and a half ferry ride to Ketchikan.  I had wanted to invite a friend or two to join us, but it was pissing rain in the morning so Brad & I decided to go just ourselves.  This way we could stay flexible and turn back if the hike turned into a disaster - and a disaster it was.

I'd been wanting to do Auke Nu trail for a while so I took us to that one.  Neither of us had any idea what to expect on that trail, although I had heard it's a muddy one in summer.  Since a lot of the snow at lower elevation has been melting, I thought it might be all muddy today, but it turned out ok - sort of.  The first quarter mile was all ice, which we got by with grippy things on our shoes.  The trail then turned to packed snow and was actually a pretty easy walk.  The trail takes you through forest and muskeg, with the occasional stream crossings over bridges.  The forest sheltered us from the rain and the views were nice.  For a while I wished I did invite my friends along.  After about 2 miles though, things took a turn for the worst.  The trail got a bit steeper and put us higher up on the mountain where we were more exposed to the elements.  It was chillier and windier, with rain turning to snow at times.  The snow up here was also not as packed, maybe because there was less people using it, so we kept pot holing here and there.  Our pace was slow going, and it seemed like it was taking forever to get to the next and final mile marker before the cabin.  Well, if there was one, we never got to that mile marker.  Brad was so fed up of hiking in those conditions by then that he wanted to turn around.  I felt like we were so close the John Muir cabin that quitting now seemed like a shame.  However, given that we had a ferry to catch that night, we couldn't really afford to do something stupid like get stranded at the cabin in a potential white out condition or get hurt.  Seems every time I go on these long hikes with Brad it turns into some sort of a disaster.  We joked about our Eagle Glacier hike we did last April, which was actually a lot worse, and how we're going to die here on the trail on our last day in Juneau. It wasn't as extreme as it sounds, but I suppose the potential for a real disaster was there.  After I agreed to call quits we took shelter under a tree so we can scarf down some lunch and started the 3 mile descent back down.  Once back, we got a good nap, a shower, and a dinner before heading to the ferry terminal.