West Glacier Trail

I hiked West Glacier Trail again a few days ago with my friends Nick, Claire, Susan and Nick. I hiked to this side of Mendenhall glacier earlier this year and it is amazing how much it has changed. Very sad more than anything. The glacier looks different from when i saw it. Its melting at a very fast rate and soon will be gone.

We found an ice cave that was so amazing you leave that glacier a changed person. We were able to walk about 100 feet into/underneath the glacier. I got some good photos seen below but my friend Nick (freelance pro photographer) got some breathtaking photos. I need to offer him some $$ for those.

It is so amazing to get so close to it, you can see little pebbles and dirt frozen just a few inches deep in the glacier now. You see those and you know that those little pebbles have not seen the world in hundreds of thousands of years, and they are just about to be exposed. Thats crazy. Thats insane.

Check the photos out

See you MPLS folk in 3 weeks. I cant wrap my head around that either.

Ticket Home

I have a plane ticket home.
Aug. 22
I am leaving Juneau at 1 am
MPLS by 2 pm
Dont know how i feel about that

These are my friends Nick and Claire, They are really good people from the east coast. I am very thankful that they came to Juneau. I already owe them so much.

This was a beautiful day on the herbert glacier trail with fog on the glacier run off.

Patrice

This is a friend of mines music.
Her name is Patrice and she's great
Her family has been in Alaska for 4 generations now.
We have the same birthday

Photo's of Friends

These are my friends from both Doc Waters and the Tram
check it

The Haps

So a lot has been going on lately...

Yesterday i climbed Mt Juneau
That was crazy, the mountain kicked my ass. I was planning on just going up and chillin for a bit and coming back down, I brought my small water bottle a pear and 2 granola bars. Well that would have been enough if i stuck to my plan. I climbed pretty hard on the way up, i made a few short stops but kept going consistently. So i got to the top huffin and puffin dripping in sweat and it was amazing. I could see so far and so much. So i sat up there and ate my pear and granola bars and just enjoyed it. I had heard that if you follow the ridgeline east you would be able to see the Juneau ice field. So i take off strait east inland. This was really cool because you are on the tip top of this mountain range and it goes on forever. So you are walking on this trail (no bigger than a deer trail) and you look left and its basically a drop off down the mountain and you look right and ITS THE SAME THING. It totally reminded me of Lord of the Rings. So i took this trail for a long time thinking yea i will probably turn back soon, but i didn't i just kept going. It was so cool
So i was really hoping to see the ice field, this thing is bigger that Rhode Island. I unfortunately didn't make it the whole way, there was still alot of snow. My stomach started telling me i am hungry. I new that if i was hungry now and i have at least a 3 hour hike back that by the time i made it back i might be weak from hunger. I had exhausted the water from my water bottle also. So with no food or water i figured it would be a good idea to head back.
I did fill up my water bottle with wonderful run off from the snow up there, It was some of the best water i have had, ice cold too. That water is actually where Juneau gets its drinking water from. I saw a family of Spotted Grouse that scared the shit out of me. They were beautiful.

The top of the mountain was unbelievable
I hadn't seen another person since the trail on the way up when i passed their asses
It was soooo quiet and soooo peaceful
I hadn't been somewhere that quiet in years.
why would anyone want to leave
There were little pools of water on top that waded in. i of course wanted to lose my clothing and dive in but none were big enough or warm enough for that. The ones that were big enough still had ice and snow in them.
I got like 3 photos and then my camera battery died. Damn
That just means i will have to climb it again.

Here are some photos before my camera died. This is a stream that i had to cross to get up the mountain. It looks alot rougher than it really was.



These next two photos are of the same shot, one of them is zoomed in and the other is zoomed out. You can barely see the people on the trail in the zoomed in photo. I took these to try to put in to perspective how massive this mountain is. These photos are only of half the mountain too. On the zoomed out photo try to follow the trail.




Some other news:
I am pretty sure that my manager and head chef at the tram is quitting. That means that place will completely fall apart. Therefore i would have to quit that job, everyone there will quit. Now one would think why not just hire another chef? Well let me answer that for you. The labor pool in Juneau is non existent. This town gets so over worked in these summer months. Juneau is bitting off a bite too big with 6 ships a day coming in. Over 12,000 people stepping on to the docks. This city need more hard working mid westerners to show them how its done.
By the time any new chef got done training at this point it would be the end of the season and the training period would be stressful and not worth it.
We will see what happens though. I would pick up a bunch of hours at Doc's and go from there.

I hope he doesn't quit because we have a good crew at the tram now. We have alot of fun.

Other thoughts:
It's not that i don't want to come home but i don't really want to come home. hehe
I am happy here right now.
I really am
I wish i could just keep traveling, why stop here, i wish i could just keep going. But i cant and i have to come back to MPLS. Once i am done with school its ON
Most people get done with school so they can start their jobs. NOT THIS KID.

It will be fun to come home though. I am sure when the time grows near i will be more excited about it.

all for now
peace
Brett

Dear Joel

Hi there,
this message is a bit random but definitely necessary. It consists of a story. Please do read the whole thing, its worth it
sorry its so long
ready set go:

My name is Brett Baker and i am from Minneapolis. I came to Juneau, AK for the summer for some good old adventure. I was having a shit time my first couple weeks here, it was very difficult for me emotionally i am in Juneau alone. Around the end of May on a Sat night i wasn't planning on going out but did anyway - to the Alaskan (my favorite bar) and you were playing. I had so much fucking fun dancing and listening to you play. That night was my turning point from having a shit time to having a great time. So the next day i started researching you and your music and how to get some. I of course learned that it was basically impossible to find your 78 Vinyl. I did look everywhere i could (ebay, craigslist, thrift store and record store in Juneau). So i had sort of given up...
A few weeks ago i was at work (bar tending) and i don't know how it came up but i started talking about you and your music and your shows (I attended your July 3rd show as well and had a blast of course) to a guy at the bar. A young guy named Jesse. I don't know anything else about this guy, he just left Juneau and said he's coming back next spring. He says to me that hes got one of your vinyls. I am, of course like NO WAY how did you get it. He told me it was given to him. I of course offer him a bunch of money for it and he says no (i don't blame him). I then ran in to him a few days later (thats how Juneau is) and he says he wants to give me your record. It was given to him and now he wants to give it to me.
Now i am holding your vinyl in my hands still in disbelief
I am going back to Minneapolis in a month
I promise i am going to bring your record back to Juneau someday and hand it down.
You have my word
I need to say thank you so much for your music
its helped me down my road, i am in your debt
Thank you so much. Let me know if i can return the favor in anyway - Seriously
peace
Brett

This is a letter that i wrote to Wisconsin Slim today
i hope he reads it

Poems are a friend

The Mountains show their bones
the floor glows proudly
Do they show off for our praises and admiration
or just because they can
the glacier water runs though it
only where it can these days
the blue sky blankets it all
but never covers it up
It projects the beauty
enhancing every lack of pixel
and it goes on forever
and it always will
Is your magic under the blanket
how did it find me
hold it tight
or surely it will be forgotten
for it is magic

I like to write

Cloudy in my head and in the sky
Juneau is busting
once again Wisconsin Slim showed the town
how miraculous moments can be
what a blast
hop, clap, swing to the beat
all night long
those moments dont dissapear they occur and fly by
taken for inventory by the sky
they're never lost though you may be
you may never be remembered or recorded
do your best young man
I am what i can be
make those moments
after they pass they will only exist in two places
on the trees and in the sky
make those moments happen
you can try to keep them in the third place, in your head
they will be forgotten even though they were there
but were they ever really there
did they ever stay there
did they ever stay there for more than the time they were occuring
life is what you make it
keep the occuring coming
be what you can be
no less
if not, spare it
throw it away like so many do
never will I.
march onward
to the moon
If you dont make it
surely you'll fall into the sea
how different life can be