The days breaks calm. Later in the morning light snow begins to fall on Chicken Ridge. Aki and I head out to the end of Juneau’s road system and walk some big meadow lands to salt water. In summer the trail is limited by mud and meadow flooding caused by beavers. Today snow and ice cover all so the door to exploration is open.

Aki starts with her usual senseless dashing about punctuated by head dives and side ways slides on the trail. I admire some sawtooth mountains that appear to rise up out of the muskeg meadow we are crossing. A slight breeze grows to a gale as we move thorough a hard bitten forest and out onto the first meadow. We could turn into the forest with its protection from the wind but that would mean skirting the great terraced ponds formed over the meadow lands by generations of beavers.  Weeks of wind scoured almost all the snow off the pond ice and Aki can’t resist dashing across it. She returned at my request when an eagle flies near.

A homesteader once grew potatoes here and horses still share the meadows with deer and the occasional bear. We pass a mammoth beaver house while transiting the first pond and then descend a series of their dams to reach the lower meadow.  A thick spruce forest forms a wind break for us and an army of birds filling the air with song.  Spring must be near.

Shouldering into the wind we reach a public use cabin and find a fire still burning. It’s warm inside but we don’t linger. Like most human structures in the woods, it’s just a dark box to keep nature out.

From the cabin its less than a half mile to a beautiful crescent beach circled with a high sand berm. The wind is fierce now and we both drop our heads into it to make progress.  After crossing a deep snow draft we summit the berm and watch  Berniers Bay send lines of great waves onto the beach. High white mountain peaks across the bay provide a nice contrast to the dark storm green of the sea.

Aki huddles against my leg as I take pictures of the drama then breaks into a run down the berm after spotting a gull lifting from the beach. Soon we turn away from the sea and descend the berm, enjoying the wind at our backs.