Today’s parade showcases the good and strange of Juneau. From the Dipsticks lighting off the exhaust of their rebuilt classic cars to the belly dancers’ float, the entire fabric of our town seems to pass by us at Main and Egan. Candy flies from each float, bringing out the avarice in attending children. When the roller derby gals skate by in formation, a member of the Raven Lunatics advises a small girl in a “mining rocks” hard hat, “candy rots your teeth.”

After an hour or so of dogs, warriors (pro and against war),  bagpipe bands, vintage long haul trucks, and the Sons of Norway dancers we see the street cleaners arrive, marking parade’s end.  Retrieving Aki from Chicken Ridge we head out to the Glacier for a much needed quiet walk on the moraine. In this time of rich lushness its the sooty oranges and yellows of a patch of burned forest that grabs attention. The beauty of destruction is undeniable with its colors of fall in hell backed by summer’s deep green. 

After the burn, we pass now dry streams and a reduced lake that confirm that the local beavers are losing the battle with man for the moraine. Each night beavers strengthened their dam, trying to back up lake water until it makes this trail impassible. They prevailed in the past. This summer man literally undermined the beavers by installing a long conduit under their dam. The dry trail gives proof that man prevailed, so far.