In a gray interlude between yesterday’s sunshine and today’s predicted rain, Aki and I sneak in a visit to the Last Chance Basin. The trail we use suffered from the effects of Typhoon Lan. Thick tracks of fresh mud line both sides of the trail. At one point we have to climb up and over a ten-foot high hill of rock and mud washed down the side of Mt. Juneau during the typhoon.
As if we are the only folks in Juneau that didn’t get the memo, Aki and are alone on the normally popular trail. Even the animals seemed to have abandoned it. No squirrels chatter at the little dog. No birds flit between the yellowing thimbleberry brush. There are the cloven tracks of a mountain goat that had recently struggled through a muddy stretch. But Aki’s lack of interest confirms my suspicion that the goat is long gone.
I work hard to dig out some beauty on this flat-light day. But the fall color is fading and the normally red high bush cranberries are drifting to black husks. A white eruption of plum agaric mushrooms does provide a pleasant surprise deep in a mossy wood.
Usually on the first sunny Saturday after a storm, this place would be crowded. But today, at noon Aki and I are alone on the Fish Creek trail. Except for a woman plopping gumshoe mollusks into a plastic bucket, only gulls and mallards make a sound.
It’s six in the morning. Aki’s other human and I ride a local taxi down a street lined with blocky, monochromatic buildings. The cab smells of tobacco smoke. Just now the driver turned off his wind shield wipers. We cross over a river and start climbing a narrow street lined with older, traditional building with heavy tile roofs and white walls. Soon tourists will flood the street hoping to buy handicrafts or Japanese ginger food.
Walking with Aki 