After two weeks of gorgeous weather, rain has returned to the Tongass Rainforest. Fortunately, I was almost done with my 25 mile run on Friday when the storm started. I ran Perseverance Trail, including the wooden "Flume" section, three times. During my run I saw a bear, a chubby marmot, mountain goats, and as I rounded a curve, a small black animal that scampered into the bushes, shrieking at me. We have mink on the shores here, so maybe it was a mink. I was at about 500 feet of elevation. My partner and a friend of ours ran the third out-and-back with me.
Perseverance Trail is stunning rain or shine. It begins in the mountains, less than half a mile from my office in Juneau and climbs several miles to the turn-around point at Ebner Falls. Perseverance Trail is over 100 years old and originally led to five large gold mines, one of which in the early part of last century was the largest gold mine in the U.S. Here's a picture of miners heading up the trail to start their day:
The gold mines are gone but there remains over 150 miles of tunnel in the mountains that surround Juneau.
Saturday my partner and I stayed on Douglas Island and ran the Treadwell Ditch. The Ditch was an ingenious waterway crafted in the early 1900's to carry water from Cropley Lake that sits above what is now Juneau's ski area down and around the mountains to the Treadwell mine at sea level; a slow and steady drop of over 2000 feet. The waterway is still visible and the trail that runs alongside is still runnable IF you don't mind forging several rushing streams above waterfalls and climbing over 10 or so downed trees. The trail is VERY technical, but a good place to run on a rainy, windy day because you're in the forest the entire 11 miles. Here's a picture near the end showing one of the better sections of trail next to the water ditch:
Here's a photo showing why the Treadwell Ditch is not a weekly run and why we each turned our ankle a couple of times:
On the trail, after we passed the spur trail to Bonnie Brae, we came upon lots of bear scat but luckily no bears. Our dog, Lars, did run (literally) into an angry momma Ptarmigan. She hissed and chased him and then led him down the trail away from her 3" chick.
But, that was the only real excitement during the trek. Really, it was a splendid run considering that we were protected from the rain and 25 mph gusts raging down the channel. The trail skirts three or four alpine meadows, and the wildflowers are in full bloom. We saw Monkshood, Chocolate Lillie's, Dogwood, Columbine, and Lupine. Oh yes, and I fell into a mud hole surrounded by Devil's Club, and its prickles are still in my left palm. According to local lore, Devil's Club is used by Native Alaskans as a tonic in tea to prevent cancer. It has other medicinal purposes, including helping to stabilize blood sugar and when its root is pounded, its applied as a salve to stings and wounds. But, it is nasty looking, don't you think?
Completely wet and our legs covered in mud, we finished the run after 3+ hours. We were surprised to turn around during the last fifty feet and find another soggy runner bearing down on us. Who else would be running the Ditch in this weather? It turned out to be local trail-running legend, Geoff Roes, in the midst of his final training run for the Western States 100 that takes place in Squaw Valley, California the last week in June. Geoff's blog is inspirational for anyone thinking about running an ultra: http://akrunning.blogspot.com/
Here are the Garmin stats for our run (once there click on Satellite to see the Google Earth version): Untitled by anne.johnson1 at Garmin Connect - Details
Back at the house, Lars raced to his bed and sacked out for the remainder of the rainy day.
Aaahhh...the life of a Juneau dog.
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