Socked in on the Juneau Ridge

Running the Juneau Ridge seems to be a right of passage of sorts for local runners; it's steep, elusive, often foggy and is tauntingly visible from our homes and offices. The trail begins about one mile up Perseverance Trail, and then it's a nasty three mile climb with an elevation gain of 2800 feet to the first summit (elevation 3500). Here, on a clear day you're treated to one of those stunning panoramic views that only Juneau can provide. Once at the ridge, the trail traverses east for over four miles before dropping into Granite Creek Basin and back to Perseverance. According to my GPS watch the total length is roughly 12 miles from the Perseverance local trail head.
By August, the ridge trail is fairly dry and well-defined unlike earlier in the summer where runners can expect to jog through varying amounts of snow and generally glisade down to the basin. Those who have run or hiked the ridge offer one warning: "don't head down too early!" That's because the temptation is to veer to the right after only two to three miles on the ridge and drop down to what appears to be rolling, grassy meadows below. What isn't apparent from the ridge is a lower ridge that drops off precipitously several hundred feet to Perseverance.
Four members of our Klondike Team and one dog (Roxy) headed up towards Mount Juneau this morning. Two of us, Sharon and I, hoped to run the ridge. It was a bit discouraging when the upper quarter of our hike to the ridge route was draped in clouds. The forecast promised that the "patchy fog" would dissipate by afternoon. Of course, Juneau forecasts are notoriously errant and the weather unpredictable. By 11:00 we'd were on the ridge running and noted how chilly it was in the fog. Despite the gray mist, the trail was clear for the first mile or more. Then we reached a broad, slightly depressed, saddle containing several tiny lakes. It's one of the last areas to lose snow each summer and consequently the trail isn't as distinct, so we lost it. As the fog thickened, we wandered off to our right towards the mirage of green meadows debating whether to go further and searching for cairns. With the fog, in addition to losing the trail, we also lost familiar landmarks. We stopped to think. I'd hiked this route just last summer and my gut was telling me to head to our left, up a steep hillside directly into dense fog. Sharon agreed.

After climbing up a bit, the wind picked up and the fog lightened. We found the trail and, now smiling, continued on our way. We had another mile to go and passed through a narrow spot with a steep snow slide to our left. We couldn't see the bottom in the fog. The trail became less verdant and more rocky and after a last big climb, we headed down into the rocks and met a couple of hikers with their Husky. We were now under the cloud cover again and surrounded by several waterfalls, streams and the lush basin. As we ran across the streams and through the basin, we spotted four mountain goats above us. Soon we were back in dense salmon berry bushes and within fifteen minutes, popped out on Perseverance trail. Well, we didn't have the gorgeous views but the landscape was still breathtaking and intense. And, Sharon and I have now run the Juneau Ridge. We can join the local runners who wisely warn ridge neophytes: "don't go down too early." Here are the run stats: Distance 12.9 miles(including wandering around lost); 5:38 total time; Highest elevation 3914 feet(last climb of ridge); Elevation at start 344 feet and 700 feet at Mount Juneau trail head; Total ascent 5,420 feet (total descent the same); total calorie loss 1400 (woo hoo!).

Click here for the Garmin stats Juneau Ridge - Clouds by anne.johnson1 at Garmin Connect - Details , and click "Satellite" at the map for the Google Earth image of our route.
Cheers!