Juneau - What to do? What to do? Soooo - you're afraid of heights!!!!

We arrived in Juneau this morning to another beautiful day, just like Kodiak.  In other words, cool, cloudy and foggy.  I am really glad we did not have some kind of flying excursion planned. 

We had planned to walk this morning on the upper deck but as Bade's back was still bothering him, we opted out of the morning exercise.  Decided we better save up for the adventure ahead.

We departed the ship at 8:30 to meet up with the rest of our fellow passengers to partake in the Alaska Canopy and Rain forest Excursion.  Now, if you don't know what a canopy excursion is, it is a zipline adventure.  Wooden platforms are placed varying distances apart up in the trees.  Steel cables are strung from one platform to another at heights between 45 and 180 feet above the ground.  The distances between the platforms ranged from about 150 feet to about 700 feet. 

There were only four hardy souls in our little group of adventurers.  Bade, me, Ray (who had been on the whitewater rafting trip with us), and Paul.  Paul was the only member of our group who had not done a zipline trip before.  We took a short 10 minute boat ride over to the little island where the zipline course is.  Arriving at the base of the zipline course, we were fitted with the equipment that would be used to attach us to the steel cable.

After a short hike, we arrive with our guides, Zippy and Dan and were given an excellent orientation.  We were given instructions on how to keep going straight on the zipline, how to brake, and what to do if we braked to quickly and did not make it to the next platform.  We then did a little short practice run to make sure we were comfortable with the equipment.  Zippy always went first, would then get situated at the next platform to prepare for either catching us, if we didn't slow down enough, or helping us get to the platform if we stopped too soon.  As luck would have it, I was the first to try the practice run - oh yeah, did I mention, I'm afraid of heights??  Now I know this doesn't make sense that I would agree to jump off into the air, attached by a harness to a steel cable and speed through the tree tops at as much as 35 miles per hour,  when I am afraid of heights.   But for some reason,  because I am attached to this cable, it doesn't seem to bother me all that much.  Maybe it's because I am so focused on looking ahead to make sure Zippy is going to catch me, that I don't look down at the ground.  We all successfully managed the practice run and we are ready for the "big league". 

In all, there were 9 ziplines covering approximately 6000 feet.  Also included in this adventure were two suspended wooden bridges that we had to walk across.  This, for me, was the most unnerving part of this excursion.  I think that's because I had to look down to see where I was walking and realized that I really was 100 or so feet up in the air.  The bridges are really not that bad in that we are attached to the steel cables and there are ropes on each side of the bridge to aid us in walking over the bridges.  On the second bridge, Zippy decided it would be fun to jump up and down to make the bridge really move around a lot.  I reminded him that his tip was getting smaller and smaller by the minute and he assured me that a big gust of wind had caused the bridge to swing back and forth.  RIGHT.

All to soon, our adventure was coming to an end.  There was one last challenge.  We were to repel 45 feet from the last platform to the ground.  While this had also been a concern for me,  along with the bridges, it ended up being really easy and fun.  This excursion was a lot of fun and I will certainly look forward to more zipline adventures when the occasion arises in the future.

We did get to do a little shopping on the way back to the ship.  We have found many really wonderful Alaskan made totems, carvings and woven goods.  Unfortunately, like everything else in Alaska, they have proven to be very expensive.  I was lucky enough to find a needlework store and bought a couple of counted cross stitch patterns that will have to serve as our souvenirs of our Alaska cruise instead of the pottery I normally try to get.

We returned to the ship and were treated to a presentation by Libby Riddles.  She was the first woman to win the Iditarod dog sled race.  When I was here nine years ago with my Dad, she happened to be the dog musher when I did my dog sled excursion.  She gave a wonderful talk and did a powerpoint presentation on her preparation and running of the Iditarod race.

We had a really wonderful and fun day.  We are on to Sitka, the next to last port on our trip.  I can't believe that our trip is almost over.  While I will be glad to get home, this has been a fabulous trip.  In Sitka, we have a private boat trip planned for whale watching so hopefully, we will have some really awesome whale and wildlife pictures tomorrow.  Bade will be posting a few pictures from our zipline trip.

Later,  Carolyn


Bade here ... Carolyn covered the day very well ... the zipline adventure was really pretty cool ... somehow I never thought about a rain forest being in Alaska ... but during our visit it was raining and it is a forest ... so I guess by definition if nothing else.  Actually we didn't do the 6am jog/walk because I was really sleeping ... my back in fact is much better and was no problem on the zipline.

Obviously we didn't post anything yesterday ... it was basically a dreary foggy day at sea with only a couple of whale sightings right before dinner (formal night) and thankfully calm seas as we crossed the Gulf of Alaska from Kodiak to Juneau.  I think sea days are scattered in these itineraries to give one some down time to recover from the last adventure and gear up for the next.  As Carolyn mentioned the cruise has slipped by very fast so far ... we are looking forward to being home of course but it's been an amazing adventure.

Sitka tomorrow to see Puffins and Whales ... HOPEFULLY lottsa whales ... I am only posting a few pics from today's adventure ... it's hard to manage a camera while zipping along at 35mph at 100+ feet in the air seeing a giant tree coming at you head on and knowing the poor fellow waiting to catch you on the next platform weighs120lbs soaking wet ...