Day 16 - 09/04/25 - Juneau, Alaska

 Today I crossed another item off of my bucket list. The ship arrived around 8 AM but I didn't get up until about 8:30. After our typical breakfast, we gathered up our things and headed out. The ship was moored at the second farthest berth from town, so it was a little bit of a walk up to the Tram station.  The plan today was to take the tram up Mount Roberts, and then hike the trail back to Juneau.  I've been wanting to do that for a long time.


Tram tickets now cost $60 per person. We got the next tram and headed up the mountain. The tram attendant mentioned that a bear had been spotted earlier, but that didn't dampen my enthusiasm. It was a beautiful clear day with temperatures in the low 70s. We headed off down the trail and immediately encountered some fresh bear scat. But we continued on the trail which was 2 1/2 miles long and was quite steep and full of roots and rocks. It took us old people about 3 hours to reach the bottom. We encountered many people who were coming up, and a few people passed us who were coming down. For our ages I would say this was a pretty demanding hike. I wouldn't say that it was particularly scenic other than we were totally in the forest surrounded by trees and potentially big wild critters. The huckleberries were also tasty. As we reached the bottom, I texted my cousin and arranged to meet up with her when we got back to town. It turned out that the main exit to the trail was closed and so we had to use the alternate, which was probably the most difficult section. But we made it OK. If the trail were wet or snowy, I wouldn't recommend doing it.




It was about another mile and a half walk down through Juneau to the cruise terminal area where we met up with my cousin. She had stopped at Costco and brought us some berry smoothies, which were very refreshing after the hike. We also hadn't eaten any lunch so that touch of kindness was very nice. We enjoyed a short visit on the pier and reboarded the ship with about 10 minutes to spare.  I dropped my pack and water bottle in the stateroom and went back to deck three to watch our departure from the pier. It turned out there was a late excursion that arrived at 4:12 PM (our on board time was 4 o'clock). And then one final elderly straggler made it up the gangway and it was quickly removed and stored on the pier. The mooring lines were loosened from their stanchions and retrieved into the belly of the ship. The thrusters were engaged, and the ship slowly slipped away from the pier. The aft  end was moved counterclockwise, and then the ship was able to back up into the harbor. We then sailed out of the harbor with the Carnival Legend cruise ship slowly taking our place at the berth.



I spent some time on deck three before moving up to deck 10 above the Lido pool area where I watched the sail out along the Gastineau channel. It was a very tranquil sailing at about 8 to 10 knots.  Around 5:00 PM I moved down to the portside Lido dining area and found a window seat. The buffet opened at 5:30 and I enjoyed a plate of baked salmon, sirloin steak, a barbecued chicken leg, and some mixed vegetables. While we were eating,there were a couple whale groups that passed by the ship and I was able to get a pretty good picture of a whale tail from the first group. It was a dressy night tonight, but I think most people did not want to dress up and so the Lido was very crowded. We had a couple from Texas join us at our table and we enjoyed some pleasant conversation with them.



After dinner, we returned to the world stage where Mike Robinson, a ventriloquist/comedian entertained us. We've seen him a number of times previously and his routine is very funny even though it's been a carbon copy each time we've seen him. Afterwards, we sat and listened to a gal, Jade, play guitar and sing in the Billboard Onboard area. The regular singer had the night off. We then adjourned to the Crow's Nest for some quiet time and I dictated today's blog entry.


Tomorrow is our last port stop of Ketchikan and we won't arrive there until around 11 AM and we're only there until around 6:30 PM. We have what I think will be an interesting shore excursion booked for tomorrow. 

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