Mt Roberts Tram Hike

Last week on a sunny morning, we undertook our most intense hike yet. My neighbor told me that if you hiked up to the tram and ate or bought something at the gift shop, you can ride down for me. We took the kids in packs and started the 2.5 mile climb up. We kind of underestimated how steep ti was and we were both incredibly tired by the time we got to the top, but we did the 1800 ft climb in just under an hour. It felt good to be at the top and look down and see how much we accomplished, although it would've been significantly easier without kids on our backs. There are SO many trails to try in Juneau, but another hike down, many more to go!

Our picture from the view platform at the top!

Finally free from their packs

An permanently injured eagle that they show at the top of the tram 

A picture from the internet of the tram we rode down on

The channel view on the ride down; it clouded over while we were eating. The weather here changes SO FAST!

Berry Month

August is berry month around here, and we've been picking all the berries we can. This year we picked blueberries, black huckleberries, red huckleberries, raspberries, and even some nagoonberries (Andy loved these, but they are pretty hard to find)! Sydney liked to pick the berries, eating most, and was a good helped making raspberry freezer jam this year. At first, the raspberries in our backyard weren't doing so well, but a friend told me they were too wet and after we thinned them out we've been getting a great crop. Andy and I got to can on our own for the first time. We made a blueberry jam and syrup, a huckleberry mix jam, and even some fireweed jelly. It was fun to taste the product of our efforts, but I'm done for the year now :D. Toward the end of this season, we even invested in our own berry rakes to make next year picking even easier and found our own secret berry patch right near town with all the kinds of bush berries we're interested in picking.