Day 42 - Juneau lumberjacks

There is a breakfast place that is about a 3 minute walk from my dorm room. People say it is pretty good and, after eating there today, my only question is - how did it take me six weeks to eat there for the first time? I met the Wilkinsons, Dr. Dee, and Dr. West for breakfast at Southeast Waffle Company. The food was pretty good and the conversation was even better.

After breakfast (if a meal eaten at noon can still be counted as breakfast), we all went over to Douglas Island to spend the day at Gold Rush Days. The Gold Rush Days are a two day festival that highlights the logging and mining history of Juneau and the rest of Southeast Alaska. Yesterday, there was an exhibition of mining skills and today there was a group of lumberjacks that showcased their talents.

There were lots of bleachers set up around a huge pit filled with various tools and piles of wood. There were lots of neat skills showcases all throughout the day. We saw women throwing axes above their heads towards a target about 15 feet away. There was also a man who made a chair out of stump of wood using only a chainsaw. In addition, we saw the two person saw competition (where two people move a handsaw back and forth to saw of a slice of wood from a tree) and the tree climbing competition (you have to look at the pictures I posted to completely comprehend how cool it was). Each exhibition was pretty neat, but I think that everyone can agree that the highlight of the day was the log roll.

The was a huge tree trunk in the middle of a 4 foot deep pit of freezing cold water. The lumberjacks took turns competing against each other in a 2 out of 3 contest to see who could stay on the log the longest. Even though there were winners and losers, the crowd won every time because we got to see big, strong men and women flailing face first into the ice cold swimming pool. The looks on their faces and their accidentally audible curse words from sheer shock of hitting the water kept the crowds thoroughly entertained for a good hour. Besides the lumberjack competition, there was also the traditional fair staple - food on a stick - which kept us busy during the downtime in between events.

For dinner we all went to the Island Pub for pizza. All in all, between the weather and the company, it was a pretty fun Sunday. Tomorrow I leave for Sitka for my final few days of travel. Let's hope that Karen has my room ready so that my arrival will be much more seamless than the last time I showed up a few weeks ago...

**New pictures added**