Day 54 - Dog sledding, Perseverance Trail, Mt. Roberts, Salmon Bake

For the record, I actually did spend a few hours in the clinic today. I continued to work on developing my patient education material and work on my presentation to the staff on Tuesday. However, what I did outside of the office today was much more exciting so i will focus on that instead.

I woke up early this morning to catch the bus to TEMSCO, the helicopter company that flew me to the Juneau Ice Field for my dog sledding experience. It was awesome. I had never been in a helicopter before and, as you could imagine, the views of Juneau and the surrounding islands from 5,000 feet in the sky are pretty amazing. We passed over ridges and mountaintops and eventually flew over the Mendenhall Glacier. I have seen the glacier from the west side and the east side, but it takes on a whole new personality when you see it from the air. The helicopter dropped me off deep in the Ice Field where there is still snow covering the thousands of feet of ice. We met the mushers (many of whom have raced in Iditarod) and then we got to meet the dogs.

We spent almost half an hour learning the names of the dogs on our sled, what their stories were, and why there were in the particular spot on the sled. After the introductions we did a 30 minute dog sled trail. I was with a couple from a cruise ship so we took turns driving the sled and sitting in the passenger seat taking in the views. At each stop we got off, spent time with the dogs and watched as they cooled down by eating or rolling in the snow. It was funny to see the difference in personality between the dogs. The dogs in the front of the pack are generally considered smart and responsible so when we would stop they would quietly sit down and await orders to continue. The dogs in the back, however, would jump around and bark - begging for attention.

After the ride, we thanked the dogs and then walked around the dog camp a bit more. There are over 200 dogs and 15 people who live up on the glacier during the summer months. We finished the tour a little early so the musher took us over to meet the future of dog sled racing - the husky puppies. The helicopter picked us up and returned us to the TEMSCO base. It was an awesome 90 minute tour and one of the coolest things I have done so far.

After work, Dr. Bornstein picked me up and we went for a run on the Perseverance Trail. The snow has melted so what was a 6 mile run a few weeks ago has turned into an 8 or 9 mile run. We decided we hadn't had enough exercise so we hiked from the base of Perseverance Trail to the tram station on top of Mt. Roberts. When you've run 8 miles, what's another 50 minutes of hiking and 1,800 feet of elevation? The hike was nice though as there were many ripe salmonberries and blueberries that we picked and ate along the way. Our reward for hiking to the tram station was a chance to see a rehabilitated bald eagle and a free ride to the bottom. The Mt. Roberts Tramway is a pretty big tourist attraction so I'm glad that I can say I crossed it off my list of things to do before I leave.

For dinner, I drove out to Thane with a bunch of friends from the clinic and ate at the Thane Salmon Bake. They had unlimited salad, salmon, halibut, cornbread, and drinks. The food was pretty bad. It started to rain as we left the restaurant, which was the first time it had rained in almost 50 hours. I am not certain, but that could be a Juneau record for the month of July (at least during my time here!).

It's been a long exhausting day so I'm headed to bed. Tomorrow is Saturday so I get to sleep in and just hang out...