2019 Alaska Trip - Day 41 - Beach Combing On Douglas Island & More Wildlife, Including Bears, At Mendenhall Glacier, Juneau, Alaska

We let the morning get away from us, but it was just too pretty sit at our campsite all day. Today and tomorrow were supposed to be the two best weather days of the week, and in the rainforest that is southeast Alaska, we felt we needed to take advantage of such days of sunshine.

Esther took the morning to grocery shop. Juneau has a Costco and a Fred Meyer and Southeast Super Foods, and she hit them all. With our new Keto-based needs, we're planning to do a major grocery shopping day while we're here as well. But Linda wanted to wait for a rainy day.

We were going to go over to Mendenhall Glacier to walk some of the short trails, but Steve & Esther decided to stay home and relax. So, we then changed couse.

Linda had researched beach combing in Juneau, and the best she could find seemed to be on Douglas Island across the bridge from downtown Juneau. So, we headed that way. Unfortunately, when we were too far to go back, I realized I left my camera battery charging in the RV. I wasn't happy and had to use my phone (which isn't very good for photos), but a few pictures turned out okay.

We crossed the bridge and turned right to head toward North Douglas. A couple of spots didn't pan out, but we did get a good, distant view of Mendenall Glacier with a couple of kayak tours heading out into the bay.

From there we ended up at False Outer Point on Fritz Bay, and Linda immediately found sea glass on the beach ....

which had a limited view of Mendenhall, but a nice view of the mountains.

I wandered around pouting a bit that I didn't have my good camera, but with my head down, I easily spotted sea glass myself, so I started picking it up and dedicated a pocket to my findings.

Then I saw a couple guys fishing on the other side of the cove and headed that way.

More beautiful views from that side.

The guys weren't having any luck, .....

but the tide was coming in and I was wishing I'd brought my rod. Note to self: "Keep fishing gear in the Jeep when I go with Linda to beach comb".

I walked back and watched a pair of kayakers float into the beach.

There are two free tent camping sites at this beach, and they were looking quite inviting on this gorgeous day. A couple came in and claimed one site while we were there, and I noticed they were struggling with the rain fly on their tent. It looked like the same tent we have, so I walked over to help. I think I saved them a few minutes of frustration.

After quite a bit of time, we walked back up to the parking lot, but I told Linda there was another smaller beach on the other side of where we parked the Jeep, and we should check it out while we were there.

The sea glass was there but not as prevalent, so I sat on the rocks and took more pictures.

After a while, Linda had a nice bag full of sea glass, and we headed back to the campground.

Esther made a delicious chicken thigh dish for dinner. Again, we're eating very well.

We got a campfire going, and I asked Steve if he wanted to go over to Mendenhall Glacier to take a few pictures before the sun descended behind the mountains. The answer was "sure" and off we went.

We walked out the short Photo Point Trail, and Steve took the same photos I took the first night I came out here - Day 37. Then we started walking on the boardwalk of the Steep Creek Trail where we noticed several people casually standing along the railings.

Well, on one side of the elevated boardwalk, just a few feet away, was this Black Bear sow munching grass.

Here's a video.

And on the other side of the boardwalk, way up in a cottonwood tree, were two small cubs. I took lots of pictures of the cubs, but this is the only one where both of them are in the same frame.

You're never supposed to get between a mama bear and her cubs, but she was very non-chalant which I will take as a sign that she was surpremely confident her kids were very safe.

One of the cubs was quite the daredevil climbing out on small limbs to eat the seed pods of the tree.

The other one was content to stick close to the trunk.

They were adorable .... and entertaining.

And all the time we watched the cubs, the sow went about her business occasionally looking up at the people taking pictures of her.

It was after 9:00 p.m., probably closer to 9:30, and there were only about ten people enjoying the bears. And while we were watching the bears, a porcupine appeared in the low trees and climbed into thicker cover.

It was getting darker and we certainly spent our fare share of time with the bears, so we moved on around the 1/3-mile loop. Hearing a strange noise, we investigated and found another porcupine chewing on a plywood sign right next to the trail.

It periodically looked through the hole it had chewed to check us out, but it wasn't going anywhere.

And waiting patiently in the tree a couple feet away was a little black ball, .....

a baby porcupine.

That was a first for me, and it looked very cute. I tried every possible angle, but that was the best photo I could get. It splayed its little quills every time it felt I was a little too close. Very special.

We continued on around the loop and spotted a beaver in one of the ponds, but with a quick tail slap it was gone.

Completing the loop, we went back to find the cubs had come down from the tree and they were with their mother. We watched as they crossed the creek on a downed log and disappeared.

So, on my two late evening visits to the Steep Creek Trail at Mendenhall Glacier, I saw five porcupines, three bears, and two beavers. That's pretty good for a 4-mile, 10-minute drive from the campground and an easy walk.

I'll take that any day over a tram ride to the top of Mt. Roberts with the passengers from the five cruise ships in town.

Back at the campground, we relayed our sightings to the ladies. They were very happy for us, but I think they were even happier due to what they were calling a "Cinnabontini" made with some Cinnabon vodka.