We loaded up our gear - including a newly acquired pair of hiking poles that had been abandoned at the hotel for quite some time so we rescued them from a life in a thrift store - and hit the road. After navigating the public bus service to get to Douglas Island we walked through the streets until we found the trail to Mount Jumbo (also known as Mount Bradley).
And we started hiking.
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| Overlooking Juneau. |
Mount Jumbo is the highest mountain on Douglas Island and once you reach the top, well, it's a playground of ice piles, ponds, and rocks.
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| Summit smooch. |
The only two other hikers we saw on the trail were from Scotland, and they said that the greenery and beauty here rivaled their own in the homeland. "It's definitely all bigger here," they said.
After running - yes, literally running because our excitement levels were continually increasing as every new place we found was more beautiful than the last - around we finally found a majestic spot to pitch our tent. The alpine clubmoss that covered the ground everywhere at the peak was thick under our tent and made sleeping a little more comfortable. We've come to appreciate having our day off in middle of the week because it seems that most people don't hike the places we explore as much as they do on the weekends. This held true for us this week as after we talked with the other two hikers enjoying the trail back down the mountain, and we had the peak all to ourselves. After a little more exploring around and eating dinner by a snowmelt-fed tarn (small mountain pond), we retired for the evening. We usually wake up a few times in the night because of the wind (which was what we expected after how bad it was on Mt. Juneau), but this time we woke up because everything was so still. We seemed to have picked a vacuum to pitch our tent it. A little eerie at first, but peaceful.
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| Enjoying our mountain home for the night. |
We had a good night's rest with only a light rainfall for a few hours (which is really good weather for Juneau this time of year). In the morning, our beautiful campsite was overtaken by a dense fog, and the beautiful view we wanted to wake up to simply no longer existed. We hiked back to where we knew the trail was and followed the trail back down the mountain. Our hike down made us very grateful for the weather we had on the way up. Though we were in and out of clouds going up it seemed to clear up just enough at all the right spots to give us some great views, which became completely lost in the fog.
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| The mountain disappeared behind us. |
Once we were down from the mountain we started walking to the bus stop. Due to some incorrect bus schedules we missed the bus we needed and hiked a few extra miles to luckily catch another bus in downtown Juneau which got us home in enough time to wash up for work that afternoon.
We were back to reality and homework and work and long hours - but we sure love our midweek adventures!
On Sunday we had a real treat when Elder Lynn G. Robbins of the First Quorum of the Seventy was in town visiting and ended up speaking in our sacrament meeting. Something he said that really stood out to me was when he was recounting a conversation he had with his mother-in-law who is not a member. She explained that at her age (she is in her eighties) it was too hard to stop doing some of the things she was doing. Elder Robbins then said that he never has time to focus on that which he can NOT do because he always feels the need to focus on what TO do. My whole life it has always been easy for me to not do the things we aren't allowed to do - drink alcohol, smoke, break the law of chastity, watch R rated movies, etc. The nots have always come easily and I've been lucky to never feel real temptation to try them. However, I have often focused on how good I was at not doing things, that I would forget to focus on the things that I need to do. As Latter-day Saints there are a lot of things we have been commanded and asked to do that have not come naturally to me. Feasting on my scriptures daily (not just reading a verse to say I did it), kneeling in prayer twice a day, and participating/holding Family Home Evening are a few examples of things on the To-Do list of life, that have been real struggles for me. I have the desire to do them but often times I really need to push myself, make goals, and schedule in the time in order to make that desire turn into action. I've had my highs and lows of when I'm really good at the to-dos and when I'm really slacking. But I do have a strong testimony that making and taking the necessary time to work on the to-do commandments will bless you in ways that bring joy which simply cannot be found through just avoiding the nots. I am not perfect at this, but I am striving every day to improve in my own performance of the to-dos and I challenge you all to do the same. The prophets have given us the to-dos for a reason. They will change our lives. They will improve our lives. They will bless our lives. Figure out which to-dos are your Achilles heel and then make the time to DO them.
Remember to pray and remember to play,
Mr. & Mrs. Andrew
