Since we weren't able to do the wild iceberg canoeing adventure trip we had hoped to do, we set our sites on backpacking in the mountains. I love the idea of backpacking way high up, near or in snow pack. Juneau is a great place to do this because you can get to some awesome trails directly from town.

We decided to hike up Mount Roberts, a 3,800 foot peak, and then cut across the ridge to Sheep Mountain (there are no sheep; one of Alaska's early pioneer's named it after seeing a mountain goat on it). We had heard that there is no trail from Mt. Roberts to Sheep Mountain, and then from Sheep Mountain, there's no trail until about halfway down the mountain. You just have to kind of wing it, and it's very steep. About halfway down, somewhere under some power lines (if it weren't for these it would have been total wilderness), a trail appears and you can follow it all the way down, to a road that's about four miles south of Juneau.

We spent the morning running more errands, and then met up with Tom at the Taco Bell for lunch. He said we could stop by his house to fill up our water bottles, which was very handy, since his house is about a few blocks from the trail head. We stopped there and met his wife Eileen, who was very nice. Then we started our climb.

This is the same trail we hiked the day we left for Haines a few weeks earlier. It has lots of switchbacks and it's very green. It goes by the tram stop. We stopped there to fill up our bottles. Eric filled our water bladder, but not quite all the way, which later caused a great adventure.

From the tram stop, we kept going up and up and up. The odd part of the trail is that since you can catch the tram from Juneau to the middle of the trail, we ran into lots of tourists in the middle of our hike--from about 2,000 feet to 3,000 feet. After that they thinned out. We saw lots of marmots and some very pretty alpine meadows. Around 6 p.m. or so, when we were at about 3300 feet, still a few hundred feet shy of the first peak, Mt. Gastineau we camped next to a little pond on the trail. The pond was right next to the mountain ridge, and oddly it wasn't raining or foggy, so we had a great view of Juneau and of Douglas, where Kathy lives. A few feet away, we had another awesome view of the other side of the ridge, a major drop into a valley ringed by mountains.

Then came my water problem. We didn't quite have enough to cook all our meals and drink freely while gasping our way up the mountain. Eric had intended to filter some out of the two- to three-inch deep pond net to us, but by morning, it had completely dried up. Not a drop left. I decided to hike the one mile back to the tram stop, and fill up our bottles at the drinking fountains. Eric thought it was unnecessary since our maps showed rivers and we were anticipating going past snow.

I didn't want to be thirsty and feel guilty about drinking water, so I headed down. Since Eric wasn't into it, I suggested that he stay at the tent and read or walk around. I thought I'd be back in just a few hours.

I was wrong. I got back to the tram stop in just half an hour, but the tram wasn't open yet, and neither was the building with the water fountains. There weren't any spigots outside. I waited for an hour. It was supposed to start running at 11, but at about that time, an empty tram car started ascending, choppily. It kept jerking to a stop and swaying. By this time some other hikers, who had planned on catching the tram downhill, turned up. One of them said the tram had been broken the night before. I was worried it would never get running.

The tram stop was about 1700 feet high, so by coming down from our camp I had already lost about 1600 feet. Before I left, in anticipation of refills, I encouraged us to make hot chocolate and drink a lot. So I couldn't go back without filling up. With the tram stop still closed at 11:40, I decided to run down the rest of the mountain, back to Tom's house. I made it there by about 12:30. Tom and Eileen were a little surprised to see me. I was there five minutes before leaving for the long journey back.

I find it very hard to hike up mountains but especially hard to hike up the same mountain twice in two days. It took me an hour to get back to the tram stop, and of course, by then, the tram was running, and the water fountains were flowing, and if I had only waited, I could have saved myself the climb down to and back up from Tom's house. Alas.

I made it back to camp by about 2:30. Luckily I had sent word with some other hikers about the tram mishap so Eric knew I would eventually arrive. When I did he was ready to finally start hiking, and I needed a nap. I sacked out for two hours. Then we hiked across some amazing country to the near side of Sheep Mountain. The trail got steeper and steeper, and at one point, we were climbing up a nearly vertical pile of rocks, which luckily had lots of footholds. At another point, we were climbing straight upwards, or nearly straight up, with only grass to cling to keep up from falling back down. That really got me. Eric wanted to go to the far side of the mountain, but I was just too pooped after my 6-mile warm-up hike that morning.

There's no way I can ever describe the scenery with justice. So I'll say it this way. Even though I didn't fully recover my ability to walk for five days, all the pain was worth the scenery. We even got to walk across some snowpack, just like in my dreams.

The last day of the hike (Aug. 31) the dream ended abruptly. We had heard about the mountain being steep, but I didn't know what that meant until I found myself clinging to three-inch long thick grass, trying to hang onto the mountain while climbing down it backwards. Eric must be descended from mountain goats because he had no problem skipping along. I however took a great deal of the mountain, the soft parts luckily, on my butt. My ankles were getting really weak.

We were aiming for the power lines, hoping to find the trail, when we got lucky and ran into a hiker. He said the trail was actually under the broken down poles that once supported a tram, back when the area was used for gold mining. We found the trail easily, and whacked our way through overgrown blueberry bushes for most of the rest of the way down the mountain. We passed some old mining regalia, including an old cart and, at some point, some old mining shafts. The hike out wasn't nearly as stunning as on the way in.

The last mile or so of the trail nearly did me in. At one point, when we were walking next to a stream, a huge chunk of trail fell out from under me into the water. Half of me went with it, though I was too high up to get wet. By the very end I was hobbling. For the next five days it pained me greatly to step down anywhere--whether it was a gentle hill, a sidewalk curb, or those steep steps on Amtrak trains.

When we got to the road we were ravenously hungry. I had faith that we could hitchhike back to Juneau. Eric has been with me hitching several times, but never when we actually got a ride. So we were both pleased when the very first car that came by pulled over and gave us a ride. The lady was really nice. We later learned that she was nicknamed "the Barracuda" for her extra vigilance in a past job as a judge's secretary.

That happened to us a lot in Juneau. People were very nice, and when we mentioned who else had been nice, they seemed kind of shocked.

Our ride dropped us off at a Tex Mex restaurant. We attacked it immediately. While Eric ordered I went across the street to start waiting and waiting for a payphone to call Kathy. By the time I got one our food was on the way. Kathy was sorry to hear that because she had roasted some deer! THat was a bummer. But there was no going back. We had to ingest food soon. So we ate our food.

Then we headed to Tom's to say good-bye. He had been so great to us that we couldn't imagine leaving without thanking him again. Of course when we got there Eileen had to feed us blueberry pie. Kathy had told us to save room for her chocolate cream pie and we had promised we would. When we were at Tom's we called Kathy and unfortunately she arrived to see us enjoying someone else's pie! But it was no problem. We made room for all that night. Kathy's chocolate pie was absolutely delicious too. Eric got a taste of the deer roast and then we knew we had blown it by ordering food before calling Kathy. Alas.

The next morning, a holiday, Kathy normally would have slept in. Instead, she took us to the airport so we could make a 6 a.m. flite. We were and still are very grateful. To make her feel better about the ordeal, we offered the only thing we could: the hospitality of all our friends and relatives whenever she decides to visit, with special emphasis on the Henderson clan. All you Hendersons, I hope you're reading this, because we promised a lot. Kathy is especially keen to come to DC, so Hugh, take note! (She says she'll wait for me and Eric to move there but there's no need to wait now, is there Hugh?)next: Seattle, SF, LA and Dawn Baby's wedding.

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