In January of 2017, I accepted a position in Alaska’s arctic tundra. So far it is the craziest thing I have done, with very little knowledge I accepted a job nearly 5,000 miles from home. I tried googling Prudhoe Bay and Deadhorse Alaska and came up pretty empty-handed. There were only a handful of photos that I could find and none of them offered a real feel for the place. The job can with one huge work perk that was more than enough of a reason for me to go, Polar Bears. As long as I completed my season I would be given a chance to see Polar Bears for FREE!
All that I could think about was the adventure and how desperate I was to get out. I was fairly miserable at home. I had a lot of friends but when it actually came down to I could only count on a two or three of them to be there for me. Since I had come home from Europe nearly all of my friends had gotten into serious relationships which left me to feel like more and more like an outsider. I needed out of the rut that I had fallen into. I needed the adventure of a lifetime and that’s exactly what I found in Alaska.
The job I had accepted in Deadhorse as the baker/breakfast cook at Deadhorse Camp was set to begin the end of April but my last day at my previous job April first so I had some extra time to play with. I started doing some basic research on Alaska since I knew absolutely nothing about it. One day while on Pinterest a photo of ice caves came up from Juneau, Alaska. I was amazed and perplexed by the beauty in them and decided I was adding Juneau in before my job started.
Monday, April 17th
The whole day was full of emotions, I was ecstatic for this journey but saying goodbye was hard. I cried saying goodbye to my cat that morning, (I’m slightly a crazy cat lady) and I was dreading saying goodbye to my mom. While I knew my mom would never tell me not to go I was well aware that she was afraid for me and sad to see me go.
The goodbye to my mom ended up being very quick because I had somehow misread the info for my flight, it was actually leaving at 7 am instead of 7:30 am like I had thought. I rushed through the airport hoping that by some miracle I wouldn’t have to run across Boston’s Logan airport. Security checked every single thing in my backpack, they’re just doing their job but man I really didn’t have time for that.
I made it to my gate as they were finishing boarding, phew!
It was a very long day of traveling, I had woken up at 2:45 am EST and didn’t make it to Juneau until 7:30 pm AKDT (11:30 pm EST). At the time there was no Uber in Juneau so I grabbed a taxi and headed to the hostel I had booked.
My taxi driver ended up being a super sweet and friendly guy, he even turned off the meter and gave me a free mini tour of Juneau! Hopefully, this was a sign for my experience in AK.
The only hostel I was able to find was Juneau International Hostel at the time it was $12 a night plus 1 chore a day. They do have rules that are not exactly “normal” for a hostel. They are only open for an hour in the AM 8-9 then they open up again at 5-10:30 or 11 depending on the time of year. During the day they are closed and you must leave the hostel. You can’t beat the price and the staff is SUPER friendly and helpful. The hostel is really clean and well taken care of, seriously I can’t say enough good things about it!
Tuesday, April 18th
This was my first full day in Juneau and I decided to jump right into it and see the ice caves. Since they were the whole reason I had come to Juneau I figured I should check that off first! The ice caves are located inside the Mendenhall Glacier so I figured from the visitors center there would be a trail leading to the caves.
I had looked up the hike the night before and was feeling slightly nervous. I’m fairly active but I wouldn’t say I’m in the best shape of my life either. From what I read online it was a pretty challenging hike and a long one too at 5 miles round-trip.
I used google maps to figure out how to get from downtown Juneau to the glacier and luckily the buses cover just about all of Juneau so no need to rent a car! I had a bit of difficulty finding the main bus station because it’s actually in the police departments parking lot. There’s no ticket booth you just pay once you get on the bus. I am not good at public transportation so this was all a little confusing to me.
I double checked with the bus driver about which stop I should get off and she assured me that she would make sure I knew when it was my stop. The bus stop is a little ways away from the visitors center but easily walked. The Mendenhall Glacier is located inside the Tongass National Forest which believe it or not is a rain forest! I never would have thought Alaska has a rain forest but it does.
Even in late April, the Tongass National Forest was every shade of green. I couldn’t believe how beautiful it was.
When I saw the Mendenhall Glacier I was awestruck. The glacier is surrounded by rocks and sand making the stark white of the ice stand out even more against its brown surrounding.
I spent a good 15 minutes just soaking up the beauty, it’s not every day that you get to see something so incredible. The Mendenhall glacier was formed during the ice age around 3,000 years ago. It was incredible to think the glacier in front of me had survived that long.
Unfortunately, the visitors center was closed for renovations the week I was in Juneau so I wasn’t able to ask anyone about the ice caves hike and I didn’t see any signs with hikes on them. Looks like I should have down some more research!
There was a gorgeous waterfall off to the right of the glacier so I opted to take the little walk to see that. The waterfall must have been a good 100 ft high it was pretty spectacular to see! I took some extra photos for my mom who’s a waterfall chaser and ate my lunch enjoying the serenity.
Since I couldn’t figure out how to get to the ice caves from there I hesitantly decided to head back downtown with the intentions of trying again the next morning after talking to the hostel manager.
When I got back to town I ran into a girl I had met at the hostel that morning, Amanda. Amanda said she was doing this beer challenge from Alaskan Brewing Company. If you drank one of their beers at 5 different bars and got all the punches to prove it you got a t-shirt for free! Sign me up!
Bar Hopping
We started at the Red Dog Saloon which as the name suggests is a western themed bar. With its friendly staff and cozy atmosphere, it’s a must when in Juneau. Ask the bartender for a marker and you can leave your mark just about anywhere in the place. Just about all of the wooden surfaces have been graffitied over the years.
Next stop was the Imperial bar which has a small town feel. We chatted with a couple of locals while drinking our beer and then we were off to the next stop! Downtown Juneau is pretty small so thankfully all the bars were easy to walk to. Our third stop was the Viking which has a pool hall upstairs so we played a game. Both Amanda and I were fairly bad at pool so it ended up being a long game.
We only had 2 more stops, we decided we wanted to end at the Hanger which we had heard had good food so stop number 4 was McGivney’s. McGivney’s is a little bit more of an upscale bar located inside a hotel. I felt a little out-of-place in my hiking clothes there but by that point, we were both feeling pretty tipsy.
Final stop the Hanger. Thankfully they have a great food selection which after 5 or 6 drinks was much-needed. We happened to sit next to a group of men at the bar and started chatting with them. They were here for work, none of them were from Alaska. One of them seemed particularly fun, Nate. Even once they were seated at a table he kept coming back over to talk to us. Amanda was kind of seeing someone so that left Nate all to me.
Nate’s friends went back to the hotel but he decided to join us. After several more drinks, it was time for Amanda and me to head back to the hostel to make our 10:30 curfew. If you don’t make it back to Juneau International Hostel in time for curfew you’re locked out for the night. Nate offered to walk us back to the hostel, on the way back I announced I didn’t want the night to end yet. Nate took the hint and offered to let me stay with him. I reminded him that meant I was locked out and would have to stay the night, he said I was more than welcome to spend the night.
I still needed to pay for my room at the hostel which led to a hysterical talk with Steve the guy in charge of the hostel. He knew what was up and couldn’t stop laughing at Amanda and I. Steve said my bags would be fine overnight and that I could do my chore in the AM. So I headed back out with Nate.
We got another drink at the Hanger where we made out a little bit then decided to call it a night. Until that moment it hadn’t even crossed my mind about how long it had been since I shaved my legs let alone anything else. Nate was in his 30s though, certainly this wouldn’t be the first time he had seen a woman with some hair right?
Upon getting back to his room he suggested we take a shower together and we quickly stripped. Showering together is so intimate and god the bathroom lights are bright! He was much more in shape than I had initially thought. I don’t think this man had any body fat. He also had ZERO body hair. You’ve got to be kidding me! What are the chances?!
We had boring vanilla sex. Nine times out of ten drunken hookups sound better than they are. His body was nearly perfect, he could have been on the cover of GQ but that wasn’t going to get me off. I was a little disappointed that this was going to be the last time I had sex for a long time (I was planning on being celibate once getting to Deadhorse) but oh well.
Wednesday, April 19th
Nate walked me back to my hostel in the AM where I waited for Steve to open the door at 8. He laughed at me again and asked me how my night was. I knew he wasn’t judging me he just thought the whole thing was amusing. To be fair it was pretty funny so I told him it was a little disappointing to give him another laugh.
Amanda and I decided to spend the day together, we grabbed some breakfast first and made big plans for going on a hike. Steve told us if we hiked to the top of Mount Roberts we could take the chair lift down for free. It was pretty foggy and both Amanda and I felt crappy so we quickly threw that idea out and decided to check out Auke Bay instead.
It’s pretty common to see whales and Seals out at Auke Bay so we figured why not at least try. We sat on the dock for a good hour and saw nothing, not even a seal. Amanda had heard about this shrine that wasn’t too far from there, we stopped in a restaurant to ask for directions. They told us it was a little far to walk but that we could probably hitchhike out there.
I had never hitchhiked in my life. I was brought up believing that was the quickest way to get kidnapped or murdered. But this was the 5th or 6th time I had been told in Alaska that hitchhiking was safe and I wasn’t alone so we went for it. We stood there for a good 10 minutes without any success. Then a woman in her 60s stopped and offered to take us to the shrine! She was super nice, my first hitchhiking experience was a huge success. However, by no means do I recommend this in the majority of the United States.
The shrine is the National Shrine of St. Therese. It’s fairly small but it has some incredible views of the Chilkat mountain range. If you have a couple of hours to fill it’s worth checking out but I wouldn’t go out of your way for it.
We were unable to hitchhike back to the bus stop so we ended up calling a cab instead. Everyone that I met in Juneau was incredibly friendly and helpful. It was such a nice change from New England. We, of course, starting talking to the cab driver and when I told him where I was going to be working for the summer he made the “oh shit are you sure” face. Having everyone in Alaska make that face when I told them where I was going made me a little nervous.
I decided I needed a night in, to rest and get ready for the ice caves hike the next am. I ended up talking to Steve most of the night and he told me how to get to the spot for the ice caves hike!
Thursday, April 20th
Amanda’s friend from her previous job in Colorado flew in the night before and the two of them decided to join me in my ice caves hike. I warned them that this was a fairly challenging hike and that I wanted to get an early morning start.
Amanda’s friend Robert could not have been less prepared for this hike. All he brought was old beaten up sneakers and jeans. I strongly advised him that sneakers would not be good for this hike but nobody ever listens to me.
They were very slow going in the morning which was driving me crazy! The hike was a good 5 hours I didn’t want to get stuck out there when the sun went down. It was a good reminder of why I prefer solo travel. Finally, we left but needed to make a couple stops for them first we didn’t get to the trail until 11!
In order to get to the trail for the Ice Caves using the bus, you want to get on a bus for Mendenhall Loop Road, bus 3. You’ll want to get off at Montana Creek Road, it’s a long ride 30-45 minutes easily. Walk down Montana Creek Road until you see Skaters Cabin Road on the right. It’s a good mile or so walk. Skaters Cabin Road will lead you right to the trail just walk to the end of it.
Be sure to check out at Skaters Cabin! It has incredible views of Mendenhall Glacier, this is also a good spot to see the Glacier without all the crowds. You could easily skip the visitors center and head to Skaters Cabin and still get awesome views of Mendenhall Glacier.
At the end of Skaters Cabin Road, there’s a little parking lot this is where the trail begins, there’s a map with the trails, there are 2 different options. I personally thought the trail on the left was labeled better but there are some more challenging spots on that trail.
The first part of the trail is through the rainforest, it’s a pretty flat and easy hike. About a 3rd of the way in it gets more challenging, you do have to climb some stairs as well as use a robe to climb up a small rock wall. The trail was well maintained, I would have liked more markers but I’m a bit of a nervous hiker. My sense of direction is AWFUL so if it were up to me there would be a marker every 15 feet haha.
As we got closer to the glacier you could feel the temperature drop, the glacier gave off that much cold air. The last little bit was this really sandy mountain so I decided to just slide down on my butt instead of risking falling. If you use the trail to the right you avoid this spot but you go up and down a bunch of smaller hills instead.
Seeing the Ice Caves
As we got closer I was nearly running I was so excited to see the caves. I was just hoping they lived up to my expectations. They far exceeded my expectations.
Steve had told me the night before to be careful going inside them because of large pieces had been breaking off as it melted and there’s always a chance that the cave could collapse. Keeping all this in mind I proceeded with caution but there was no way I was going to miss an opportunity to go inside a glacier.
It’s hard to put into words how beautiful the ice caves were, I was speechless. It’s a pretty crazy feeling to see something you’ve been dreaming about for months. I was worried that they wouldn’t live up to my expectations. That the photo I had seen had been editing too much and seeing them in real life would be a letdown. My photos of the ice caves are completely unedited. The caves are absolutely magical.
From what I’ve heard there are very few Ice Caves left in the Mendenhall Glacier. Due to Climate change, the Glacier is melting faster than ever. If you do get a chance to see them proceed with extreme caution, due to the rate at which the glaciers are melting the caves are much more prone to collapse. At the end of the trail to the left, they have markers set up as to where the glacier used to end. You can see how much the glacier has melted even in the last 5 years.
The hike back
On the hike back we took the other trail to see if it was any easier. It was harder to follow and we all hiked at different speeds. About a half hour in Amanda decided she was going to go off on her own to try to hike down to the shore and go around.
I had a really bad feeling about this. Rule number 1 when hiking stay on the trail and rule number 2 is to stay together. And she was breaking both of them, I tried to convince her to stay with Robert and me but she we determined she would be fine. So we split up.
The hike back wasn’t as bad as I had anticipated but Robert was very unprepared for the hike, he hadn’t even brought water. I, of course, shared mine with him but I wasn’t really prepared for two people so that made it little more challenging.
When we got back to the parking lot the sun was starting to set and the temperature was rapidly decreasing. Amanda wasn’t there which immediately worried me but I figured maybe she was just behind us a little. We saw a guy biking on the beach and asked him if he had seen anyone and explained what happened. He seemed really concerned and told us it’s not possible to get back the way she had planned. Oh, shit now I was really worried.
He rode along the shore to look for her and we headed back to the trail hoping that she had made it back to the trail. We ran into a couple who hadn’t seen her but told us they had flashlights in their car we could borrow. Robert tried to call Amanda a few times but it went straight to voicemail.
When we got back to the parking lot there was a cop there, Amanda had called 911 she was lost and had no idea how to get out. Search and rescue were on the way and we gave the cop all the info we had about her. I was fully panicking at this point. I knew she shouldn’t have gone off on her own. I should have convinced her to stay with us, I felt terrible.
It took 2 hours for search and rescue to get to her, they radioed in to tell us she was alright. She was cold and hungry but unharmed. I felt much better knowing they had found her and she was alright. It took another 2 hours for them to hike back out.
She had fallen 40 ft and landed in water ripping her pants and soaking her but she was fine just a little bruised up. We had called Steve at the hostel and explained the situation he told us to call him when we got back and he would let us in. We didn’t make it back until 1 am. What a disaster of a night.
I slept for 3 hours before I had to get ready for my flight to Fairbanks the next AM. Not the best sendoff from Juneau but at least she was alright!
