Day 28 Juneau, Alaska

 Juneau is the capital city of Alaska and lies at the heart of the Inside Passage (Alaska Marine Highway).  The town was established as a gold mining town in 1880 until 1944.  For a state capital Juneau maintains a small town charm, in part because it can only be reached by sea or air due to the surrounding wilderness.  Juneau is surrounded by the Wrangell - St. Elias National Park that is a whopping 13.2 million acres.  

The tour we chose today was Mushers Camp and Sled Dog Ride.  This tour was around 2 hours and we were the first tour off the rank today that got us back into Juneau with plenty of time for sightseeing.  We were driven by bus to the Mushers Camp, high in the mountains, that took us around 30 minutes.  When we stepped off the bus the barking of the Alaskan Huskies was deafening.  There were around five teams harnessed and ready to take us on a ride and they were excited!  It reminded Philip and I of the excitement our working dogs showed when they knew they were going mustering.....

Of course there is no snow at this time of the year so six of us were loaded into custom made wheel "sleds".  Our musher (the driver of the dog sled) jumped up onto the "sled" and we were off.  There is a team of around a dozen dogs pulling the sled and boy do they move fast.  It was so much fun made even more so knowing that the dogs seemed to be enjoying it as much as us!

It ended all too soon, but after the ride we were given a very informative talk about how these amazing dogs have helped to build the Alaskan wilderness.  Each year there are several races across Alaska with the most famous being the Iditarod Sled Dog Race that covers a distance of around 1000 miles from Anchorage to Nome. Apparently some of the dogs that were used today have competed in this race quite successfully. After the talk we were taken across to one of the dog kennels where there were some new born puppies to cuddle.  They were so cute.

Mumma in the kennel with her babies

The tour ended all too soon and we were once again on the bus and heading back to Juneau.  We asked to be dropped off in the town area as we had seen the cablecar running up the side of the mountain and were keen to purchase tickets, which we did.  Unfortunately the rain had really settled in by this time so we didn't get to see the views we were hoping for but they were still pretty spectacular.

There are five cruise ships in the harbour today with Juneau being the turn around point for the majority of them.  I imagine we will see more and more of them over the coming days.  Tomorrow we dock at Ketchikan, that last port before Vancouver. 

 Last night we had dinner again in the french restaurant.  We started with cheese soufflé and I followed that with roasted duck, but how is this for an impressive dessert.  It is meringue dusted with raspberry sitting in a cremé anglais sauce and topped with a toffee confection.  Almost too pretty to eat!