Tuesday, July 15

We woke up to unexpected sunshine and walked down the short path from our campsite to the shore of Mendenhall Lake . We could see the glacier in the distance, and there were little icebergs floating around close to our shore. We longed to get close to them, but this was clearly no water for swimming! An ad in the Juneau tourist brochure offered a ride on the lake in a native canoe, but when we called to inquire we learned that the cost was $200 per person. "For less than that we could buy our own boat," said Dick. He had been wanting to get a collapsible boat to carry around in the camper for years, so we went to check out the possibilities. At Western Auto-Marine we got a real taste of Alaska outdoor culture. A huge second floor was devoted entirely to sporting goods, with more fishing rods than we have ever seen in any one place. They had quite a few inflatable boats, but the good ones were too big to fit into our camper and the small ones too flimsy. So we tried Fred Meyer, and there we found a 4-man inflatable that seemed just right, including two sets of oars. So we sprang for it, together with a pump, two lifejackets, and a pair of boots for Dick (they didn't have any small enough for me), all for considerably less than one person's ride on the canoe .

Then the real adventure began. We took it to the shore of the lake and pumped it up. I got into the bow, facing backwards, as one should in a rowboat. Dick, with his boots, shoved us off and got into the stern, but the only way he could sit was facing forward. Where the other two people would have fit in this 4-man boat I have no idea, although we came nowhere close to the maximum weight the boat could hold. From this position Dick found it impossible to row, so he sat back and enjoyed the ride while I rowed us out to the icebergs, laughing all the way. I'm sorry I have no pictures to show of this remarkable trip, but I thought it better not to bring a camera along on the maiden voyage. The next time we take it out, we're going to try both facing forward and paddling like a canoe. We'll report back!