Heather Bryant

The biennial cultural event begins today (Thursday). It brings together Southeast Alaska Natives from all over the state, the Lower 48 and Canada to share their art, dance and stories. This year the SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium (SEARHC) joined with the One People Canoe Society and other canoe teams to paddle to Celebration. The teams also used the stops along the way to raise awareness about suicide prevention.

The first teams left Kake on Saturday for Angoon, where another canoe team joined them. On Monday, a team from Hoonah joined in Funter Bay. They camped along the way, spending Tuesday night at Portland Island for the short paddle yesterday to Juneau’s Auke Recreation Area.

About 90 people made the trip and came from Angoon, Hoonah, Hydaburg, Juneau, Kake, Sitka, and Wrangell. They ranged in age from 10 to 70, and all seemed to relish the traditional mode of travel.

Rosemarie Alexander was at Auke Rec when the canoes paddled to shore, and spoke to observers & paddlers about the significance of the journey.

High clouds in Juneau today (Tuesday) mostly obscured the roughly twice-a-century transit of Venus across the sun.

“If the sun was the size of a beach ball, Venus moving across the sun would be about the size of nickel,” Marie Drake Planetarium Director of Programs Ken Fix says, describing what could have been seen from Juneau, if there were no clouds blocking out the sun. “So, you’re actually going to be able to see it, even if you just use a filter and you don’t look through a telescope.”

Fix and other amateur astronomers from the planetarium were at Marine Park during most of the 7-hour transit, waiting for a break in the clouds. But alas, despite a few teases, the sun never made much of an appearance.

Venus actually comes between the Earth and the sun five times every eight years. But because their orbits are on different planes, Fix says Venus usually misses passing over the sun’s disk as seen from Earth.

“Venus’ orbit differs from ours by about three and a quarter degrees,” he says. “And it’s only when we lap each other, with Venus on the inside track on the same side of the sun, that we have the possibility of a transit. But we have to be on the same zero line reference to the sun. And that only happens every 105 or 113 years, depending on what part of the cycle we’re in.”

That means it won’t happen again until December 2117. Maybe the sun will be out in Juneau by then.

Groups of volunteers spread across the new Under Thunder trail on June 2 as part of the National Trails Day celebrations.

The crews worked on clearing logs and debris and re-vegetating muddy areas along the trail.

Erik Boraas, the executive director of Trail Mix, said he was glad to see so many people come to this year’s celebrations.

Volunteer John Hudson, just happened to be riding his bike on the trails when he came across the project. He parked his bike and joined the effort, picking up moss to cover the sides of the trail.

Brent Fischer, director of Parks and Recreation for the City and Borough of Juneau, said the trail will be part of a Juneau trail system.

“What stands before you may seem just like a simple trail through the woods, but this trail has big dreams. Today the trail begins at the Trail of Time by the Mendenhall Glacier, winds along and connects here in the valley and then will proceed to Egan Drive. It will connect to other neighborhood trails, creating a spectacular trail system for many to enjoy,” Fischer said.

Marti Marshall is the U.S. Forest Service District Ranger in Juneau.

“When it’s completed, you’ll be able to go all the way to downtown Juneau,” she said.

Marshall said there are more than 150 trails in the Juneau area. She highlighted the importance of partnerships and volunteer efforts in making the trails possible.

“We have beautiful trails in this community through amazingly beautiful landscapes,” she said.

Following the ribbon-cutting, volunteers had lunch and local historian Jim Geraghty led a guided nature walk.

Dozens of families made their way to Twin Lakes on Saturday, June 2, for Family Fishing Day.

Coordinated by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, the U.S. Forest Service, Juneau Rotary clubs and the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary all come together to put on different parts of the event.

ADF&G Sport Fish Division provides all the rods, reels, bait and gear, according to Assistant Area Managing Biologist Dan Teske.

He said approximately 10,000 king salmon were released into Twin Lakes in anticipation of the annual event.

“It’s a great way to get people out,” Teske said.

Megan Keeler brought her 2-year-old son, Silas, to the event.

“Silas has never been fishing, and I asked him if he wanted to go fishing and literally for the last week, every single morning he’s said ‘are we going fishing today,’ ” Keeler said.

Matthew Thompson, who works with the Forest Service, spent the morning helping people use the rowboats.

“We have a bunch of rowboats available so the kids can go out and try to catch the king that have been stocked,” Thompson said. “It gives them a chance to get out on the lake and do a little fishing and get the life vests and get safety on their mind.”

Rick Saulnier’s daughter Cloe found success at the event. Cloe caught three fish in her first half hour on the dock.

“I love fishing,” she said.

Saulnier said she learned to fish a couple years ago.

“It’s family fishing day and we like fishing and she loves eating it. We look forward to spending time together,” Saulnier said.

Vince Cheng brought his sons Gabe, 7, and Sam, 6, both avid fisherman, said their dad. The boys reeled in several fish, including one that became a team effort when their lines got tangled.

A number of families gathered on the dock, where parents and grandparents were guiding children’s fishing efforts. Each successful attempt was signaled by the excited kids shrieking and laughing.

Cheyenne Herline, 5, jumped up and down on the dock as she held her first fish of the day.

“That was so cool. I caught one,” Cheyenne said. Grandmother Angela Binckley said it was Cheyenne’s first fishing experience.

She released the fish then cast her reel again, determined to catch a bigger one.

There are more than a hundred trails in Juneau, and tomorrow is the celebration of the newly completed Under Thunder Trail in Mendenhall Valley.

The first Saturday of June is National Trails Day and local non-profit Trail Mix is hosting the grand opening.

Erik Boraas, the Executive Director of Trail Mix, estimates that about half of the trails in Juneau see steady use.

The Under Thunder Trail now connects to the Power line Trail which leads to the Trail of Time.

The whole east side of the valley has now been connected according to Ed Grossman, the Recreation Program Manager for the Forest Service.

“By providing those connections, we’ve seen a dramatic increase in use year round,” Grossman said.

Grossman estimates there are several hundred people on the trails each day during the summer season.

Tomorrow’s events take place at the Under Thunder trail head at the corner of Valley Boulevard and Granite Drive.

The event kicks off at 9 a.m. with a volunteer party to clear the sides of the trail, re-vegetate muddy areas and pick up trash.

Boraas recommends dressing for the weather and bringing work gloves.

At noon, there will be speakers from the Department of Parks and Recreation and the Forest Service. After the ribbon-cutting and lunch, there will be children’s activities and a guided hike with local historian Jim Geraghty.

“There is something for all ages and ability levels,” Boraas said.

National Trails Day has been around for nearly 20 years. In the late 1990s President Ronald Reagan’s Commission on American Outdoors published a report recommending that “all Americans be able to go out their front doors and within fifteen minutes, be on trails that wind through their cities or towns and bring them back without retracing steps.”

This report led to National Trails Day being introduced in 1993.

According to the American Hiking Society there are more than 200,000 miles of trails in the United States.

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The price of oil is headed for the biggest decline since December 2008.

U.S. crude has dropped almost 16 percent based on predictions that world demand will not be as high as previously thought.

Despite the slump, North American oil and gas production is expanding.

Energy Policy Research Foundation President Lou Pugliaresi cites technology, better policy and access to federal land as being key components to the domestic expansion.

Pugliaresi can be seen on KTOO’s 360 North television Friday (June 1), at 8 p.m.

He recently spoke to the Juneau World Affairs Council on the “Coming Renaissance in North American Oil.”

“We should have policies that hold up fairly well under uncertainty, and that is a basic flaw in American energy policy,” Pugliaresi said. “We think we know what the future looks like and we don’t. So we end taking policies that try to reinforce the worst expectations about the future.”

Pugliaresi said government needs to change its thinking about permitting and the trade-offs between economic value and environmental costs.

“If we get appropriate policies in place we are going to become a dominate energy producer in the western hemisphere. I think it’s only a matter of 10 to 15 years where the whole western hemisphere no longer buys any oil from the Middle East,” Pugliaresi said.

Pugliaresi worked for the federal government in the 1970s and ’80s with jobs in the National Security Council, Department of State, Department of Energy and the Department of the Interior.

“The Coming Renaissance in North American Oil” airs at 8 p.m. on 360 North.