Liam Nyssen is a Trail Mix veteran who began working for the Juneau nonprofit at age 16. My wife Sandy and I have known him since the day of his birth 22 years ago. Liam put in five seasons of hard trail work. We witnessed his transition from a soft teenage boy with a computer gaming habit to a strong outdoorsman capable of lifting me off the ground like a sack of potatoes.
Now living in Bellingham, Washington, Liam has been around, from New Zealand where his father Steve lives, to Maine where his mother Kathleen now resides. “Bellingham is famed for its trails,” Liam told me during a telephone conversation, “but it is a shadow compared to Juneau where I can walk out the door and be on a trail in minutes.” He laughs indulgently at his mountain biking friends’ enthusiasm for Bellingham’s trail system. “They have no idea.”
Meghan Tabacek worked on the trail crew with Liam during her first year in Juneau. She is now executive director. Tabacek says Trail Mix maintains about 200 miles of trails. “We have more accessible trails within a few miles from where we live than any other comparable community I can think of,” she says. “And our use is super high — a recent survey indicates that over 90% of Juneau residents make some use of our trails.”
Thanks largely to the Trail Mix workforce and volunteers, our trails have been remarkably upgraded over the last 15 years. The most impressive restoration work is the 14-plus miles of Treadwell Ditch Trail, which has included pathway widening, graveling and new bridge installations, the last expected to be completed in June of this year when a heavy-lift helicopter will lower a 52-foot span to cross over the “yellow rope ravine,” the only remaining obstacle along this evenly graded trail connecting Eaglecrest to downtown Douglas.
Much of the credit for Treadwell improvements goes to a group of about 15 volunteers organized by David Haas that includes Jack Kreinheader, Marc Scholten, Tom Krebbiel, Mark Miller, Chuck Orson, Jeff Sloss and Peggy Feinman who I met with recently as they prepared to hike up Emerson Access Trail to widen a portion of Treadwell. I asked which trails they most enjoy. Eaglecrest ridge, Horse Tram and the Thunder Mountain Bike Park were mentioned, but unsurprisingly Treadwell was their collective favorite.
Hundreds of Juneau residents have been inspired to make use of our wealth of trails by joining Walk Southeast, a program created by Juneau Parks and Recreation, with registration this year from May 1-6. It came out of a brainstorming session in 2020 with Parks and Rec staff Lauren Verrelli and Dawn Welch. They wanted to create an activity for friends and families within their own “bubbles” during the pandemic. “We expected mostly families would join the program,” Verrelli says, “but about 85% of our participants are adults/seniors.”
I’m one of those seniors and I found Walk Southeast oddly compelling. It soon became a daily routine of getting in the miles toward completing the 297-mile goal (the length of the Marine Highway route from Juneau to Ketchikan).
Most frequently I’d walk the Basin Road/Flume loop, the Outer Point trail system and walkabouts of downtown, but to get serious mileage I hiked Perseverance, Auk Nu, Windfall Lake and the length of Treadwell Ditch. As often with companions as not, I hiked well over a dozen of Juneau’s trails.
By achieving checkpoint goals, Walk Southeast participants qualify for the many prizes from round-trip airfares to all manner of swag. My hoped-for prize was to be first in line to secure the Amalga Cabin, won last year by Daniel Cornwall, who told me by email that his primary motivation for joining was to swap his indoor stationary bike routine for Juneau’s scenic trails. He now gets out almost daily in any weather excepting atmospheric river events with strong winds, “unless it’s Walk Southeast season and I only need a mile or two to make the next checkpoint.”
In 2023, Juneau residents participating in Walk Southeast logged over 100,000 miles on trails, most of which have been improved and maintained by Trail Mix volunteers and seasonal workers like Liam Nyssen, who takes pride in his efforts over several years. “I worked outside for 40-plus hours a week, contributing to the community in a practical way,” he told me. “At the end of the workday you can see how many feet of trail you’ve improved, and it is something that will be around for a long time.”
• Peter Metcalfe is a writer/publisher and lifelong resident of Juneau.
