The Thunder Mountain High School Falcons fell to the visiting Homer Mariners 44-26 on Friday night in the Alaska School Activities Association medium-schools state semifinal at Falcons Field.

“It was smash-mouth football,” TMHS coach Bill Byouer said. “Both teams were smashing. I feel for the seniors. It was their last game.”

Thunder Mountain was playing to earn respect. Homer was playing to keep it.

Coast Guard Station Juneau’s newest asset for fast, efficient response is making an impression on those who get to be part of its crew. The 45-foot Response Boat-Medium (RB-M) arrived on July 20 and Station Juneau ‘Coasties’ are slowly being brought up to speed on all it can do.

“It is really responsive,” CGSJ executive petty officer BM-1 Philip Ketcheson said as he piloted the boat into Gastineau Channel on Friday. “Just barely moving the nozzle and the boat really minds what you want to do.”

"On a geezer's run," Glenn Frick said. "No man is left behind."

This was said with roughly two hours left in a planned run in the mountains. I had just looked at one last climb up toward the end of the Juneau Ridge.

"No way I can scramble up one more mountain. Go on ahead," I said.

I knew the way home. If the cramps didn't subside, I could crawl the final miles. But slowly, every step began to feel like I could survive this "slow and casual" outing to celebrate ultra-marathoner Geoff Roes' last month in Juneau. So, we continued on.

Flash back to 12-hours earlier.