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20030814 Open new window with today’s pictures.
August 14, 2003 Thursday
Start: Oceanside RV Park, Haines AK End: Skagway Mtn View RV Park, Skagway AK Miles: 6 by road, 20-something by water Hi Temp: 62.2 Lo Temp: 54.5
I got up to find it raining, as forecast. We started slowly, knowing we were only going to the ferry. About 10:00am, we unhooked, hitched up, and drove the four miles to the ferry dock.
We queued up where I'd been told to, and found another truck/trailer combination already there ahead of us. Over time, two more pulled in behind us, and several motor homes pulled into a lane next to us.
We read our books until we saw a bunch of cars going out the exit lane, signaling that the ferry was disembarking. The person with a walkie-talkie taking orders from the loading officer inside the ferry selected us to board second or third. I drove down the ramp through the starboad forward side door and turned left, facing a row of cars. I had to put the diesel fuel can in the paint room, then they wanted my rig moved two feet left. So I backed and went ahead to move over a little.
I met Dolores at the top of the ladder. We found front seats in the forward-facing passenger lounge from which we could watch the loading process. People were almost at the stage of betting that they couldn't get another vehicle inside the ship, but they kept putting them in. Some had to back down the ramp, others came down forward. Finally, a half-hour late, we got them all in and got underway.
The trip to Skagway was uneventful for us. The captain kept the crew busy, however, by running a fire drill and an abandon-ship drill. Passenger participation was to stand clear of the crew as they went through the drill.
Approaching the pier in Skagway, we saw four cruise ships tied up to the various docks. They were the Norwegian Wind (NCL), Sun Princess (Princess Lines), and Veendam & Volundam (HACL). Lessee here, two thousand people times four ships equals 8,000 souls running around.
We tied up in Skagway and then they passed the word that we could go to our vehicles. When Dolores and I got to the vehicle deck, we couldn't go out the door to port because an RV was smack up against it. We could sneak out the starboard door, but then had to walk sideways between vehicles until we could find a path to ours.
We tied up starboard side to the pier, so we were using the same side door to unload as we used loading.
I retrieved the diesel fuel can and stood outside the truck, watching what parts of the unloading I could see. They'd put several cars in last, so they went out first and made room for two large motorhomes to jockey back-and-forth, then out. Then I had to back up between two rigs, steer the back of the trailer into the forward port corner, then jockey forward-and-back to jack-knife the rig and turn through the door and out. On the floating pier, we turned left and went up another ramp and we were out safe.
We steered directly up the street we were led into, Broadway. There were hundreds of tourists on the sidewalks on each side, walking around in the rain.
When we reached 12th Ave and Broadway, we turned into the RV Park. We checked in, whipped around and parked. Then we unhooked the truck, hooked up the utilities, and hung up our coats to dry.
I had noticed as we were doing this that the narrow-gage tracks of the White Pass & Yukon Railway were only 40 feet from the trailer. Sure enough, the little passenger trains that this railroad runs started coming back from the top of the pass. After a little while, we got totally lost insofar as what train was going where. Four trains came by heading for the station. A couple came back, headed for the yards to rest for the night. Another two trains came in for the station. Two more headed out per the schedule, at 4:45. Then they shuffled cars and engines back and forth for a while. There will still be some more train movements, if I have it correctly. This is a busy place for trains. I hope they don't start too early in the morning.
We have reservations on the train that is powered by a steam engine on Saturday, the only day it runs all the way out the line to Lake Bennett.
I'll go through more history of the WP&Y later.
We've been talking over the possiblity of taking the fast boat excursion to Juneau one of these days. We'll watch the weather and make up our mind later. Right now, it's forecast to rain for several days.
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20030815 Open new window with today’s pictures.
August 15, 2003
Start: Skagway Mtn View RV Park, Skagway AK End: same Miles: 0 Hi Temp: 61.7 Lo Temp: 56.7
It rained lightly, on and off, all day. The wind was also off and on, getting up to 20 knots at times.
We woke late, read a little, and then took a walk through downtown. There was only one cruise ship in town, the Dawn Princess, so the town wasn't as crowded as yesterday.
We picked up a few things for us, some little gifts for others, and our tickets for the train ride tomorrow. Then I went to the market for a few items while Dolores went off to church (Feast of the Assumption). After she returned, we took it easy again for a bit, and once more walked downtown to look around.
On the way, we visited the local museum in an old Methodist school now City Hall. We watched two videos on the town and looked at the exhibits.
Then we walked outside and found a small stream. As we watched some salmon thrashed their way upstream, into a culvert under the street, out the other end, and then they went on. Two others were spawning in the area just below the culvert. There is a small salmon hatchery on this creek, so I suppose this is very natural.
We continued our wandering in and out, then returned to the market to find bananas. They didn't have any, so we visited the organic market and found some.
Then we returned to the little house next to the tracks. We ate a simple dinner in, and then did laundry.
Now we're in for the night, listening to the rain on the roof.
Up early tomorrow for our train ride.
Oh, yes; this was the day Dolores would have had to be home to work, if she hadn't retired. She noted this with some satisfaction.
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20030816 Open new window with today’s pictures.
August 16, 2003 Saturday
Start: Skagway Mtn View RV Park, Skagway Ak End: same Miles: 0 Hi Temp: 62.6 Lo Temp: 55.9
We rose early and hiked down Broadway to the Sweet Shoppe, where we had a good breakfast.
Then we walked to the White Pass & Yukon Route (WP&YR) railroad depot. Our train, complete with steam engine #73, was there but it was still being prepared for the day's run. Some other folks came along and we all waited a few minutes, then boarded. We selected the last car of five coaches and found good seats.
The train hooted and departed pretty much on time and slowly traversed the tracks in town. We passed our truck and trailer in the RV Park, then the coach yard, and then the locomotive yard and shops. Shortly after that, we passed the old Skagway cemetery where Soapy Smith and Frank Reid are buried.
Soapy Smith was a con man and sharper who, with his gang, controlled Skagway in 1898. Frank Reid was one of a group of citizens who were going to run Soapy & company out of town. Soapy got likkered up and headed for the citizen's meeting to break it up, but Frank got in his way. Soapy got the first shot and wounded Reid, but then Reid put three holes in Soapy, who dropped right there. Reid lasted 14 days but finally succumbed to his wound.
Right after this, the tracks start uphill seriously, with grades about 3.3 to 3.9 percent (3.3 feet per 100 horizontal feet). The engine pulled a little harder but still had no problem pulling five passenger cars. Some of the right-of-way was blasted out of solid rock, so the train travels on a narrow ledge with a very steep and very long drop in places.
The tracks continue uphill, at two points deviating from the main valley to go out into a side canyon and back to gain altitude, then again going up toward White Pass, one of the two main routes for the 1898 gold rush prospectors to get to the Yukon.
I won't go into all the history of this railroad, but here's a little.
It was started while the gold rush was still in full swing. Eventually it ran 110 miles to Whitehorse in the Yukon Territory; from there one could change to a riverboat on the Yukon and go downriver to Dawson City or any other place. It was a key player in the building of the Alaska Highway during WWII, carrying lots of material to Whitehorse. After the war, it kept going by taking lead and zinc ore from Whitehorse to the docks at Skagway to put into ships. When the mines shut down in 1982, the railroad shut down. In 1988, it came back (summers only) as a tourist railroad, hauling only passengers and only as far as the White Pass summit or Bennett.
After the summit, our train stopped for Canadian customs. A bit later, it stopped at Fraser. There, some people transferred off the train to a bus to go on to Whitehorse. The engine's tender was refilled with water and then the engine picked up a baggage car and another coach from a side track and put them on the head end of our train.
Then it went onward across some really harsh terrain to the 40-mile mark at Bennett, on the shore of Lake Bennett. The train turned around on a loop track and backed in to the depot here for a 1.5-hour rest-or-explore period. We chose to hike around and explore.
During the gold rush, those prospectors who hiked the White Pass or Chilkoot trails eventually got here; since it was winter, they began building boats to ride down the Yukon to Dawson City and the gold when the ice broke up. The shores of Lake Bennett were covered with people at work on boats and a small community grew at Bennett. The only evidence of that community is a wood-slab-sided Presbyterian church that was built in 1899. When the railroad pushed through to Whitehorse in 1900, there was no need for Bennett anymore and the town was mainly torn down and moved.
We went up the hill to look at said church, which is in a state of disrepair. Then the tour group being escorted by a Parks Canada person caught up with us, so we stayed with them and learned about the church.
While we were doing this, the trainmen were loading the packs of lots of hikers who had hiked the Chilkoot trail to get here and would ride back on the train. It takes hikers anywhere from three to five days to do the steep, unimproved, rocky, trail of 33 miles. Their packs went into the baggage car and the hikers into the first three cars. As one hiker said, they were a little ripe.
Then we went back to the train and nibbled part of our included box lunch. Soon, the engine's whistle called everyone back to the train. We chugged off and back across the harsh terrain, up to the summit, and then coasted down the steep hill back into Skagway At one point, the train discharged passengers who wanted pictures of the train in motion. Then the train backed up around a curve and came blasting back past us. Then it backed up to us for reboarding.
When we got off the train, we hit the gift shop for a couple of mementos and then hiked back to the little house by the tracks to rest our feet. We called son Bill (his birthday) and chatted; then we called daughter Susan and chatted with her. We hadn't talked with them in some time.
We also tried to arrange the trip to Juneau for Monday, but the boat is full.
Then we went to dinner at a wacko place called the Skagway Fish Company. It was jammed to the rafters as far as we were concerned, but the wait staff and bartenders thought nothing of it and just scurried like crazy. We sat at the bar waiting for a table until we heard they'd run out of salmon and ribs; then we decided to eat where we were rather than risk getting nothing.
Dolores had a crab cakes appetizer and halibut (very good) while I had onion soup and a chef's salad made with tiny local shrimp that was delicious. We might have to go back to this place.
Then our leg muscles stiffened and we decided to stretch them at the little house (in a seated position). So we drove home and took it easy while we processed the photographs taken during the day.
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20030817 Open new window with today’s pictures.
August 17, 2003 Sunday
Start: Skagway Mtn View RV Park, Skagway AK End: same Miles: 0 Hi Temp: 63.3 Lo Temp: 54.9
We slept in, it being Sunday. I loafed over coffee while Dolores walked the four short blocks to church and returned.
We loafed for a bit, then hopped into the truck to go look at things.
First, we went to the old Skagway cemetery, wherein are the graves of Frank Reid and Soapy Smith, spoken of earlier. Other local dignitaries and not-so-dignified persons are also resting there. One couple there were honeymooning when they were killed by local Tlingit natives who had been done some injustice; she was 19, he 25.
On the way back, I took some pictures of unique things in the WP&YR yards (old, dead, locomotives, etc.). We stopped at the trailer again for lunch, then headed for Dyea.
Dyea, pronounced Die-yee, was a rival and contemporary of Skagway. It's on an inlet a few miles away, and had the better of the two trails into the interior - the Chilkoot Trail. That's the one in the picture of the unbroken line of men carrying their supplies up steps carved into the snow, called the Golden Staircase.
But Skagway had a fairly good pass, called the White Pass, and the big advantage of a deep-water port. Dyea's inlet was shallow. The deep-draft ships would come to Skagway and unload any freight for Dyea into barges to deliver it.
When the railroad was built from Skagway, Dyea was doomed. Population went from 10,000 to six in three years. Much of the town was torn down and the lumber used in Skagway.
Some ruins of Dyea can still be seen, so we met (with others) with the NPS Ranger (Amy Johnson from Herndon, VA, right next door to our place in Manassas) to join her tour. Most of the place is grown over with trees now, but there are paths through it, some of which correspond to the old street locations. She showed us pictures of old Dyea and the ruins that are there now. It was very interesting.
We came back on the narrow, potholed, road to Skagway and went downtown. We visited the Park Service building (the original WP&YR depot) and picked up brochures. We hiked around downtown, watching the boat people, and visited a few shops but only came away with one Christmas thing for Dolores.
We'd had enough by then and came back to the little house.
I did the one bill-paying chore we have to do monthly, and got the data to reconcile the checkbook, automatic payments, and credit card accounts.
After that, we settled in with books and/or TV (we have cable here, but that doesn't make the programs any better).
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20030818 Open new window with today’s pictures.
August 18, 2003 Monday
Start: Skagway Mtn View RV Park, Skagway AK End: same Miles: 0 Hi Temp: 65.5 Lo Temp: 46.9
Warmer today & no rain, but a lot of wind.
We rose a little late and loafed over books and coffee. Finally, we walked downtown slowly, looking in shops on one side of the street. Then we returned up the other side of the street. We picked up a couple more gifts.
We stopped for a while to watch the little stream that flows next to Broadway between 9th and 11th. It's full of salmon navigating upstream to do their spawning. The stream flows through pipes under the street, one of them very long, but that doesn't slow down the salmon. They'll splash and thrash their way up the shallow water until they reach a deeper pool; then they'll rest a while until they feel there are too many salmon there, and strike out upstream again.
The clear sky we had for the morning and early afternoon was finally obscured by the usual clouds. The wind made it feel colder, so we hid out in the little house until 5:00pm. During this period, I settled the last questions about the Mastercard bill (all's well) and put the expenses into the spreadsheet.
Then we drove the truck down to the gas station and topped off the diesel (at $2.07 a gallon, still cheaper than the Yukon). Then we went back to the Skagway Fish Company for dinner.
We shared a 1/2-pound peel-and-eat shrimp appetizer, then D had salmon and I had halibut. Very good.
This is our last day in Alaska for this trip (sob). Tomorrow, we're going up the hill to Whitehorse and then down the Alaska Highway toward Edmonton, Winnepeg, and home. We'll be another month doing that.
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