I arrived in Skagway on Wednesday and camped not 5 minutes
walk from the centre of town. It is a beautiful old town, steeped in the
history of the Klondike Gold Rush in 1898, which was in itself a vital part of
Alaskan history. Prior to coming to
Alaska I had read extensively about it all, so to drive through the Chilkoot
Pass on Wednesday, in a blizzard, imagining the would-be and ill-prepared
miners slogging over the same mountains on foot, was very thought provoking for
me. Now to see the town that was the
start of their trip, still with all the old buildings, wooden sidewalks, bars
and saloons etc, was just fascinating.
Alaska’s history is amazing – from the days when it was occupied by Russia,
to its sale to the US, to the Gold Rush of 1898, and then the building of the
Alaska-Canada (Alcan) Highway in just 9 months during the war – Everything is
so recent and its history so tangible.
If anyone is interested, one book that really paints a brilliant overall
picture is James A Michenor’s book “Alaska” – I can strongly recommend it.
On Thursday the cold wind howled up the fljord through Skagway, and immediately after the cruise ship terminal, the first thing the wind hit was my campsite !! It was bitter. It is apparently a feature of Skagway, and blows most of the time (also not in the tourist brochures !!) But at least it was not raining !! So I went into town to the Tourist Information Centre, and other similar places, to find out what was available. And right now, the answer is……..very little !! Just nothing happens around here until 18th May. Fast ferries start running then, tours start running then – Everything happens from 18th May onwards !! This is NOT what is said on the internet !! In Skagway, the town opens when a cruise ship arrives, and closes 2 minutes after it leaves. In between cruise ships, it is dead as a dodo. The first cruise ship for the season arrived yesterday, on Wednesday. Today, no cruise ships, so most shops (apart from the local hardware shop and a couple of restaurants etc) are closed. Museums closed. Old theatre, closed. Hmmmm. I did manage to find a clothing shop open, and at last found a fur lined Trapper’s hat that I had been looking for, and which was ideal for keeping the icy wind at bay. Then I found out about some walks in the area, and decided on one in the hills above Skagway to Dewey Lake. I packed a picnic lunch, loaded my bear spray, and set off into the hills for a really great hike through the forests. Past an old reservoir built during the gold rush boom times to serve the town, and up through dense trees which looked VERY like bear territory, so I was talking out loud a lot of the time to warn them of my approach, and I kept one hand on the trigger of my bear spray just in case !! Some of the lake was still frozen, and there were a couple of bald headed eagles circling around, and it was absolutely beautiful. Found 3 people fishing at one point – Amy, Nolan and Dave - and they turned out to have a glass blowing business in town – But, you guessed it, no cruise ship today so they were fishing !! Like so many others in Skagway, they come in for the 3 months of summer every year, but for the rest of the year they live in Jackson Hole, Wyoming where they snowboard and run their glass blowing business over there ! Anyway, I got back to town about 4 hours later after a great hike, and no bears !! Or none that I saw anyway !!
That evening I wandered around town, found the library where
I could get on the internet (although it is SO slow round here it is hardly
worth doing), and ended up having a few beers and supper at the Red Onion
Saloon, which had enjoyed a chequered history as a major saloon in Skagway, as
well as being a brothel, about which they now run tours of the “facilities”
daily – or when a cruise ship is in, anyway !!
Friday was not so pleasant.
Not only was the freezing wind still blowing a gale, but now the clouds
had come down and the rain as well.
Rather than try and eat breakfast in my tent, I went into town for a hot
breakfast, and then the rest of the morning was spent meeting people !! I went
to fill the car with petrol, and someone started taking photos. Got chatting, introduced as Murray Lundberg,
and we ended up going for coffee. Murray
lives in Whitehorse, moved here from the southern US many years ago and just
loves it up here, as do so many others I meet up here. He has a niche tourist business, (http://cruiseexploretravel.com ) so
we had a great chat about possible things to do this early in the year, and in
weather like this. Answer ? Not a lot !!!
After Murray left, I was crossing the street and nearly got run over by a car – The occupants I recognised as Matteus and Francine, the dutch brother and sister I had bumped into several times on the way north ! They didn’t recognise me at first as I was all bundled up, but once I removed hats and things, they saw it was me, and we went for another coffee ! (Hey, it was raining !!) Turns out Matteus was with Shell so was an oil field hand himself !! Francine lives in Juneau, while Matteus is just over on holiday. He is going up to Kenai Peninsula so I will probably bump into him there !
After talking with them, and also finding out rain was forecast for the next 3 days or so, I decided to get out of Skagway and catch the ferry the next day (Saturday 12th) to Haines. So I walked down and booked that, and then in the afternoon decided, despite the rain, to go and explore Dyea, which is right next door to Skagway but on the next door fjord inlet. There were two passes over the mountains for the Gold Rush miners – one starting in Skagway, and the other going up the next door valley and mountain pass, starting in Dyea. Originally Dyea was the favoured starting point, so it used to be a thriving Gold Rush town – But once the rail road got built out of Skagway, Dyea perished – literally. There is now nothing left. But it is the point from which the hike over the Chilkoot Trail now starts – This is a rugged 4-5 day hike following in the footsteps of the would-be miners. It is actually listed as the worlds longest museum, because many of the artefacts and belongings that the miners discarded in the rush across the mountains still litter the trail today, and people are asked to leave them all in place as a permanent outdoor museum. Anyway, I went over to the start of the trail, and went up it in the rain for about 15 minutes until it started to get really muddy and boggy, and turned back. Very interesting to see, though. And coming back on the dirt road to Skagway I saw a seal looking up at me from the inlet, and also found an incredible little (occupied) log cabin in the woods – I expected little Red Riding Hood to come out at any moment !!
Woke up the next morning and, unexpectedly, it wasn’t raining !! So packed up the tent and everything as quickly as I could before it started again, and just got it done in time. I went into town for breakfast,, and as I didn’t have to be at the ferry terminal until 3 pm I decided to do a self guied foot tour of the town, using a brochure they provide. Quite interesting, and took me about 3 hours because I took the opportunity to go into things like the Museum that were open today because a cruise ship was in ! Quite a long walk all over town too, so that was good as I needed the exercise. One interesting item was the scene of a shoot out that killed notorious scam artist and criminal Soapy Smith back in the late 1890's. He was shot in a duel, and a plaque marks the spot - and ironically it is right outside what is now the local Police Station !!
And when we got into Haines, if anything it was raining even
harder than when we left Skagway, so after a brief look at two RV sites which don’t
accept tents (the tent campground isn’t open yet, of course !!), I decided to
stay in a local motel, and find out what was available to do in the morning.
Pics of the time there are here :- https://picasaweb.google.com/117739775480775657932/SkagwayAndFerryToHaines?authkey=Gv1sRgCPzy9MqbmJLCNw#
If the streets are dry, they were taken on Thursday, the first day I was there, and if the streets are wet, they were taken on Friday or Saturday !!!
