April 27-30
Hi All,
We indeed made Skagway on Saturday, April 27 around noon….14nm, calm conditions, bright sunshine!!! We had been unable to get ahold of the Harbormaster since Friday so we just pulled into the small marina and started to look for a slip. Finally another boater came out and showed us the transient dock….we tied up, power plugged in (only 30amp power though) and passage beers opened by noon. The internet is much faster (4 bar LTE) here than in Haines so we did a few emails and then went for a walk around town. Ended up at the Red Onion for lunch….a pretty good pizza and some bordello/saloon history:))) Built in 1897, the Red Onion Saloon operated as one the finest bordellos in Skagway!!!! I especially liked the historic pictures on the wall:))))
http://www.alaska.org/detail/red-onion-saloon
Skagway, with a population of just over 1100 (maybe half overwinter), is located at the northernmost point of the Inside Passage in Southeast Alaska, 103 air miles north of Juneau and 110 road miles south of Whitehorse, Yukon. Haines has ~1300 permanent residents but Skagway grows to over 4,000 when the cruise ships arrive. Skagway gets 446 cruise ships in 2019, almost 1 million people, up to 4 ships a day, or on a big day, 12,600 people per day. Haines gets 111 cruise ships, 65k people for the season….whoa!!!
https://skagwayshoretours.com/did-you-know-skagway-fun-facts/
Klondike Gold Rush: I am personally fascinated by this gold rush era and Skagway is mainly about those times. I won’t go into detail about the history but a few good articles are listed below. Coming out of a depression/panic of 1893 people were desperate for a good living. Gold was discovered in 8/1896 and within 2 years >100,000 people tried to make the Klondike gold fields….30,000 succeeded…..only 4,000 found gold…..the haul was around $1 billion in today’s dollars!!! The bulk of the stampede arrived in Dawson the summer of 1898 only to find all the area had already been staked out……arghhhhh!! There were many routes to Dawson but the shortest and most popular were the White Pass out of Skagway and the Chilkoot out of Dyea, about 5 miles from Skagway, with the Golden Stairs (1/4 mile long, 1500 steps, 1000′ climb).
https://www.history.com/topics/westward-expansion/klondike-gold-rush
https://www.nps.gov/klgo/learn/goldrush.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klondike_Gold_Rush
Sunday: Wow….the sleepy town has awoken. We found a lot of activity as many storekeepers were scrambling to get their stores ready for the first cruise ship on Monday. And, we found the Klondike Gold Rush Museum open…..perfect!! We toured the museum then watched a half hour film on the Klondike Gold Rush….impressive. We then took a 2 mile walking tour around the town. Many historical buildings as well as gold rush stories. Then it was a lunch at the Skagway Brewing Co….halibut & chips and a pulled pork sandwich…and the beer was excellent!!
Monday: We took a private tour with Sherry Corrington….WOW, WOW, WOW…..highly recommend Sherry:
http://www.skagwayprivatetours.com/
https://skagwayprivatetours.rezdy.com/24658/6-hour-emerald-lake-tour
We had found Sherry in an internet search and could not have been happier. We wanted to go up the White Pass either via the Alaska highway or the White Pass railroad. We eventually discovered the railroad is now owned by Carnival Cruise Lines and caters almost exclusively to those passengers, although we could have bought tickets. We also wanted to experience dog mushing and Sherry knew Michelle Phillips who could arrange a private tour with the dogs. Sherry was born in Nome Alaska, her parents were school teachers and eventually all moved to Skagway and opened up Corrington Skagway Ivory shop. She is one of a very few local guides who was raised and now lives permanently in Skagway….what an informative and enthusiastic woman who loves this area, the people and the history!!
Our day started at 7:30am meeting Sherry at the top of the ramp. The first cruise ship of the season had also come in early am, the Princess Ruby (~2500 passengers)….whoa!! I think the first train went out around 9am!! And, Mr Weather awarded us with a perfect day….bright sunshine, blue sky, no clouds and no wind, which seems to be a rarity in this area. We had a beautiful drive up White Pass along Hwy 98 stopping many places for photos. We could see the railroad tracks carved into the sides of the mountains but never saw the train. We also saw many critters…..maybe 10-15 mountain goats and 3 Dall’s Sheep (a first for us), a huge female moose, porcupine and Trumpeter Swans in Carcross on Lake Bennett….wow!!!
The drive up White Pass on Hwy 98 was….well, breathtaking….besides the critter viewing, to actually see the trail the stampeder’s took made this most difficult trek become real. It is hard to imagine trying to transport/carry 1 ton of supplies over this terrain….for many to make 20-40 trips to carry it all….back and forth for maybe a month or so. It mainly had to be done in the frozen months to be able to use sleds, but then the winter conditions of freezing temps and winds up to 60mph took their toll. In the summer of 1897 many stampeders tried and used pack horses, only for 3,000 horses to die due the horrendous conditions and abuse…..it became known as the Dead Horse Trail.
Sherry has actually backpacked the other route….the preferred Chilkoot trail starting in Dyea. There is no longer a town there but many backpackers do the climb over several days…..Sherry, an avid outdoor person, said it’s as difficult as they say…..whoa!!!!
The summit is 3292′ on Hwy 98, around 2900′ on the railroad route. This was one of our first times into interior Alaska. We drove through three climate zones in the first 25 miles; temperate rain forest in Skagway, sub alpine forest at the summit and boreal forest in Yukon. The Boreal forest is amazing…..very dense forests in spots and then somewhat wide open tundra like plateaus with numerous lakes, small scrub trees/bushes, some grass and rocks. We also learned tree line is ~2500′ here…..wow….in Tahoe it is about 9,000′!!! The further north one travels, the lower the tree line gets. Interesting, and makes sense although we hadn’t connected the dots before!! Most of the lakes were still frozen…just now starting to thaw. At one lake we heard frozen-lake-speak…..yep, like glacier speak but much softer…faint, echoing, ghostly groans as the ice shifted….amazing and such a gift!!!!
http://w3.marietta.edu/~biol/biomes/boreal.htm
Our next stop was really exciting! The home and kennels of the Tagish Lake Kennel and Michelle Phillips!
http://www.tagishlakekennel.com/
Michelle and her husband have done many 1000 mile dog mushing races….Michelle finished 4th in the Yukon Quest and Ed finished 20th in the Iditarod as a rookie this year….I think Michelle said she has done 16, 1000 mile races…takes 10-12 days…..what endurance….wow!!! Michelle has around 60 sled dogs. All highly trained and very friendly/sociable. We spent about 2 hours getting to know the dogs, playing with 2 sets of 3-day and 2-week old puppies…..she breeds to replace the sled dogs and sells some, watching Michelle select 16 dogs for their training run, doing a 45 minute training run and then spent time just talking with Michelle. The Yukon is having a warm spring so there was very little snow on the ground. For training, she has the dogs pull a 4-wheel ATV. The dogs were amazing and so enthusiastic! When they realized a training run was about to happen, they must have all yelled/jumped…..the video best describes the dog-noise…..for attention to get Michelle to select them…..talk about born to run…wow. We learned that the best sled dogs are a mixed breed of various dogs…Siberian husky, greyhound, some Malamute mixed in, Labrador, and more….Well, a true Mutt which has come to be known as the “Alaskan Sled Dog” although it’s not a recognized breed!!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sled_dog
The training run was amazing….mainly 2-year old dogs that they are strongly considering to race next year in the Iditarod, although they have run a few dogs as old as 12 years old in races, a true testament to these dogs’ physical stamina and training…..Michelle kept the ATV in neutral for flat or downhill portions, sometimes using the brakes, and gave it a little gas on uphills. Each dog worked as hard as it could and appeared to be genuinely loving it. After about 10-15 min Michelle would stop and let the dogs cool down and catch their breath, as it was quite warm and the dogs were only beginning to blow their winter coats. I went up to each one, giving them “at-a-dogs”….only to be licked to death and was coated with many drools of saliva and fur…..who knew how hard these dogs worked!!! One dog actually worked too hard and an ever watchful Michelle took the dog out of the line and Kathy and I held her in the ATV for about 5 minutes until she cooled down and then she jumped off and ran with her pack…Born to Run indeed…..amazing!!!
Once back at home, the lead dogs, Dyea and Kale, were allowed to roam free for a job well done. Michelle then showed us the racing sleds….somewhat high tech now and smaller than we imagined. Depending on distance from check points in a race the sleds will weigh 200-400 pounds with the musher!! Probably feels light compared to the training runs pulling the ATV!!
In all, a great day and an experience of a lifetime!!! We were absolutely thrilled and humbled to be able to have this experience!
Tuesday: We did a small hike to Yakutania Point….lovely hike over the Skagway river and then looking down the Taku Inlet. Then a quick walk around town…..a bedding store, closed, a yarn store, closed, yep….no cruise ships in town…..finally a nice woman at the original Corrington Ivory Store let us come in for a look even though they were closed for the day. We wanted to see the ivory carvings Sherry had told us about….wow….walrus, whale, fossilized mammoth carvings, all done by Native carvers….and ODG….very pricey but gorgeous….I was lucky as nothing really struck Kathy’s fancy:)))) We finally made it to the IGA for some fresh food….ugh…..not much selection, although the supply ship had just come in, but things hadn’t made the shelves yet. :((((
The Plan: We are sadly leaving beautiful and historic Skagway tomorrow, Wednesday May 1. We will head south and anchor somewhere in the Lynn Canal….depends on wind direction which we will know better after tomorrow’s forecast. We have 2 weeks to travel ~300nm to Petersburg to join up with Mark & Roseanne on mv Koinonia and pick up our friends Craig & Jeanette!!
Hope all is well!
John
Mystic Moon
Skagway Alaska
PS: I was able to load 2 picture galleries…yea….188 pics on “Juneau, Lynn Canal and Haines” and 139 pics on “Skagway”…..enjoy!!! Lots of pictures so mix your favorite beverage, put on “North to Alaska” and enjoy!!
http://mysticmoonvoyages.com/photo-gallery/nggallery/main-album/Juneau,-Lynn-Canal-and-Haines
http://mysticmoonvoyages.com/photo-gallery/nggallery/main-album/Skagway-Alaska
PSS: And I was able to download 3 videos of the sled docks at Michele Phillips place:
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