To drive from Haines to Skagway is 350 beautiful miles, equivalent to a very long day of driving over roads we’ve already seen. OR we could take the Alaska Marine Ferry for only a little more than a tank of diesel and a few hours. (The ride was an hour but we had to arrive at the ferry terminal 2 hours early for staging.) We opted for the ferry. Backing the camper and trailer onto the boat was quite a task, but Mark and the deckhand were up to the challenge. The boat was the cleanest and nicest ferry we’ve ever been on. Molly was required to stay in the vehicle and all people were not allowed on the vehicle deck while the boat was moving. It was a pleasant voyage through the channel, surrounded by canyon walls and a few waterfalls. We knew we were getting close to Skagway when we could see the cruise ships docked in the bay. Our honeymoon cruise stopped in Skagway and it was the only port of call we would visit on this trip, so that made it a special stop for us. It’s also the most touristy city we have been to, with the best souvenir shopping by far. Saturdays and Sundays are the lightest days with only 2-3 cruise ships in port. Tuesdays and Wednesdays both bring over 10,000 visitors to flood this small city. Thankfully we arrived on Saturday so got to enjoy this place at our leisure without all the crowds. In fact, it didn’t take long to learn that the shops’ hours are determined by the cruise ship dock times. On Saturday night, we went to dinner and thought we’d walk around the shops after our meal. No! This town shut down right around dinner time because cruise ship passengers get back to the ship for their dinner and don’t come back so every shop closes early. Because Sat and Sun are lighter, some of the restaurants and shops don’t even open on the weekends. Now dinner, that was the best meal we’ve had in almost 3 months of traveling, and it was completely unexpected. I’ll get back to that…
Our campground was some 8 or so blocks from downtown so we were able to walk everywhere. Once we set up camp, we knew Molly needed a break from being inside after a few days of rain in Haines. Without a clear destination, we started walking. As we got out of town (Skagway only has 1,000 residents so it didn’t take long to get out of town), we saw a road sign arrow to the Gold Rush Cemetary. It rang a vague memory bell. I told Mark let’s walk there, I think we were there 20 years ago… That’s about when the light rain started. The railroad is a very big tourist gig here so it was fun to cross the tracks and have a trail whistle hello to us as the passengers waved from the train. Soapy Smith, a Gold Rush “Bad Boy” con artist is buried here. In 1898, he ran the only telegram service around. Stampeders would come to his shop to send messages home of their gold rush success. After months being gone, families would respond their congratulations as well as urgent needs of the funds being sent home right away due to emergencies. The truth was, good ol Soapy’s telegram cables went into the ground but never came back out. He used the telegram “service” to find out which prospectors had gold and then keep the gold the men thought they were sending home. Brilliant – I mean horrible! He was careful to be good to the local townspeople to gain their trust by investing in the town and focused on ripping off only the nonresidents. He died in a gun fight, arguably deserved. Just behind the cemetery was a trail to a waterfall. We didn’t bring the album of our honeymoon (taken with 35mm film pictures that had to be printed) but I am absolutely positive that we stood at this waterfall 20 years ago. There was also a large gold painted boulder with a chain that Mark has posed at. Back then, it was painted “largest nugget in the world”, today it is just gold with a tomb in front. I will be eager to check out my scrapbook when we get home. We have had Molly for 8 years and our little family would not be complete without her so it was fun to include her on this trip down memory lane. Rain or shine, this was a great way to stretch our legs and our minds. There’s no way we honeymooners could have guessed the direction and path our lives have taken over 20 years. There’s no way to even imagine what’ll happen in the next 20 years.
Satiated at heart, tired of leg, it was time to fill our bellies. We dropped Molly off at the camper and walked a mile past town to the Skagway Fish Company, the closest restaurant to the cruise ship port. Mark ordered a 16 oz ribeye and I ordered the red king crab legs and we agreed to share them both. O.M.G. The food was off the charts! The ribeye was so tender, juicy, and the seasoning was just (blows kiss) perfection. The crab legs were phenomenal. Get this, Mark even ate all his vegetables and said they were delicious! Mashed potatoes, mmmmm. Sure, it was pricey, but by far the best meal we enjoyed anywhere! I went home and immediately did a well deserved Trip Advisor review.
A good number of my intended hikes on this trip have been cancelled or shortened, due to a variety of reasons. I had my heart set on hiking the Chilkoot Trail, the same path the stampeders took during the Klondike Gold Rush. It was a 9 mile drive to the trailhead but we had left the camper connected to the truck when we pulled into the campground so we couldn’t really drive anywhere. There was a shuttle to the trailhead – that was $30 per person. But there was rain in the forecast so we weren’t motivated to commit to a miserable hike and pay $60 for the pleasure. I chose a shorter, closer trail we could walk to from town. Described by our campground host as the “quintessential Skagway hike”, we hiked the Lower Lake Loop of the Dewey Trail System. Many of these hikes have reminded us with WA state, complete with ferns and moss on the forest floor and tall trees for canopy. Somehow the rain held off (mostly) and we finished with a lovely overlook of the harbor and 5.5 miles under our boots. Molly, low to the ground little white haired hiker Molly, was filthy. And happy.
We towel dried Molly and left her in the camper while we headed back to town. For lunch and SHOPPING! He didn’t know it, but this is the town Mark’s been waiting for. There were a few items we were looking for, but we spent a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon walking into every single shop in this town. And somehow, ended up back at the same restaurant for dinner that we raved about last night. He ordered the special of ribeye with giant BBQ prawns while I had the crab stuffed halibut. Another fantastic meal! Luckily we don’t anticipate many restaurants in the next week so we delved into this splurge with relish (not the pickle variety.)
The forecast for Monday morning was 90% chance of rain. We had quite a few camper chores to do (fill propane, tank duty, diesel fill, grocery store, bank currency exchange, post office, etc). After all that, it still wasn’t raining. Hey Mark, let’s drive over to Dyea (pronounced Die-EEE) and hike the Chilkoot Trail! Let me set the scene for you. It’s 1897and gold has been discovered in the Klondike. There are 3 routes to get there and the most direct is the Chilkoot Trail, starting at Dyea. 100,000 hopeful, determined men arrived to strike it rich. Canada required stampeders to carry 1,000 pounds of food as well as their supplies so that no one would starve over the winter. No one can carry or even sled that kind of weight on a trail! They would divide the supply into 60-80 pound loads and shuttle back and forth across the trail, taking 30-40 trips per section. The Chilkoot Trail is only 33 miles, but starts at Saintly Hill, which was challenging enough for us with a day pack and one bottle of water, and leads over White Pass to Bennett where the Yukon River could carry them into Dawson City and their fortunes. We hiked 3 miles in, along a beautiful and easily recognizable trail, groomed with hewn rocks. They hiked through snow weighted down with packs, only to pass again and again on the same sections to get all their required and necessary gear and food to the next segment. We did a short video and you can clearly hear me huffing and puffing as I tell their tale on Facebook, with no pack, on a pleasant day in perfect weather. (It never did rain today. 90% chance. Whatever, just like home.) Only 30,000 men made it all the way to Dawson City, after an expensive journey that took at least a year, only to find that all the land had already been claimed and there was no gold left to be found. Their choices were to turn back, or find work along the way (building the railroad, working an existing claim as an employee, etc). A fascinating topic that kept our minds busy today as our bodies enjoyed another one-of-a-kind town that helped put Alaska on the map for Americans.
