Skagway Pictures

Skagway AK

Yesterday we had a full day of activity here in Skagway. We started off by going to a film and lecture at the National Park office. They talked about the Chilcoot trail that the "stampeders" had to climb to get to the gold fields. Most of them got dropped at Skagway and still had to make it another 500 miles to Dawson Creek.. Thats like landing in San Diego and having to walk to San Francisco in steep mountains, snow up to 20 feet deep, and carrying 2 tons of food and supplies (a years worth of supplies)with temperatures at times 40 degrees below zero. The RCMP (mounties) stipulated that the prospectors had to have a years supply of food so they wouldn't all get to Dwson City and starve. The sad part was that when the majority got to Dawson City they found that all the gold bearing lands had been claimed and many full scale mines were already established. After all they had endured to get there many spent a few days at most and then went home.
Atnoon at the RV park the staff put on a little play about how "Soapy Smith" was gunned down by Frank Reid of the Vigilance Committee. Soapy Smith was the local outlaw running all the scams to cheat the few successful miners out of their gold.
In the afternoon we took a driving tour of Skagway, went to the foot of the Chilcoot Trail, visited the old graveyard, and a waterfall. Last night we went to a play "The Days of '98 Show" at the local Eagles hall.
It lasted until about 9:00. When we left the hall, which is in the middle of town, it was really spooky. It was still light and the sun was still shining on some mountain tips. The street was absolutely deserted. During the day there were thousands of people roaming the streets. Every day during the summer there are three or four cruise ships docked in Skagway with up to 5000 people each. The ships dock in the morning between 5 and 7 AM. At 8 or 9 PM they and all their passengers depart leaving the town deserted until the next day.
Today and tomorrow are free days with no scheduled activities.

Teslin to Skagway

Yesterday we drove from Teslin Youkon to Skagway Alaska. The road has only existed since 1978. Prior to that travel to Skagway was by train or ship. Skagway is the 16th busiest tourist port in the world. When we arrived there were three cruise ships in port which equals 15,000 people in a town with a permanent population of 900.
The drive into Skagway comes down 3400 feet in 10 or 11 miles. That's a pretty steep (7% IN PLACES)grade. I had to watch it all the way down and keep the speed to 35 to 40 mph. About half way dow I started smelling brakes. I didn't know if they were my brakes or someone elses. About half way down they had the US Customs station. That stop allowed everyones brakes to cool off some. When we got to Skagway and the RV park it turned out that everyones brakes were hot and smelling. Going back up the grade on Saturday, Pat will drive the pickup and we will meet at the top of the grade and hook up.
It rained most of the night last night and it continues to rain this morning. We have a full day of activities today. Tomorrow and Friday are free days.
The pictures are, mountains, getting ice cream in Carcross, mountains on the way to Skagway.

Watson Lake to Telsin

Yesterdays drive was pretty quick and easy. It was the same mileage as Sunday but the road was a wide two lane, well maintained road. Along the way we spotted a moose and a sow grizzly bear. Spike said she might have cubs but we didn't spot them. At Teslin there was a small gift shop/museum that was interesting it has examples of many of the local animals, bears, beavers, wolves, fish, etc.
Today we drive to Skagway where we will spend 4 days. We have lots of activities planned and a couple of free days as well.

Dease Lake to Watson Lake Youkon

Yesterday we drove from Dease Lake to Watson Lake. We left around 10:00AM. We stopped at Jade City where they mine jade and ship all over the world (see picture). The scenery ranged from ordinary to beautiful. We saw one bear. In Watson Lake we saw the sign forest where people from all over the world have posted signs. Originally a soldier during WW2 posted a sign with the distance to his home town. Since then it has grown to an acre at least of signs. At 9:15 PM the sun was still 10 or 15 degrees above the horizon. We are gaining up to 30 minutes of daylight per day. The last picture is Watson Lake at 9:15PM.
We had our worst roads of the trip so far. The road was pretty narrow in some spots. The worst was a five mile section of washboard gravel just before Watson Lake. Watson Lake is above the 60th parallel only 30 degrees below the North Pole.

Hyder to Dease Lake BC

Today we left Hyder for Dease Lake, about 245 miles. I filled with gas in Stewart (near Hyder) and Calculated I got 8.4 MPG. Probably because we drove 50 and 55 all the way and the last 40 miles was down hill. We all (all 20 rigs) left at our own pace and met at Bell II (Bell two) about 100 miles up the road. three of the vehicles were searched reentering Canada at Stewart (really ridiculous since we had only gone about a mile into Alaska) Fortunately we weren't among the lucky ones that got searched. We saw about three bears and one moose on the way to Bell II but for some reason didn't see anything the rest of the day. Traffic is pretty light going south maybe 6 or 7 vehicles an hour. Last night in Hyder we had a halibut dinner paid for by the Tour.

To Hyder Alaska

We finally got going on the guided part of the tour yesterday. We drove 160 miles from Hazelton to Hyder. Lots of beautiful scenery, a glacier and a few bear sightings. We are in Hyder Alaska today. It is just a mile or so across the border from Canada. There is no, zero, zilch cell phone service here. Both the RV park and our fearless leader Spike have sattelite systems to provide internet access. I'm currently using the RV park access because I've had trouble on Spikes Sattelite service.
I'm trying to upload pictures but it has taken 10 minutes so far and they are still uploading (three pictures). Spike has a photo site for the tour at www.AlaskaRvTour.com.