2004/07 Yukon trip - Trek to the Arctic - |
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Monday 26th July
Although we were at the seaside, it didn’t seem like it, as there wasn’t the usual seaside smell. This morning was low tide and the mud zone was covered with plants, knee high. I think the river puts so much water into the estuary here that there’s no salt in the bay at all. We do have the tides though and this morning the tide had left large dead fish and this gave us a good show of eagles contending for the corpses. We stopped on the narrow road to watch them, and then everyone else stopped to see what we were watching so we created our own traffic jam.
We went into town (Skagway) to book up for a trip on the evening train and then headed back up towards White 
Pass to watch the noon-time train climbing up towards the pass. We ended up seeing four trains. The White Pass and Yukon Railroad is now a very busy line, mainly serving tourists and hikers. It was built originally in 1899 or so to get the Klondike Stampeders from Skagway over to Whitehorse, from where they could float down the Yukon River to the Klondike. The diesel locomotives they use today are relatively modern, but the passenger cars date back to the days of the Klondike.
We were on the evening train as it grumbled its way up the pass, climbing 3000 ft in only 20 miles. The railroad occupies the opposite bank of the Skagway River canyon from the highway, and it includes a number of bridges and tunnels. The train was only about half-full so everyone could sit on the west side of the train and see the view instead of just looking at the canyon wall. As well as the mountains and waterfalls, we could see the original trail that the stampeders used before the railroad was built, and a toll road that operated for a while. It took only just over two years to build this railroad. Amazing what can be done when there’s gold and money involved. The train stopped at the White Pass Summit, which is the Canadian border, and then we all got up and reversed our seats for the trip down. I wanted to take pictures without looking through the windows, so I rode down on the outside platform between the cars, just like you see in the Westerns. A great opportunity as it’s not something you could ever do on a British train, though it was a bit draughty! Then we were headed back for our last night on Dyea Flats.
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White Pass (5.29) |  |
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Tuesday 27th July
I took an early run around the flats, up the Dyea and Chilkoot Rivers, and a short way along the Chilkoot Trail. I met hikers, horseriders, bicyclists, rafters, and kayakers, all in organized groups. The whole town is a machine serving the cruise ships. The passengers choose some activity for their day in Skagway, and when the boat docks, they are whisked by buses off to the activity, where they do their thing, and are then whisked back to the boat. We’ve even seen as many as a dozen jeeps in a convoy, taking passengers up the White Pass road for some off-road driving.
It was windy again by mid-morning. Skagway is a Tlingit word and it means “windy place”, and I guess they were right. We stopped at the Skagway library to use their Internet connection, and found that Northwest Airlines had a special price on flights to England in November, so we booked our flights. We’ll be arriving in England on Wednesday November 3rd and leaving on Tuesday November 16th. The details have still to be worked out, but we’ll probably rent a camper like we did back in ’99.
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