Saturday July 26, 2014 Skagway, Alaska

Our little corner of the world

Outside the RV Park

We were up at 6:30 so we would have time to get ready and get down to the train station for our ride up to White Pass.  I had fixed coffee and we had time for a little of that before leaving to catch the train.  We didn’t tke our coffee with us.  It was hurry up and wait, so at the train station I bought a cup and we shared it.  

www.wpyr.com/

The train we rode

The train we rode was the White Pass and Yukon Railroad.  The engine was a GE diesel Electric, circa 1955 and the cars were either rebuilt from or replicas of the original cars that travelled the line.  Skagway is the gateway to the Klondike. 

I think I can, I think I can

The train roughly follows the Trail of ‘98 that gold rushers traveled up to cross White Pass to reach the Yukon river and travel another 600 miles to the gold fields.

The train traveled up a steep grade and across many bridges. There were times when we could look back and see the rest of the cars around the curves.  

Looking back

There were precipitous drop-offs and high cliffs.  Some times we were in the clouds and it rained off and on.

Along the way we could see remnants of the old trail and of a later toll road.  We also passed the Canadian border where the NWMP made sure each person had enough supplies to last a year.  That was about a ton of food.

We all got to see a mama Black Bear and her three cubs.

We didn't go on this one

We traveled 28 miles.  The Rail Road goes on to British Columbia and to Carcross in the Yukon Territory.  We went into BC but turned around before reaching the customs checkpoint.

Black bears

This kept our car warm

North West Mountain Police Station

The Canadian Border

Two Ton reciting Robert Service

The trip back was basically the same scenery in reverse.  All together the trip took about 4 hours.

After the train ride and a brief visit back to the coach we went to lunch at the Klondike Goldfields/Gold Rush Restaurant.  We had an all you could eat buffet featuring ribs, chicken, salmon fish and chips and baked salmon.

www.klondikegoldfields.com/

Following the show we were treated to a recital of some Robert Service poetry by one of the staff, whose Sourdough name was Two Ton.

The little engine that can't,  there was a cache here

The complex also offered a 40 below room, a gold dredge tour and gold panning.  We passed on those.  I took Gerri back to the coach.  I went geocaching and found 4.  I also DNFed 2  One of the caches was a virtual by the cruise ship dock.  The location was beyond the security check point.  The guards knew about the cache and one of them escorted me to the location.

Part of the cast promoting the show

The group activity for the evening was a show about the Trail of '98 featuring the story of a local character, Soapy Smith.  Soapy Smith owned a local saloon and gambling hall that was notorious for cheating and robbing miners.  Soapy was killed in a gunfight with a Vigilance Committee.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soapy_Smith

The cast taking a bow

On the way to the theater we saw the Johnsons parked near a cache that I couldn't find.  They had found it.  After the show I went back and this time found the cache.  I couldn't believe I missed it the first time.  The Johnsons accompanied me to the second cache I hadn't found.  After some searching we came up with it.  This brought my total up to 6 caches found in Skagway.







Back at the coach we had fair internet service so I caught up on logging my caches and finishing blogs. We were in bed at 11.  Tomorrow we go back into Canada and stay at an RV Park we stayed at on the first part of the trip.  It will be a 160 mile drive, estimated to take 6 hours.