Day 5 Skagway

On day 5 we docked in Skagway, Alaska at 7am. Our excursion for the day was to take the White Pass & Yukon Railroad from it origin at Skagway to its first stop at the crossing of the east fork of the Skagway river, near the Denver Glacier Trail.

We then set off with our three guides into the woods along the Skagway River We hiked at a very leasurely pace for about two hours while Whitey our main guide gave us wonderful descriptions of the local plants, geography and hiking opportunities in the area. We even tasted many of the local plants. Trusting of course that Whitey really knew his stuff. Which I believe he does.

the tour guides,Along the trail we got to talking about the medical situation in Skagway turns out they have no doctor and no vet. They travel 110 miles to Whitehorse in the Yokon Territory for both. Most of particularly for the rigerous hiking and climbing in the area are EMT's so they have lots of emergency help. Somewhere in the conversation I mentioned Barbara and Canon City, Colorado. Whitey says he used to live in Canon City and did tours for the White Water Rafting Company about 10-12 years ago. I unfortunately did not get his real name (He is the guide on the far left in this picture). They call him Whitey since he apparently wears shorts just once or twice a year and his true skin color is quite shocking.

We also discussed the schooling situation in Skagway since of the 3000 residents only 700 stay during the winter. Whitey explained that the one school is Preschool to 12th grade but that many of the people in two do not work in the winter so they volunteer at the school. He himself helped out with the wrestling team. They don't have any team sports since they rarely have more than 5-8 kids in a single age group. The graduating class this year was 6, 4 boys and 2 girls (making for a bit of an awkward prom).

In all to short a time the hike ended where it started as we boarded the train for the return trip to town. As is good ediquite for all guides, the last directions we were given was to the best lunch in all of Skagway. The Skagway Brewing Co. , and if they have it Spruce Tip Pale Ale. It is to Skagway what warm donuts at Krispy Kreme are to most towns. Sadly I cannot attest to its glory as they were out and not brewing more for a few days.

Dorothy and I did have wonderful lunch and brews with them. Then we shopped the non-tourist shops in Skagway. The Adventure store, Quilt Shop and of course the Bakery where I decided that Teddy and I will always have a future in Alaska since we can make much better cookies by a long shot. This picture of town is looking down the main street to the port with our ship at the end, looking like a big parked RV which is really what it is. The gap between the two peaks contains a glacier that is headed straight for town but probably won't get there for 2-3 hundred years or more.

Next we headed south leaving Alaska on day six for Prince Rupert, Canada

Day 4 Juneau

On the fourth day of our voyage we got to Juneau in the morning at 7am. We quickly got into town and did some exploring before our 9am Helicopter flight to Taku Glacier. It was raining harder today then in Ketchikan. We liked the city of about 14,000 it was very clean and well put together.

Our excursion this day was to fly by Helicopter to the top of Taku Glacier where we would put down and walk out onto the Glacier and explore some of its wonders up close. I was quite surprised that Dorothy did not balk at this from the very start. She does not like flying at all, and 7 people in a small helicopter was really pushing it. The tour people were very good about getting you in and up very quickly eliminating the time to think about it. The flight to the glacier was about an hour and we passed over several other glaciers en route. We passed this leading edge of one of the glaciers that the pilot informed us that the glacier had calved during the night reveling the crushed packed ice that makes up the glacier. The color of this ice is unbelievable. It is so blue you cannot imagine. Note that in the photo above the green area in front of the glacier is a forest of trees so the face is about 50-100 feet in height.

When we returned to Juneau (the video attached) we spend that rest of the visit checking out the shops, and doing a little shopping. I felt I owed Dorothy at least this for dealing with the helicopter which she will tell you was wonderful, but terrifying. When we left that afternoon we proceeded up a fjord to an active glacier that was calving so heavily it filled the fjord with ice. We saw whales on this part of the voyage and seals on the icebergs. I really enjoyed seeing icebergs which are beautiful and scary.

The good news was as the day passed the rain let up and by the early evening while cold and cloudy it was not raining any more.

Alaska Cruise Day 1-3

On July 5th Dorothy and I left from San Jose for a short flight to Seattle, WA. We left the airport about 9am and by 2pm we were on the boat and enjoying the view of Seattle harbor. Our cabin was a balcony cabin directly on the back of the boat. This was a little noisy when the door was open (over the engines) but when the captain tells you about a landmark on the port or starboard side we always got to see it sooner or later.

Thanks to my friend Matt we jumped on the dinner reservations and then settled into our cabin to watch the departure from the lounge chairs. The weather was marginal looking like it would rain any minute. We finally settled into the Bier Garden at the top of the ship for some beers and get used to watching the boat sail. By Day 3 we reached Ketchikan, the first stop on our Alaska tours. We got a few minutes to wander town and then caught another boat much smaller to the Misty Fjords. It rained off and on during the sail out to the Fjords but stopped when we got there.

We were hoping for more animals (eagles and bears) along the way but no luck. The service on the Misty Fjord board was outstanding. They had a native Alaskan on board telling about the various Indian tribes in the area, the younger girls explained some the differences growing up in Ketchikan and it was great.

When we returned from our four hour journey we got about 3 hours to wander Ketchikan which is not a very big town but seemed to me to be kind of an old frontier town. Creek street is a cute shopping area that apparently will be full of spawning salmon in another month or two. When we departed Ketchikan we headed to Juneau but that is the next entry.

4th of July 2008

Edward insisted on us attending the "Worlds Shortest Parade" today in Aptos. Since Edward takes mostly pictures of the cars and the floats are terrible. I decided to make the blog entry for the Dogs of the Parade. The little guy to the left wins for best picture. While the big guy below wins for best big dog. Which you all know I am partial to. See the full set of pictures at right.