Sunday August 20 – Skagway (home of the gold rush)

We pulled into Skagway early morning, to see low cloud over the mountain. It had been raining overnight. It is still cold, about 10°.

barge is the main way to get goods into town

the train coming in for our excursions

 The rock face next to the dock was painted with ship’s names and personnel, some dating back a great any years. A form of visitor’s book!

Today we went up the White Pass and Yukon Railway, to White Pass Summit and back. Lesley had seen a TV program on extreme railways, and this was one of them – when and how it had been built and why, so it was a thrill to actually be on it. The construction of the line and bridges was a marvel, considering it was done in 1898 for the Klondike Gold Rush.  This is another iconic rail journey now, and the scenery is great. Low cloud prevented us seeing too much at the top, but on the way down we still saw the sister train (that left half an hour after us) go over the high trestle bridge (as they had seen us go over it on our way up).

the path taken by the miners hopeful if striking it rich during the Klondike gold rush

engine swapping to the other end for return journey

passing the sister train

old steam engine, still in service

old trestle bridge, no longer in service

caboose-come-camper for hikers

grave site of two miners and their mule who were crushed to death by the very boulder still partly showing - now a monument to them and all other miners who died in their quest for riches

we are going on that trestle bridge!

sister train coming up

sister train on the trestle bridge

We returned to ship for lunch and drop off our bags, then waked into town. This is the quaintest small town ever! The buildings are as they were in the late 1800s/early 1900s and there are wooden sidewalks. What astounded us was that every second shop was a jewellery shop, and half of the remaining shops were souvenir shops of varying sorts. Guess what their major industry is now? Cruise ships, of course! We had left our water-proof jackets and umbrellas back in the cabin, so of course it had to start raining. Not too heavily so we were only damp, rather than soaked! We spent some time in a couple of little museums and bought some more items from the shops. Stuart still has a bit of a cough so got some lozenges.

the local brothel back in the day

advertising high on a cliff overlooking the town

rail snow plough

cloud cleared sufficiently to see the hanging  glacier in nearby mountain

A creek was FULL of salmon trying to get higher to spawn. Those which didn’t make the distance caused a bit of a stench.

Back on ship again we joined a few others to form a team at trivia (broke the 10 by getting 11/20!). We aren’t very good. Straight after that we attended a talk by a breeder ad racer of huskies, and watch people line up for photos with two very cute husky puppies. After dinner we went to a show by Zach Winningham, an American singer/musician. This was very enjoyable – he’s good!