Masters of RVing Adventures

Cruise ships take over our camping adventure! Skagway loves their cruise ship tourists. During our four days, Skagway harbor had three to four cruise ships per day. The streets and excursions were packed. Most tour operators just assumed we also were cruise passengers, hustling us along with the tour groups!!

Sit back and relax. This is going to be a long post with past and present tense language, as I catch you up on our days.

Skagway

We left Whitehorse to drive into Skagway for our last Alaskan town and National Park stamps on our Grand Alaskan adventure! We stayed four nights in the municipal park campground. Upon arrival, we learned the city had already cut off the water and sewer, providing us with only electric. The bathhouse and laundry were still available to us; however, on our second day, another camper overloaded the dryer and caused a fire. Our little campground had lots of attention that day! The campground was located about 8 blocks from the center of all the hustle and bustle of the touristy shops, so we easily walked back and forth each day. The mornings were packed with all the cruise folks getting to their tours, but by early evening the streets were deserted. We did learn that they have a hard time recruiting enough help during the season and that a shortage of housing is a big issue. So much so that the town is turning the RV park into tiny house living for residents and seasonal workers. The town owns a second RV park right by the marina, but the sites were too small for our size rigs.

I’ve captured a few shots of things around town, as well as a few photos of our group enjoying a pork chop group dinner

White Pass & Yukon Train Ride

We all booked a scenic and informative train ride up over the White Pass Summit to learn about the building of the railroad to accommodate the gold-rush crazed folks arriving in Skagway by ship heading into the Klondike seeking their fortunes. While riding the train, we saw part of the torturous 600-mile foot trail, called the White Pass Trail or Trial of ’98, that killed many inexperienced stampeders and over 3000 pack horses. Because of the tight curves, the White Pass called for a narrow-gauge railroad and rises almost 3,000 feet in the first 20 miles with steep grades of almost 4%. (As a comparison, we drove the road up out of Skagway at 11% grades.)

The photo grouping is not in the order in which we passed them on the train ride, but I’ll try to identify each, beginning from top left: Row 1 = boarding the train at the train station in Skagway; part of the 6000 feet of cascading glacial waters of Bridal Veil Falls Row 2 = top left photo is known as Black Horse Rock, memorializing the August 3, 1898 blasting accident that buried two railroad workers under a 500-ton granite rock; bottom photo is part of the Trail of ’98; large right photo is the train entering Tunnel Mountain at 1000 feet above the gulch of Glacier Gorge Row 3 = rounding a bend; Flags fly in front of the cabin used during the gold-rush years by Mounted Canadian Police as the checked stampeders to ensure they had the ton of supplies required for one year as they headed north; part of our group looking at the scenery as we ride the train Row 4 = Reaching the Summit at 2,888 ft; it became very foggy on our return trip where we passed the Steel Bridge constructed in 1901 and used until 1969, during which it was the tallest cantilever bridge in the world

Gold Rush Cemetery

Liarsville Gold Rush Trail Camp & Salmon Bake

We went to our best Salmon Bake yet! (No lying!) This event is what I originally was expecting when I thought of the term ”salmon bake,” – an outdoor event with salmon grilling over an open fire and lots of great sides! This location also had a re-creation of a goldminers camp, complete with ‘characters’ of the camp who put on a show for us, along with ramshackle buildings, a panning for gold station and out houses!

The Days of ’98 Show

Dyea

This was a thriving town of almost 10,000 people during the early days of the Goldrush before the railroad was built. Stampeders either got off in Dyea to begin the shorter but steeper Chilkoot Trail or went on to Skagway to pick up the White Pass Trail. The town died almost overnight as soon as the railroad was built. Today, just a few remnants indicate where the booming town once was, but many people still venture on hiking parts of the trail. The National Park Service only allows experienced hikers on some of the more treacherous parts.

Haines

Mike, Liz and I decided to take the Fast Ferry over to Haines and explore one day. We went to the American Bald Eagle Foundation Museum, where we saw several Bald Eagles that had been rehabilitated from injury and a Siberian Eagle Owl that recently hatched at the beginning of summer. I highly recommend visiting the museum side of the center because of the extensive taxidermy exhibit of most of the animals found in Alaska. They display them in a very engaging and informative way.

Border Crossings

Crossing the border again going into Alaska, almost in Skagway, was the first time we’ve been stopped and searched the entire trip. The Agricultural Agent was looking for raw meats and vegetables. We passed, but one couple in our group had chicken, eggs, tomatoes and other vegetables taken.

Left photo is crossing from Canada into Alaska and right photo is crossing from Alaska into Canada. We then had a black bear mosey out in front of us!

Devastating Blow

We left Skagway in drizzling rain and fog to climb the steep grades and cover the rough roads to our overnight stop back in Teslin, at the same Yukon Motel & Lakeshore RV Resort where we stopped on the way up to Alaska. Due to working most of the morning, Mark and I were the fourth rig of our group to pull out. We came up Hwy 2 (Klondike Hwy) and then turned right onto Hwy 1 (AlCan or Alaska Hwy) to get to Teslin. About 15 – 20 miles before Mark and I were to turn on the AlCan, we get a distress message from one of the couples in front of us with the following message and pictures:

“We are at the first rest area on the AlCan and we have a major problem”

Mark and I get to them and realize there is no fixing anything where they pulled off and the best thing to do is get them safe enough to drive to the campground. Sally is almost in tears at the predicament (this is the same couple that had the underbelly of their rig fall out earlier). After reassuring them that the most important thing is that they were not hurt and that we can figure it out, we message the two rigs behind us to look for Bill’s tire, hub cap, or any additional parts they may spot on the way. Rhonda & Jeff and Liz & Mike catch up to us to offer any additional help, finding nothing along the way. We use a rachet strap to pull up the axle enough to keep it from dragging.

We message ahead for the other group members already at the campsite to begin using the internet to find necessary parts and possible service centers. Jeff & Rhonda agree to follow behind Bill & Sally as they limp along at 35 mph to the campground. About two hours later they arrive and we all pow-wow on what to do. It is Thursday (9/12) late afternoon. There is a difference of opinion on what should be done, but ultimately the leader of the group, Scott and his wife, Carolyn, decide to stay behind with Bill & Sally, and the remaining four rigs are to continue on Friday morning (9/13) due to future deadlines by several of us.

Friday the 13th was good to all. The four rigs made it to Dease Lake, the next stop on our journey with no problems (though the Cassiar Hwy is as rough as the AlCan!). The necessary parts have been located in Oklahoma and are being prepared to ship. The group decided to avoid Canadian customs and ship everything into Skagway. Bill & Scott will make a 7-hour round trip to retrieve them once they arrive. The bad news is they will not ship until Monday (9/16) and will not get an estimated arrival date until late Monday or Tuesday afternoon, so the two rigs left behind are looking at a best possible date of getting back on the road by 9/20 or 9/21.

Optimistically, they may catch up to us in Omak, WA; but we all said our goodbyes, just in case. We agreed to keep in contact as we travel onward, and they track the freight.

As you can see from the above map, we are heading today to Stewart, BC. We still have over 1200 miles to cover before we get to the Washington border.

A look at the fall colors as Jack & Cheeto motor along…