SKAGWAY

Skagway

I think we mentioned that we would be leaving Haines on the 10 pm ferry, September 4^th. With no glitches, we made the ferry, it cost $138 for the two of us and Gertie. I think she enjoyed the rest and it cost about $100 less than it would have cost for gas to make the trip from Haines back around to Skagway. Ferries at night are really different. We had been waiting a half hour or so, thinking we would never get underway when Gary finally went to check things out and discovered we were moving. You just couldn’t feel it. Until we got where we could see the lights of Skagway you had no sensation of movement.

We found a parking space and settled down for the night. It wasn’t nearly as cold as the other places we had been. The next morning we decided to go out to breakfast…a mistake! I guess there are normally 2 restaurants that serve breakfast but on this particular morning there was only one. We had hoped to have sourdough pancakes, we had seen them advertised in lots of places. Whoops, we waited too long. This place didn’t have them so we settled for buttermilk pancakes and an omelet.

The Park Service has purchased several buildings in Skagway to provide a National Park. They had a movie about the early days and provided guided tours. One of the buildings was a museum, showing the amount of supplies that were required by the Mounties to cross the pass, and one was a saloon that had been restored. The restoration of the saloon was done without any pictures, just using period materials, things found within the building and descriptions from people that had been around during that era. They found wallpaper within the structure and were able to identify it, even found the manufacturer still had the plates and were able to copy it exactly. The bar & bar-back was found and been brought in from Kansas. After the restoration was completed someone came across an early photo and they had really done a great job. There weren’t any differences that we could see between the picture and the restoration.

The log cabin was the original one, built by Captain Moore and had been his home. He had homesteaded the area, predicting there would be a gold strike and had built the first trail. Because of the numbers of people coming through Skagway, then onto the trail and because of the weather that year, it didn’t hold up. People came into the area and started building on Moore’s property. He told the people that the property they were building on was his, but they built anyway. A pretty shrewd guy, he was the one they had to buy their lumber from! Shrewd, because later, he got compensation of ¼ of the appraised value of every building in town!

He later built along the side of the log cabin. That home was furnished as it would have been at that time. The most interesting piece of furniture was this table. The legs were made of horns. At some later date the cabin was moved over a little to better display the original cabin.

Another building still in town is where “Soapy” Smith. The ranger was pretty good at telling stories about him even though the building was nothing to brag about. He was real sleazy guy. He was killed in a gunfight with one of the town’s citizens by the name of Reid. They both fired at the same time, and Soapy was killed outright, Reid died a week or so later. The town was so proud of Reid, that they put on his tombstone: “Gave His Life For The Honor of the Town”. At the cemetery is another tombstone put up in honor of a Lady of the Night: “She Gave Her Honor For The Life Of The Town”

The lady with the horses & buggy were all around town. I assume she was doing rides but we never saw anyone riding. Maybe she was the Madam, they had tours of the brothel. The three story building was called to our attention on the National Park tour. It appears to be 3 story but in fact is only 2. They did that to make their businesses show up. When people came in and asked for the 3^rd floor corner room they would just tell them that room was already rented but the 2^nd floor had a room available. I guess their guests never saw if from the angle we did.

The Skagway Visitor’s Center is in the Arctic Brotherhood Hall It’s façade has almost 8,833 pieces of driftwood sticks in a mosaic pattern with the Brotherhoods A B symbols and letters, a gold pan with nuggets.

The town is absolutely full of jewelry stores. It seemed like about every block had 2 or 3. One of the interesting points was the sign, painted on the side of the mountain above the town. It was for a Curio/jewelry store. The sign was much more impressive than the store itself. The sun did come out while we were there, it was a very pleasant visit. Here is where we spent the 2^nd night in the edge of Skagway. From there we walked up along the railroad tracks to the cemetery. As we were headed there we got this picture of the train. We also saw this machine and the operator was taking a break. We stopped to talk to him a bit. You have probably all seen shredders. Well, this one was the daddy of all shredders. It belonged to the railroad and they had this big pile of stuff to be shredded, including railroad ties. He said it would take a week or two to finish that entire pile. I was curious about the metal that is always involved with shredding a pile like that and whether the railroad spikes had to be removed. He said it doesn’t even phase it and showed us some of the stuff it had spit out.

The next morning was again a pretty day and we started to drive to Dyea, we wanted to see the famous Chilkoot Pass that the men had to tote a ton (literally) of stuff up the steep mountainside. They had to make many trips toting their belongings up that mountain. As we drove out of Skagway toward the ghost town, there was a beautiful overlook, it looked down on the airport as well as the Skagway. We even saw a helicopter, it looked like he was going to land on the water, maybe they were seeing whales, just don’t know, that is a guess. When we stopped at the overlook there was a pickup stopped, headed back toward Skagway. We asked about the road to Dyea, about whether you could see the pass, etc. They said you just see where the trail goes into the woods, and that the road was not very good. We decided we had seen enough, we were still having problems with our coughs so didn’t want to try to do a vigorous hike. So we headed out of town, toward Carcross. The picture with the waterfall was along the road just outside Skagway. If you enlarge it you will notice a pipe to the right of the falls. That is the inlet for the hydro electric system that powers all of Skagway. We also thought you would enjoy the bridge. It is totally supported from the one side and was also built entirely from that side.

After we passed the border we started having some problems with Gertie. It seemed to be fuel starved. After limping along for a while we remembered we had a new fuel pump tucked away. We found a place along our route where we could get off the road far enough to work on it. After several hours we finally read the directions and got it on. Gary couldn’t get gas to flow with the new pump and we finally gave up. Gary had to hitchhike back to Carcross, about 6 miles, to call for a tow truck. It was Sunday so it took several calls before we finally had a truck on its way. The man who had picked Gary up on his way in had been going in to make phone calls too. When he finished, he gave Gary a lift back to the motorhome. We gave you a picture of Gertie while the driver disconnected the driveline. It was a pretty spot but hard to enjoy with what was happening. The nearest shop was in Whitehorse so our route had a little deviation since we had intended to take a cutoff and head south. We spent Sunday night at the shop parking lot, and when we went in to arrange repair the manager was less than friendly, telling us that it might be the next day before he got to us. They did get to us that day after all. The first task was just to get it to run. (Not only had it quit, but the generator had also stopped running.) They were convinced that the gas tank was empty so we walked to the station and got a can of gasoline. He got it started quickly then so they were really convinced that it had simply been out of gas. We only had about 90 miles on that tank so we knew it shouldn’t have been dry, but since it was now running we went to the station, filled the tank and started up the hill to leave town. Well, we were right, it was still doing the same thing. We went back, had to wait awhile again before they could get to it. This time they changed the filter in the carburetor and everything is okay now. We finally got out of Whitehorse about 3 pm and drove until around 6:30 before we called it a day.

The trip from Whitehorse to Stewart/Hyder was pretty uneventful. The weather was crappy and we had miles and miles of wet dirt/gravel roads. The vehicles all looked like they had been out 4 wheeling in the mud puddles. The mud on Gertie went all the way to the roof. Once Gary figured we were past the dirt/gravel sections, we stopped along a lake where there was a boat launch and gave Gertie a bucket bath. I think she was relieved to have all that mud off, must have made her load a lot lighter too. We did see several foxes along the Cassiar Highway. The first two were kind of a mottled black with a white tail tip. The third one was a beautiful red fox, also with the white tail tip.

HAINES PART 2

Well, another day gone by, of course the part didn't come so we spent the day doing chores, laundry, etc. Then we went to see the "Hammer Museum". We weren't real enthused about going but the other options seemed like they were the same old stuff. When we got there we found it very interesting and the character who runs it is very colorful. The double handled hammer he is holding had an interesting story. He had bought it on ebay. One day a gentleman came in on the cruise ship. He said he had given that hammer to his secretary and she evidently sold it on ebay. His telling of the story was a lot more interesting than mine. He has hammers from all over the world, one that was evidently used on the building of the pyramids. Gary holds one that he thought would be good for nailing around corners. The one out front he made himself. He said people would just walk by when he first opened the museum. He decided he needed something to get their attention so he made the 19' 8" tall hammer. The handle is made of local spruce with the head sculpted from those blue styrofoam sheets, then coated it with fiberglass. It turned out pretty good and seems to be drawing in the people.

The town today was a little busier than yesterday, probably because the Volendam cruise ship was in port. We caught a picture of it for you.

Thursday, Sept 4 - Well, if we had no bad luck we would have no luck at all. Called the parts store this afternoon. They said our part had come in. Walked down to pick it up and discovered there had been a miscommunication between the clerks. It hadn't. Then the clerk called the company to get a tracking number so we could check on its progress and found that their computer had been down and the part was never even sent. We decided to cancel it and head home. The weather here has been foggy and cold, at least to us. Heard today that they had some snow and freezing rain in Tok, guess we got out of there just in time. We will be leaving Haines on the ferry at 10 p.m., heading to Skagway. Don't suppose that we will be much in the mood to do sightseeing there so this will probably be our last post from Alaska. If we have an opportunity to get online at a library on route we will try to keep you posted on our progress. Our main objective, at least until we get to warmer weather, is homeward bound.

HAINES

We rolled into Haines on September 1. Our intention had been to use one of the tour services to go to Juneau. Alas, we are too late and the season has ended. There is still the ferry system, but the timing for that is not good unless you plan to stay over in the city a night or two. We may still do that (they have one final trip going out Friday), but right now our focus is on getting our furnace going again. One of the auto parts stores was able to order the fuel control, and to have it expedited by air into Haines from Washington. The control was $169, and the freight is still to be determined! The part may arrive tomorrow afternoon. We're prepared for a longer stay. We've taken an RV park site for 3 nights so we can have electric heat. Weather has been mostly crappy and cold.

After ordering our part, we drove out to the Chilkoot State Park, about 11 miles along the coast. Here is where the salmon are counted (note the count sign) and where grizzlies pluck the salmon out of the river's exit into the bay. These two bears were not the greatest fishermen, but they managed to get salmon while we watched. All 5 species of Pacific salmon are caught here, as well as steelhead, rainbow, dolly varden and the halibut are here too, but in deep saltwater.

More than 120 species of birds have been sighted here. Each November up to 3500 bald eagles gather in the Chilkat Valley, the largest congregation in the world. There are trumpeter swans, arctic terns and hawks, and hundreds of thousands of gulls!

In contrast to the heaps of snow Valdez gets, Haines averages about 60 inches annually, making it one of the drier spots in the southeast. The coldest temperature on record in town is -17, the record high around 90. (Fairbanks -60 to 90, if you recall from our earlier posts).

In our last post, we had a picture and comment about a fish wheel we had seen along the river. Well, here's the "Rest Of The Story" taken from the Haines Visitor Guide: Fishwheels operated by the state Department of Fish and Game can be seen alongside the road near 9 Mile. Scientists use the wheels to scoop up fish for tagging and measurement; they're returned afterward to the river to continue their journey upstream.

VALDEZ

The correct way to say it is Val-deez'. There was some controversy over that, but it was settled. Sometimes I say it correctly. Nobody seems to care.

On the way towards Valdez we traveled along the Matanuska River. This photo was taken east of Palmer. The walkway to the left in the picture was eroded and fenced off.

These mountains are included in the blog simply because they were so different than those we had seen till we got here. Lots of color, and they weren't covered with snow!

Approaching Valdez we came to these falls. The first was called Bridal Veil, the next was Horsetail Falls. Although they were awesome, no big deal was made of them, there were simply a couple of average size pullouts.

Arrived in Valdez August 23. Gertie sits at our home site in the Prince William Sound. This is the very location that an earthquake on March 27, 1964 totally destroyed the town of Valdez. It was determined that the city had been built on unstable ground, and the present town of Valdez is located further along the Sound. There is nothing left of the old town, no buildings, rubble, or monuments. There are a couple signs describing the event. The earthquake was a 9.2, and lasted over 4 minutes, the worst ever in North America. We were driving around looking for a likely place to overnight and came to this area. Nobody around, and very quiet, right on the Sound.

Valdez has an abundance of the freshest snow on earth. It gets more than 300 inches of snow each year in the city! Nearby Thompson Pass gets between 600 and 900 inches annually!!

When we were there it was overcast and drizzly/foggy. At times it would clear a little, briefly, and that was nice. The thing is, we both had such bad colds, we didn't really care much what the weather was. In the background you can see what looks like a ship. At the visitors center they said it was a container loading platform. The person saying that acted like she didn't know what we were talking about when we asked what it was. We kind of think it was a ship.

Valdez is the end of the Alaskan pipeline. This is where they store oil and also load the tankers. There are 18 giant crude oil storage tanks. We were told they averaged a tanker a day but we were there 3 days and never saw one. If the pipeline had to be shut down at anytime the tanks in Valdez would hold the amount that is in the pipeline. 9.18 million barrels. Needless to say this is a glutenous country. If the tanks at Valdez were full, it would only be enough to supply the U.S. for 30 minutes. Here are some quick figures: 8 billion - the cost of the project in the 1970's; 21,000 - the number of people who worked on the pipeline at the peak of construction; 800 - approximate length of the pipeline in miles; 120 degrees Fahrenheit - the temperature of oil as it travels through the pipeline; 48 - the diameter of the pipeline in inches; 31 - the number of people killed during construction. The amount of oil moved through the pipe is slowed considerably, the oil is running out. When it is no longer moving oil, the agreement stipulates that the pipeline must be removed - another costly affair! And one more thing: there is an estimated 26,000 gallons of oil left on contaminated coastline even today, from the Exxon Valdez disaster in 1989.

Our next picture is the ship we cruised on. The sound was much smoother here than in Seward. I know we showed you sea otters before but I think these pictures were much better. They are really funny characters. They float around on their backs. We are told they haul up rocks to put on their stomachs and use them to break open the clams or whatever they are feasting on. These were mainly in the harbor areas. The water further out is very deep, too deep for them to dive to the bottom to feed.

Further out in the sound, lazing around on the buoy were the sea lions. Once in a while they would get off the buoy and take a dip, cool off I guess, then climb back on.

We were pretty amazed when we got close to the Columbia Glacier. I think we both thought we would be seeing it up close like we had from Seward. Surprise, surprise. The bay is so full of ice you can only get about 8 miles from it. You can see it in the background but it was a good distance away. The bergs were really beautiful, the blue color. On some you could see the water line where the water hits them when it is high tide. When they are floating out in the bay, they melt more on the part under the level of the water. Then when a lot of the lower part melts they get top heavy and roll over leaving the really pretty blue exposed.

This ship makes the rounds of the fishing boats, buying their fish and bringing it into shore. This enables the small fishermen to continue fishing. Since the season is short it is a big benefit. They don't have to suspend fishing to bring in their catch.

We did find some Orca "Killer" whales on this trip. They were pretty fast and it was hard to get much of a picture of them. They travel up to about 30 mph. While we were out we also saw the Dall's porpoise. They look much like the Orca, just smaller. The fastest of all cetaceans, up to 35 mph. I think you would have needed a movie camera and maybe an underwater movie camera to get a picture of them. They were really fast and loved to get right up under the front of the boat, like they were racing with us.

These next two pictures are at the Salmon Fish Hatchery. You can see some dark areas, those are salmon, hundreds of them. No wonder the gulls are around since the salmon will all be dying. The sign is pretty self explanatory.



When we left Valdez we headed back up the Richardson Highway. Since it had been extremely foggy on the way down it was a nice opportunity to see some of what we had missed on the way down. One thing we saw was the Worthington Glacier. It was just a short hike. You could walk right up to this one. Of course since it is inland there is no calving. Gary wanted to take some home so he got out his trusty knife (Thanks Kim) and chipped off some. He is usually so hot blooded that I volunteered to carry his ice. He didn't argue much, he didn't have gloves. If we see you after we get back home, just ask, he will haul it out of the freezer and show you.

On up the road we found a pleasant spot to spend the night. There seems to always be a view.

Not far from there was the visitors center for the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. We viewed their film and went for a short walk with the Ranger. The weather didn't cooperate though. You could hardly see the mountains at all. The Ranger walked us out to the viewpoints and showed us beautiful pictures. I don't know when they were taken but it was sure a different sight than we saw. The Wrangell mountains include a volcanic field, composed of 12 volcanoes, one of which is still active. Mt Wrangell, with 250 cubic miles of available lava, is the highest and largest active volcano in Alaska. It is 14,163 and growing. 25% of Wrangell-St. Elias is covered by glacial ice. The Average annual snowfall is 50.4 inches with a record annual snowfall of 93.9 inches. There are only 2 roads into the Park, one goes to the old Kennicott Mine and the town of McCarthy and is 61 miles. The other is 42 mile Nabesna Road. Both are mostly dirt and very rough sometimes requiring high clearance vehicles. We passed on both these trips and headed up the Tok Cutoff. We were expecting our mail and some mail order prescriptions. When we arrived it was all waiting except one which didn't arrive until Saturday. The Post Office is not open on Saturday but when I was back in on Friday to see if it had arrived the man at the desk told me if I would come between 11:30 and 12 noon, knock on the door, he would check for me. With the holiday weekend it would have been Tuesday before we could have gotten it if he hadn't been so helpful. That's a small town for you! The next picture is sunset at the spot we found to spend our waiting time. Maybe the wait was worth it, the day we left Tok was beautiful, the sun was shinning and we had two whole days of it. The first evening out of Tok we happened upon Deadman Lake Campground with a boardwalk trail (Tiaga Trail). It took you a quarter mile and was boardwalk to protect the tundra and keep you out of the wet. The next pictures were taken from the viewing platform, across the Lake. We hadn't had any pictures of a sunset since June 21 (Solstis). This park has about 16 small/med size spaces, no fee or utilities. It had a really clean pit toilet. What I remember about this camp is that the temperature was down to 35 degrees at 7 a.m...and that's inside Gertie. We asked at a visitor center just down the road how low it had gotten that night, they thought it was around 23. Our furnace has gone nuts since we last filled with propane. The pilot light won't work...so it can't come on. (Hope to get the new fuel control for it in Haines). There's a limit of 14 days, but we only needed one!

The next day we found some interesting things ahead of us. At one of the road construction stops this KR-2 Kit plane was stopped. Since we had a short wait Gary had the opportunity to talk with the owner a few minutes. He is on his way to Colorado for delivery to the new owner. He had built the plane himself and had flown it a while. He said he could go up to 130 mph, and use 3 gallons of gas an hour. I wish we could get that kind of mpgs.

Gary thinks he had put on some weight this summer, he was big enough to be in two countries at once. Here he stands, half in the US, half in Canada. Just so you know, if you're heading south on the Alaska highway, fill up at the station on the right, before going into Canada. The station on the left is higher priced, and the owner is a real grouch!!!

The mountains showing fresh snow on top are a part of the Wrangell-St. Elias range but this time we are on the other side of them, headed toward Haines. On the second picture you can see the crater.

Isn't this pair of swans pretty? We've noticed several pairs of them, but they are all on their own lake. Well...why not.

Another sight ahead of us was this solar car, one of very few vehicles on the road that have been passed by Gertie.

As we got very close to Haines, along the Chilkat River we found two of these fish wheels working. There was a small pull out by the first one and when I got out to take a picture we saw it catch a fish. When it picks up a fish it automatically flows into a hopper. No one was around to tend it.

Next stop Haines, AK