Day 8

                                                                       Alaska Day 8

                                                             Dawson City, YT to Tok, AK

                                                                           8/31/11

     We started the day with a 2 minute bus ride down to the Yukon River where we boarded the Yukon Queen, a speedy catamaran for a 3 hour tour of the river.  (Doesn’t this sound strikingly similar to the start of Gilligan’s Island?)  The Queen was a wide bodied boat with indoor seating and an outdoor deck.  It, like the coaches, the hotels, and the cruise ships, are all owned by Holland America which appears to want nothing less than complete control of your Alaska cruise/tour experience.  This was a pleasant outing where we got to listen to some more details of the Klondike gold rush, which it’s safe to say by now is a subject Kris and I could give our doctoral thesis on.  Other than a few eagles and a few salmon fishing wheels anchored on shore (which are like waterwheels but instead of water they scoop out salmon), we didn’t really see much.  No sight of bear or moose, just “moose mustard” that they were selling in the onboard canteen.  (Well there was one bear…see picture below.)

     We disembarked back at Dawson and then boarded our bus, er I should say coach, and took a brief ferry ride across the Yukon.  From there we headed on a spectacular and harrowing drive on the “Top of the world road.”   The views were awesome along this narrow highway that eventually brought us to the Alaskan border and reentry into the US.  From there it became even narrower, so much so, that we needed a pilot truck to go ahead of us to warn of oncoming traffic. 

     We soon got to the town of Chicken, Alaska, where the local store had pie and chicken soup for sale.  After browsing there a bit, we were back on the road, this time “the Alaskan Highway”, where after a few miles longer, we arrived in Tok.  It’s unclear how the town of Tok got its name, but the most common theory is that it was named after an early settler’s dog named “Tok.”  What I will remember about Tok, other than the liquor store where we replenished our dwindling wine supply, is that the Westmark Inn there had a very patriotic theme.  There were American flags everywhere and the employees all had suspenders with American flag designs on them.  There was also a flag lowering ceremony on the premises at 8:30 which we were encouraged to attend primarily out of fear of otherwise being reported to the House Committee on Un-American Activities.  In a very solemn ceremony they slowly lowered the flag while patriotic music played on a cassette player.  Veterans in the crowd (and I use the term ‘crowd’ loosely as there were only about 8 of us in attendance) were encouraged to participate .  Oddly though, in spite of this unabashed display of patriotism, the house specialty at the hotel restaurant was Mexican food.  So with “The Star Spangled Banner” in my heart and a burrito in my stomach, I slept well that night.

Yukon River with fog lifting

Salmon Catching Wheel

Our first bear sighting

The Yukon Queen and passengers rushing to get to the bus

Beautiful scenery from Top Of the World Highway

Top of the World Highway

Border crossing....back in the US of A!

Those specks are caribou

More gorgeous scenery

Group 3B.....it took 45 minutes to get everyone assembled for this picture

Proof that we were there

An array of pies in Chicken.   Check out the hat on the guy in blue.

Day 7

                                                                             Alaska Day 7

                                                                   Dawson City, Yukon Territory

                                                                          August 30, 2011

     We slept until 10 AM Yukon time.  This would be the equivalent of noon back in Minnesota.  I don’t recall sleeping this late in my adult life.  All of that sitting on the bus must have really tuckered us out.  What a treat.  We had considered taking a side trip to Territorial Park but had decided against it because we didn’t think the scenery would be much different from what we had already seen.  Nothing against trees, but we had seen a few billion of them by now.  Thus, having managed to sleep until this record breaking hour, we were happy to have skipped it.  The compounding sleep deprivation debt I have been accumulating over the past few years got a small repayment that night.

     We eventually got going and walked down to the riverfront for breakfast at a coffee shop.  We took in the local culture and happily they accepted our VISA card.  Next it was on to the visitor center to help plan the day.  After that we made it over to the Jack London museum where the caretaker gave us a short talk about his life.  He lived in Dawson City, briefly, and his cabin (or at least half of it since they used the original bottom logs to reconstruct the cabin here while the upper logs were taken to Oakland, California to build an identical one,) sits on this property.  We then went a few houses down to Robert Service’s cabin.  Robert Service, aka “the bard of the Yukon” was famous for writing “The Cremation of Sam McGee.”  There, we were treated to an excellent talk about his life and the reading of some of his poetry.  The two things I will remember about him were that he was an exercise nut and that his goal in life was to save enough so he wouldn’t have to work and could live off his interest.  Pierre Berton, author of the definitive accounting of the Klondike gold rush called Klondike Fever, also lived here.  Who would have known that Dawson City was such a literary hotbed? 

     After the talks and the readings, we headed up a trail to the top of Midnight Dome. The Midnight Dome was a place where the townspeople gathered 110 years ago on the summer solstice to celebrate the midnight sun.  However, as it turned out there were only 22 hours of daylight on that day and the sun had set just before midnight.  You would have thought that people would have known this in advance but in those days, people would go anywhere in search of a party, especially if alcohol was involved.  Anyway, about an hour into the hike, the trail got steep and Kris had had enough.  After it was clear that she wasn’t going any farther, she graciously allowed me to continue on to the top while she descended back to the hotel hoping she would not be eaten by a bear.  I did make it to the top, about 30 minutes later, and was treated to a spectacular view of the surrounding area.  Then I started downward, banging two rocks together every 10 seconds to make my presence known.  Soon I was back at the hotel, happy to have eluded any man eating grizzlies and happy to have seen no remnants of Kris along the way. 

     We had drinks at the rooftop lounge later in the day and then went to Klondike Kate’s for dinner.  Our entertainment for the evening was to have been watching Randy, our tour leader, drink a Sourtoe Cocktail.  This drink is a bizarre tradition here in Dawson.  Its two ingredients are Yukon Jack and an embalmed human toe dropped into it.  The rule was that you had to have the toe actually touch your lips while you drank this, for it to be “official.”  If you were to happen to swallow the toe there would be a $250 fine, apparently the market rate for embalmed toe replacements.  Anyway we waited at the bar at the appointed time of 9:30.  By 9:45 it was clear that Randy wasn’t showing up so we went back to the hotel.  The next morning he insisted that he was there and drank the drink.  Having been at the bar at 9:30 we didn’t believe it but didn’t press the point.  Later we found out that others claimed they had witnessed it so we concluded we somehow ended up at the wrong bar which was hard to believe since we went to the bar that was “Home of the Sourtoe Cocktail.”  I guess they did not have exclusive rights to the drink.  The demand for this drink is so huge that it’s apparently too big for one bar to handle.  

I've already made plans to enter next year's competition

Kris just making sure that you notice the sign

Robert Services place....at least it has all its original logs

Path on the way to Midnight Dome

From the top....That's Dawson City and the Yukon River

A Sourtoe Cocktail

Day 6

                                                                                 Day 6

                                                                Whitehorse to Dawson City

                                                                        August 29, 2011

 

     I awoke with two missions in mind.  One was to go running on a path along the Yukon River that I saw when we drove into town yesterday.  The second was to stop at a Tim Horton’s on the way back and surprise Kris with coffee and a bagel.  I was successful at only one.  Having not done any running since the treadmill on the cruise, it felt great to run outside.  Unfortunately, my VISA card was not accepted at Tim Horton’s and I returned empty handed.  What a backwards country Canada is.  I made a second trip before the bus, I mean coach, took off, this time armed with US dollars, which were happily accepted.

     This was a long day on the coach.  Luxury or not, there is nothing wonderful about sitting on one’s butt for 8 hours, even if it’s on a plush leather seat.  My cross country bike trip didn’t quite prepare me for this.  The trip was broken up by a couple of stops along the way.  One was to Braeburn which advertised the world’s largest Cinnamon Buns, about 2 pounds each, selling for $8.  The second was to Five Fingers for lunch, which was a site where ‘the Klondikers’ had to navigate over some dangerous rapids on their way to Dawson until someone decided to change it to Three Fingers with the help of some dynamite.  The Canadian EPA apparently had not yet come into existence yet.  As we drove into Dawson, we saw more environmental mayhem, miles and miles of gravel tailings piled 20 feet high along the riverbank, the resultant excrement of last century’s river dredges.  These dredges were riverboat sized mechanical behemoths that scooped shovelfuls of river bottom into their front, extracted all the gold out of that dirt in their middle, and spit the tailings out their back.  These beasts were reportedly so loud that you could hear them 20 miles away.  This was gold panning on steroids.  They were quite profitable until being shut down around 1960 due to concerns that perhaps this might just not be the best thing for the environment. 

     Dawson was a fun place to see.  There’s been great effort to preserve the town the way it looked 100 years ago.  All the storefronts have a very authentic look to them.  We took a walk around town and ate at the hotel restaurant.  Before bed, we notified the front desk that in the event that the Northern Lights were visible we wanted to be woken up.  Sure enough at around 2AM we got the call, and went out to see them.  We wandered around a bit to find a spot shielded from streetlight and sure enough we could see bright white vertical beams in the Northern sky.  It was not quite the iridescent multicolored spectral flowing robes of light that I had seen photographs of before, but it was the Northern Lights on this particular day and we had seen them.  With a profound sense of satisfaction we went back to sleep and slept until 10 AM the next day.

One of the famous Braeburn Buns....designed to add more padding to your own.

Five Fingers sans two fingers

We've never been happier

I think I've seen this hood ornament on an Escalade at home

Kris and a giant mosquito.   The bag is in case she needs to swat it.

Mounds of tailings.  Aren't they lovely.

Dawson City

The Northern Lights.....What I can I say?  I was expecting more.

Day 5

                                                                                   Day 5

                                                         Skagway, AK to Whitehorse, Yukon Territory

                                                                          August 28, 2011

     We awoke with the excitement that today we’d be moving onward.  Our hotel in Skagway, the Westmark, was not at the level of luxury that we had rapidly become accustomed to on the Volendam.  Sadly, our gold keycard status carried no weight on this portion of the trip. We were no longer considered “special”.  We were picked up promptly at 9AM by the coach that would take us to 2 blocks to the train station.  One thing that was typical of Holland America was that you needn’t concern yourself with using your legs to propel you forward.  If it involves more than 10 steps in any direction, they will have you transported.  We soon boarded the train that would take us up the White Pass to Lake Bennett.  This was the narrow gauge “White Pass and Yukon Railroad”.   We had a pleasant and scenic trip getting great views of the valley and passing by a memorable spot called Deadhorse Gulch. This was named for the 3000 or so horses that died here during the gold rush in their failed attempts to carry the one ton of food and equipment up this pass required of every prospector entering Canada.  The weather was cold and wet and unfortunately a lot of our pictures were blurred by raindrops on the windows.  Nevertheless, it was a memorable journey.

     Once at Lake Bennett we had lunch, family style, in a large hall.  This was essentially the same meal that was served here for the past 111 years since the railroad opened in 1900, consisting of beef (no longer moose) stew, biscuits, cole slaw, and apple pie.  (If you were a vegetarian, you were out of luck.)  One of the stories we were told was of an enterprising woman during the gold rush who made a fortune selling homemade apple pies in Skagway for $20.  Another story was of a man who made a fortune selling cantaloupes for $50, ($20 if they were rotten) to prospectors.  If you were suffering from scurvy, a $50 cure for your vitamin C deficiency wouldn’t be too bad.  They apparently didn’t ask the native people in the area what their cure was: tips of local spruce trees, which were loaded with vitamin C.  Now some of the local beers, in homage to this cure for scurvy, add spruce tree tips in the brewing process.  Regardless, Kris and I didn’t have to worry about any nutritional deficiencies on this trip. 

     After touring the Lake Bennett area, we got back on the train which ended in Carcross.  We then got off the train and onto our coach, (they are referred to as coaches on Holland America, not busses), for the final leg of the day to Whitehorse.  Our coach driver asked for us to refer to him as “Coach Commander Rex.”  We would be with him for the next 3 days.  He would offer commentary and humor along the way.  This was supplemented by the occasional DVD that would play on the TV monitors suspended from the ceiling just like on airplanes.  It was surprisingly comfortable.  The overall tour leader for our group was Randy.  He would be with us from our start in Skagway until our finish in Anchorage.  He would also offer commentary along the way.  Randy was very good at his job, offering excellent suggestions as to activities to do in our off time, places to eat in the towns we’d be staying in, and taking loving care of our luggage. 

     Whitehorse is the biggest city in the Yukon Territory with 20,000 people.  The entire population of the Yukon is 30,000.  For a place as large California, this means that there are vast swatches of unpopulated land.  After dinner at a Boston Pizza, we headed to the evening’s entertainment, a vaudeville show, complete with cancan dancers called “The Frantic Follies.”  This was corny to its core, but entertaining nonetheless.  It was mainly catering to the septuagenarian and octogenarian audience in attendance as evidenced by the sing-a-long at the end to “Shine on Harvest Moon.”  And with our bellies full of pizza and “Harvest Moon” echoing in our heads, Kris and I slept well that night.   

Our Skagway Accommodations

Looking down the pass as we ascend on the railroad

Train going into the tunnel of love

Considered in the Yukon, one of the 9th Great Wonders of the world.  An amazing engineering feat for its time in 1900.

Beautiful Lake Bennett

Lake Bennett.  Now, just imagine it with 7000 boats all leaving at once.

Kris after should was removed from the train for disruptive behavior

Whitehorse, Yukon

Frantic Follies.  Frankly, we were expecting more banjos.

One way to fight scurvy

Sometimes I feel like I am living in the wrong era

    

Day 4

                                                                                 Day 4

                                                                       Juneau to Skagway

                                                                         August 27, 2011

     There was no time for exercise this morning as we needed to eat and get ready to disembark.  We had a nice but chilly breakfast on our veranda as we pulled into the lovely town of Skagway.   From shipside, it didn’t look like much and we were glad that we’d be there just for a short time.  We were told to gather in the Franz Hall Theater where we were met by 400 other passengers all eager to get off the ship.  As it turns out, the ship would be continuing onward that night to complete a 7 days cruise and it would be taking on additional passengers at this port to replenish the supply of those departing.  It’s quite an amazing operation that Holland America is running.  When you consider the logistics involved in getting all of their Alaska cruises and inland tours to simultaneously coordinate with each other, it’s really quite impressive.  Mr. Holland has done quite a job.  It’s been a good second career for him after finishing his opus.

     At Franz Hall, there were designated areas for the different tour groups to gather.  There were about 5 different groups that would be going on different tour packages.  We were in group 3B. There was a guy in 3B that was pretty ticked off that he wasn’t in group 3A along with the rest of his traveling partners.  They succeeded in switching him, which after the fuss he made, was welcome news to those of us remaining in 3B. After a while, the different tour group directors got up on stage and announced what the plan was for their group that day.  It was at that point that we were confronted with two disturbing developments.  The first was news from our tour director that 3B would be overnighting in Skagway.  What???  This was not good news. Kris looked at me in disbelief.  I had been certain that we’d be taking a train out of there that day.  However, in all honesty, I hadn’t studied the itinerary as critically as I should have and missed this small detail.  The train ride I thought we’d be on today was not until tomorrow.  After recovering from this momentary shock, I took a deep breath and resolved to make our next 24 hours in Skagway the greatest ever. 

     The second was when we looked around and noticed that our tour group, the very people that we’d be spending almost all of our waking hours with over the next 10 days, were old….quite old.   Now Kris, may differ with me on this, but I think the average age of the people in this group was around 76.  Had Kris and I not been along, it might have been closer to 80.  Now I have nothing against older people.   I just don’t see myself in that demographic just yet.  I’m still working and still paying into social security.  I don’t have any prostate problems and I’m not an AARP member.  I don’t eat dinner at 4:30 and still have almost all of my original teeth.  My med list doesn’t take up two pages and I’m arguably fanatical about exercise.  I am not an old person yet and will do my best to avoid becoming one any time soon.  Seeing this group of pleasant but ancient passengers has hardened this resolve. 

     After departure from the ship we were treated to a one hour bus tour of Skagway.  We got to see a landing strip that the US army built to help prevent the imminent invasion of the US by the Japanese here at Skagway.  Apparently after one of the Aleutian Islands was invaded by the Japanese in 1942 this was felt to be a real possibility.  We also got to see the gravesite of Soapy Smith, perhaps the most notorious con artist of his time along with the gravesite of Frank Reid, the lawman that killed him but died 13 days later from a gunshot wound sustained at the time of Soapy’s killing.  Soapy had a variety of cons, perhaps the most famous being charging newcomers to Skagway $5 for sending a telegraph home to their loved ones.  The only problem was that the wires from the telegraph ended at the ocean and didn’t go any further.  After a few hours an “answer” would return from home saying that they were in desperate financial straits and needed money immediately.  Soapy would oblige by taking this money from the newcomer and “arranging” to have it delivered.  Such delivery never happened.  I’m telling anyone out there that a movie telling the true story of Soapy Smith would be a guaranteed box office smash.

     The story of Skagway is the story of the gold rush of 1897.  As we have succeeded in retracing  the journey of those on that gold rush, I think it’s fair to say that Kris and I are now experts on the subject.  Briefly, in 1896 there was a major gold find near Dawson City in the Yukon Territory.  The news about this was reported one year later from Seattle when the first steamer arrived there with 48 prospectors carrying 2 million dollars’ worth of gold.  As the US was in a depression at the time, this set off a ‘stampede’ to the area.  About 100,000 people left Seattle landing in Skagway and the nearby town of Dyea in an attempt to get to Dawson.  Both routes were quite difficult and only about 40,000 people made it, the rest turning back.  Both routes met up at Lake Bennett, where after the ice broke up they set out in 7000 boats en masse, May 1898, down the Yukon River.  After going another 500 miles, they made it to Dawson.  Once there, they discovered that all the claims had already been staked, in fact they all had been staked about a year earlier before that first steamer ever arrived in Seattle with news of the gold.  There would be no easy riches for them.  They stayed in Dawson until news arrived about another gold strike, this time in Nome Alaska.  Within a few days, they all deserted Dawson for Nome.  That’s the story of the greatest gold rush in history. 

     We wandered about Skagway the rest of the day taking in the local culture and also a few brews at the excellent Skagway brewing company and then after a pretty good meal at a Thai restaurant in town and a musical revue of Skagway arranged for us by Holland America, we retired to the Westmark Hotel where we would rest easy knowing we were safe from ‘Soapy’ and his gang.  

Towel Art on the Volendam from the night before

Volendam in Skagway harbor and runway in foreground

Downtown Skagway

Grave site of Jefferson "Soapy" Smith

Weather you could only dream about