More Whitehorse plus Skagway, Alaska

The July 1st to July 4th weekend we spent just puttering around a the rig a bit and wandering around the area. Saturday we drove into town for lunch, stopping along the way at a view point alongside the river where an "Eagle Tree", a tree that had been the site of an eagle nest for many years, had come down. They replaced it with a large pole with an artificial nest base, and the eagle pair have been using it ever since. We did spot the babies but were unable to get a photo of them. We'll keep trying.!




For lunch, we had planned to check out the Mexican restaurant we had noticed a few day previously but found it closed. Just down the block was a deli, called, not too surprisingly I guess, "The Deli" ! We wandered in, it looked good, so we stayed for lunch.

Those of you at home may know what we mean when we say it reminded us of The Red Barn Market on West Saanich Road, our favourite sandwich and grocery shopping place.


Later Art took his electric bike on a test run down the hill at the south end of town and back up again, about a kilometer of hill. The bike did fine, next he'll take it for a five or 10 K run down the highway and back then tackle the through town and "2 Mile Hill" back up to the highway at the north end.


Skagway

Sunday, for the 4^th of July, we decided to travel to Skagway, Alaska a couple of hours away by car over the White Pass route, one of the main trails to the Yukon River used during the Klondike gold rush. Whitehorse soon became a large town at end of the trail on the banks of the Yukon River, which was now the route to Dawson and the goldfields.

The route took us back into British Columbia before crossing the border into Alaska. The border is actually at the top of White Pass where there is no room for control point so Canada and the USA have their respective stops a considerable distance north and south of the actual frontier. These photos were taken July 4th. Imagine the would-be miners traveling through here in the winter!




Eventually a narrow gauge railway was built through White Pass, connecting the Skagway port and the Yukon River at Whitehorse. A portion of the track is still used, running tourist trips from the restored station in Skagway, Alaska to Fraser, in British Columbia, about halfway to Whitehorse. We arrived in town at the same time as the train. Many engineers had said that it would be impossible to build a railroad through the pass.

The Tlingit name for the area was Skagua, meaning “the windy place” which became “Skagway”. We could easily understand where the name came from! The day presented drizzle, cloud and a cold wind. It did improve a little as the day wore on but it was still too cold for us to eat at some of the outside booths.

Skagway has many renovated and restored historic buildings and depends heavily now on tourism.

We had missed the parade but there was still a lot going on, including a "Dump Tank" fund raiser for the fire department. Some people were in period costume.

Obviously there is lots of community spirit in town which hold the record for the biggest egg toss—they were hoping to set a new record but the weather kept the numbers down although there were hundreds lined up for this year's event. Their 2008 record involved 1,422 people. Not bad for a town with a population of less than 900!

We have been spoiled living in Victoria—forgot that some locations still allow smoking in eating establishments. Where we went for lunch (one of only two open today) the smoking area was at the bar, located in the centre of the room, surrounded by the non-smoking seats! Like someone once said, having smoking and non-smoking areas in the same room is like having urinating and non-urinating areas in the same swimming pool. If all Alaska is like this it will reflect well on our dining-out budget.

Nevertheless we enjoyed the day trip, the drive each way was very pleasant, the scenery very enjoyable.

Here are a few more photos: White Pass, taken from the road. | The thermometer is located at a stop on the old Chilcoot trail. Note the temperature! Remember,this was the 4th of July! | Fraser BC; | and typical lakes and terrain north of the passes. As you can see, the weather improved as we proceeded north.