Skagway to Glacier Bay

June 26, 2011, Sunday
A day for relaxing and wandering around town. I updated the blog at the library then we took a short hike to Smugglers Cove.

June 27, 2011, Monday
The main reason we came to Skagway was to ride the White Pass and Yukon Route Railroad. The WP&YR is a 3 foot narrow gage railroad which was built shortly after the gold rush. It now survives because of cruise ships and tourism coming into Skagway. The summit of White Pass is 2,865 feet. The railroad starts at sea level and climbs quite steeply to the summit; the ruling grade is 3.7% and a very short stretch actually hits 4.2%. By contrast, the ruling grade over Stevens Pass in the Cascade Mountains (where I go skiing) is only about 2.5%. For a significant portion of the journey the railroad is built on the side of a very steep hill – one long step off the track and you go down more than a thousand feet.

Most people take one of the two daily trains to the summit. These trains are 12 – 15 cars long and pretty much full. Twice a week they run a train pulled by a steam engine (2-8-2 Mikado) past the summit into British Columbia and along a relatively flat plateau above tree line called Fraser Meadows. We chose to take the latter trip on what turned out to be a warm sunny day. Our train was only 5 cars long and about half full. I can’t do justice to the trip in only a few pictures, but that’s all I have room for. I’ll probably put 50 or so in a screen saver.

Wally on the Front of Our Locomotive

Over a Bridge then Through a Tunnel

Above Tree Line

Fraser Meadows Turn Around

Fraser Meadows Stream

A Train Ahead of Us Across the Valley and Down Below

Skagway River

Mountain Goats

June 30, 2011, Thursday
The writing on a commemorative statue of two men heading up the mountains in search of gold starts with the statement: Skagway was originally spelled S-K-A-G-U-A, a Tlingit Indian word for “windy place.” In the City of Skagway’s museum there is a plaque on the wall describing “Traditional Tlingit Place names.” At the top of the list is “Shgagwei (Skagway)” which means Roughed Up Water / Whitecaps. I don’t know which one of these two translations is accurate, but in our experience, both are appropriate.

We planned to leave Skagway Tuesday morning but have now been delayed for four days due to incessant winds. Almost without letup, both ends of Lynn Canal have had winds of 20 – 30 kts. It’s maddening to listen to the regional weather and hear reports of wind speed 100 miles south on the order of 15 kts less than we are experiencing. In hopes there will be a period of calm, I have been getting up at 2 to 3 a.m. every morning.

We celebrated Linda’s birthday, part I, with a bottle of champagne as the possibility existed this would be our last night with Win and Chris.

A few notes about our week in Skagway which by now we are getting to know quite well:

One cruising couple we became friendly with told us that many people don’t come to Skagway because of the wind.

We tried fish and chips at two places and concluded that they don’t understand how to make it. Either they’re tiny pieces of fish all wrapped up in batter or cookie cutter commercial breaded and frozen fish. Nice big pieces of fresh halibut are not used even though it is caught commercially here.

The only grocery store sells out of things like milk, fruit juice, and vanilla ice cream within a couple of days of its arrival. You need to know when particular food articles are due to arrive if you want any.

What cruise ships charge their customers to use the Internet is staggering. As a result, there is a mass of cruise ship passengers at the front door when the library opens. Every seat and quite a bit of floor space is taken up by cruise ship customers with their laptops open. Cruise ships charge $45 an hour for pay as you go or you can get a bargain rate of $100 for 3 hours and 10 minutes. It’s amazing that anyone pays these usurious prices.

We learned that when cruise ships come to a town, they ask the local merchants to raise their rates and then give the cruise ship companies 25% as a fee for bringing in customers. Tension has been growing between permanent residents and cruise ship companies in several cities.

The “hero” of Skagway is a man named Frank Reid. He shot and killed a con artist named Jefferson “Soapy” Smith in an old time shoot out. Frank Reid also died. The hero was wanted in Oregon for murder; he claimed self defense, but the victim was unarmed and shot in the back. In Skagway he stole some equipment and declared himself to be the town engineer whereupon he started selling off parcels of land which was owned by someone else; naturally, Frank pocketed the money. After a couple of years the rightful owner won a settlement. Skagway was considered to be one of the most lawless towns in existence.

We traveled 1225 miles from Everett to Skagway.

Surf Scoter that Took Up Residence Beside Hobbit

July 1, 2011, Friday
I was lying in bed about 2:30 a.m. listening to the wind howl and the fenders squeak as Hobbit rocked and rolled at the dock. Suddenly about 2:45 the noise quit. Just after 3:00 I got up to listen to the regional weather observations - light winds were reported at both Skagway and Haines which is 15 miles south of Skagway. Winds were still reported to be 20 kts at Eldred Rock, 30 miles to the south, which the locals say is the key to transiting south.
With at least some good news, I quickly started Hobbit and we got underway about 3:30. By the time we got to Haines the weather reported at Haines Rock was improving and we continued on. Fortunately, the wind calmed as we moved south and I made the decision to keep going as long as the body was willing.
As luck would have it we encountered a pod of Dahl’s porpoise. These may be the most fun animals to encounter while boating. They stayed with us for about 15 minutes riding on our bow and generally dashing all around us.

Linda, Win, and Chris with Three Dahl’s Porpoise

Along the way we also ran into a fleet of commercial gillnetters who had nets totally blocking our passage. We found ourselves zigzagging back and fourth in order to avoid getting tangled in a net.

Ultimately we ended up in a place called Couverden Harbor. For the second time on our trip we tied up at a free dock provided by the State of Alaska. This was our longest day ever in Hobbit; 3:30 a.m. till 4:00 p.m. 83 miles. We ended up relaxing and celebrating Linda’s birthday, part II, with a bottle of champagne.

Misty Mountains by Lynn Canal

July 2, 2011, Saturday
It was a little breezy and somewhat overcast as we departed Couverden Harbor for Pt. Adolphus which is reported to be the epicenter of whale activity in southeast Alaska. As we approached Pt. Adolphus we could regularly see multiple whale spouts. As we got closer and started drifting to watch the action, the sight was almost overwhelming. It was not uncommon to see half a dozen whales spouting while a couple of others had their flukes in the air. My guess is that at least 50 whales were in the area. Steller’s sea lions were common and were occasionally seen to surface with a salmon in their mouth. Sea birds were present by the thousands – mostly black legged kittiwakes, but also gulls, pigeon guillemots, marbled murrelets, and numerous other species.

Humback Fluke and Black Legged Kittiwake

For me, the highlight was seeing a whale breech. Unfortunately, I wasn’t fast enough with the camera and only got a monster splash.

Aftermath of Breeching Whale

All this excitement was too much for Chris who resorted to playing “Killer Su Doku”, the name of the game book in his hand.

Killer Su Doku Strikes Again

By early afternoon we had worn ourselves out watching wildlife and headed to Glacier Bay for check-in and mandatory boater orientation. While we waited for our orientation, we celebrated Linda’s birthday, part III with an orange liqueur birthday cake that Win decorated.

The sad part about today was that Chris and Win had to leave us as their schedule for visiting Anchorage and Mt. Denali was no longer compatible with touring Glacier Bay on Hobbit. All the bad weather at Skagway had blown away all the best laid plans. They stayed at the Glacier Bay lodge for 3 nights and took a tour boat up to the glaciers before flying north.

One Last Group Photo