This is as far north as we go. The weather is mixed...some sun, some clouds, a little spritz here and there. Skagway is located at the northern tip of the Inside Passage. Its name means "where the north wind blows". It is indeed windy and one can see the wind's effects on the scarred and bare mountain tops. Not as lush here. There are only 850 year round residents. In 1897, at the height of the Gold Rush, the town grew to 20,000!
Alaska has very few roads. Often, roads just encompass a town and proceed no further. Alaska's highways are its waters. Transportation is by air or water: floats planes and ferries. Almost everyone has a plane or owns an interest in a plane. There are no hospitals here...only a couple of nurses. The nearest hospital is in Juneau, an hour away by plane.
Our excursion started out with a drive through the colorful town which shuts down completely in the winter, continued with a stop for gold panning along the river....I have a few flakes! Then a salmon bake.....baked salmon, fried salmon, ribs, corn bread, salads, corn, chili, beans, cookies...and local beer, nice and bitter. A yummy lunch. The chef is from New Orleans...the left bank, or the "only bank" as he put it!
Then it was off to the highlight...the White Pass and Yukon Route railway. Woo...woo! A 20 mile trip up the White Pass from Skagway at sea level to Fraser, BC at almost 3000feet in replica and restored coaches pulled by diesel-electric locomotives from the 1950's. Was I in heaven!
Skagway and nearby Dyea were the start of the two trails to the Klondike and the gold in them thar hills: the steep and very narrow Chilkoot Trail, also known as the golden staircase, and the longer less steep White Pass Trail where prospectors, or stampeders as they were known, thought they could use pack animals successfully. The Canadian government required that each person, man, woman or child, take enough supplies for one year...about 1000 lbs. which had to be hauled over these treacherous passes. (Yes, the RCMP met the people and checked their supplies before allowing them to continue!). It took the stampeders several trips carrying supplies on their backs. The entire trip from Skagway to the gold fields was 550 miles over treacherous terrain. Once they reached White Horse, they had to build boats to navigate the lakes they encountered. The stampeders endured terrible hardship...but back home, they were facing a Depression and thus terrible deprivation. Out of 100,000 who started out, only about 35,000 made it. About 4,000 found gold and only a few hundred became rich. And then there is "Dead Horse Gulch" where thousands of horses and other pack animals died of overloading and neglect!
By the end of 1897 men began thinking of easier ways to travel to the Klondike....and the railroad men arrived. The most famous was Michael J. Heney who said: "Give me enough dynamite and snoose and I'll build a railroad to Hell." And he did. Construction began in May, 1898 and was completed in 26 months. By then the height of the gold rush had passed, but the railroad evolved into a fully integrated transportstion company until 1982. It now carries only tourists.
It was constructed against all odds, which were highly visible from our windows. Steep grades of almost 3.9%, tight curves necessitating the narrow gauge, two tunnels, a wooden trestle and birdges over rivers and gorged, several very tight u-curves. Some very exiting moments when one could not see the railbed....only straight down into the gorges of the Skagway River!
The scenery was breathtaking in every direction from the coast mountains and forests to the alpine meadows and turquoise tarns with their stunted spruce and hemlocks and barren rockfaces.
In abundance: hemlocks, Sitka spruce and imported birch trees. Yes, the stampeders imported the birch which are not native! Also, lupines, goatsbeard (astilbe), white yarrow, fireweed (like phlox), cotton grass, wild geranium, and, at the summit, white caribou moss which looks like snow.
It was not just a trip up a pass in all its natural beauty, it was also a trip through history.
Back at the ship, we went up to the Sky Lounge for sailaway and waited until we saw the delineation between the glacial waters and he sea waters....a distinctive line in the water. Very dramatic. Then off to a light supper and bed.
No comments:
Post a Comment