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After debating whether to stay another day at Boya Lake,

Boya Lake in the early morning

or not, our final decision on Saturday, August 8 was to get to Skagway before shop closing times in case they were not open on Sundays. (A quilt shop is the target.) Highway 37 had some construction and paving happening just north of Boya Lake, but the new, finished road was fabulous driving. The Alaska Highway from the Junction (west of Watson Lake) continued to surprise us with easy driving, and very sparse vehicular traffic. More fuel at Jake’s Corner where the sign on the pump read “Place card in card holder.” After several minutes of searching for the card holder, a young man came to pump our fuel. “Where is the card holder?” I asked. “I am the card holder,” he replied. The turnoff to Atlin was a short distance on, but since I had already visited Atlin a few years ago, and Sandy wasn’t particularly interested, we gave that northern BC town a pass. Our route branched south at Carcross, Yukon.

Looking into Alaska and Skagway

The US Customs at the border heading down into Skagway confiscated a lemon, a red pepper and a tomato, but the young man was very apologetic for having to take these three items. I almost suggested that he take some dressing for his salad, but judiciously bit my tongue.

Besides the stunningly beautiful scenery on the highway to Skagway, the only other thing of note was that after the Customs Building, there is a very long, very steep and very winding road leading down into Skagway. Nearing the Customs House was a young man standing on his bike peddles and grinding his way uphill after several miles of a climb. We were impressed! (Perhaps I will race Sandy up that hill the next time we travel here. Get Serious! I might have trouble getting to the base of the climb!)

A sugary “beaver tail” purchased at Klondike Dough got us a recommendation for a hookup at Gardens City RV. We also located the quilt shop and acquired the required pattern.

We stayed the night beside a tiny homebuilt “teardrop” trailer from Virginia. “Gary and Elaine” gave us the gist of their very long 2 month journey and showed us their very short rig – built for about $3800. Impressive!

Sunday, August 9, 2015 – Another Chilkoot Pass Failure, and… in Haines Site

We had very spotty wifi last night at Gardens City RV, and it was limited to one hour – not enough time to run my blog notes and pics through the system.

Today (Sunday) we are heading on the ferry to Haines. All stores are open in Skagway, since one or more cruise ships are in daily. (On Wednesday, they expect 10,000 visitors! Today, there were only 2000.)

We made a run out to the Dyea Townsite this morning. I had hoped to catch a glimpse of the “Chilkoot Pass” but the road was potholed and washboarded – and narrow, the area is overgrown, and the only view of the Pass would happen when you do the hiking trail – apparently quite a long trail until you begin the climb. In 1897, this area was a grassy plain, not a tangled forest. Another stroll through Skagway with the Cruisers (Coral Princess), and then we headed for the ferry parking lot to await our crossing to Haines. We boarded the “Malaspina” at 2:30 in preparation for the 3:00 pm sailing.

The Malaspina preparing to dock in Skagway

We arrived at Haines at 4:00-ish, and turned right to head away from the town and towards the State Recreation Site of Chilkoot Lake. The Chilkoot River flows into the salt-water estuary, and is quite wide with strong currents, turquoise waters, and many large boulders and fishers! All along the 3 km entrance-way to the camp ground folks were parked and walking, hoping to catch a glimpse of the evening approach of brown bears. At the mouth of the river at Chilkoot Lake fish were jumping and fishers were casting to try their luck. We watched as a few beautiful fish were caught, and then headed in to select our campsite. Later we walked back partway down the road and caught a glimpse of a brown bear sow and her two cubs down near the estuary end of the river. Crowds of folks lined a bridge above the bears to watch as they rambled for food along the bank.

Down below the far left of the bridge are the brown bear and 2 cubs.

Love and best wishes to all…

Tony and Sandy