Up early this a.m. for drive to Skagway. We heard it was a gorgeous drive and it was!!! Jerry and I have been to Skagway twice before on cruises, but this is first by land. Frank and Barb are making the drive by car and returning to Whitehorse today, but we are going to spend the night. We want to be in USA on 4th of July. We breezed through customs at AK border going into Skagway. In fact the customs agent was kind of surprised that we were Americans. We had been told and he confirmed that lots and lots of Germans rent Cruise America RVs. He kindly told us that we should be in time for the parade which was at 10. In fact, we could watch it twice and it went down the main street and then turned around and came back up.
Parked on the street and walked over to the main street and just happened to be at the parade start. It was a fun, fun parade -they threw candy (some good stuff too - like Snickers!) and there were lots of decorated pickups and trailers, fire engines, saloon girls, etc. I took lots of pictures. There was a Veteran's RV group that marched in the parade and a gal in her 80's on her bicycle advertising her photo shop. There was also a large contingent of dachshunds complete with costumes of buns w/ ketchup and mustard on their backs (see pix). They were led by a St. Bernard (also w/ hot dog bun costume!) It was a good time. Connected w/ Frank and Barb and after the parade we tried to have lunch in town at the saloon, but it was packed. Then walked down to seafood restaurant by the cruise ships and it was closed so walked back to town and found out that the restaurant we wanted was indeed open and just down from the one that was closed. Went there, stood in line about 30 min. and then got our lunch. Either fish and chips (halibut) or fish burgers (halibut or salmon). Jerry and I opted for the burgers - one of each and split them. Good, good.
After lunch we went back to town and shopped the stores a bit. Frank and Barb were ready to head back about 2 p.m. so Jerry and I then went to the head of the Chilkoot trail. This was the pass used during the Gold Rush that they had to bring at least one ton of supplies with them. Most of them made 40 - 50 trips up and down the pass to get all their stuff over. The Canadian police would not let them into the country unless they had that many supplies. These guys were headed to Dawson City 600 miles away! And this was the closest, most direct route to get there. Once over the pass, they were able to follow rivers, use boats, etc. for some of the trip, but we figured they were pretty tough folks!
We drove this very skinny winding road to get to the pass....it was a beautiful drive along this lake. When we got to the end of the lake we turned into a campground and took the dogs for a walk. The ranger told us there was a bear in the campground and she asked us to take the dogs in another direction so we did. Then drove to the head of the trail and got some pictures there. Walked up a bit and even the beginning was STEEP!!! We just walked up to the registration stand which was several hundred yards up the trail from the parking lot. We met a family from New Zealand that has 5 or 6 kids. The Dad and 4 of the kids had hiked back down after spending several days on this trail (they took 4 days hiking up and got to what is called the Golden Staircase - that is a real challenge). Mom and another child were still on the trail - she was a bit slower b/c she had hurt her foot or something. The dad had a blister on his foot so we gave him a ride back to the campground. The youngest kid we saw looked to be about 6 maybe and they all had VERY large backpacks which they had carried up the trail on their backs! Jerry and I were amazed. They are taking 1 year to tour the U.S. in a 35 ft. trailer pulled w/ a van. They are selling the van at the end of the trip b/c steering is on wrong side, but they are shipping the trailer back to New Zealand.
We saw lots of bear scat (poop) on the bit of trail we were on and in the parking lot so we had our eyes peeled. We never saw a bear there. We drove back into Skagway and made another run at the shops. The cruise ships were departing so most of the folks had returned to them. There were 5 BIG cruise ships in port today. The town was deserted so we decided to hit a couple more shops for some souvenirs. Then it started pouring!!! Jerry had to go get the RV and come back and pick me up. We drove to the docks and watched the last 3 cruise ships get ready to depart. It was raining and gray and bleak and it was kind of sad in a way - made me feel a bit melancholy to have all that excitement and then literally nothing! No fireworks tonite as they had them last nite....Since it is light almost all nite, they had fireworks just after midnite so they could say they had them on the 4th!
Back to RV park and then things went downhill fast. We checked our bills online and saw that Delta had charged us first class rates for our trip at Christmas when we thought we had been set up using Sky Miles. What a pain it is to deal w/ Delta....they are really going to get some bad press from us!!!! Jerry went to bed w/ headache - mostly frustation I think. I won't get into this on the blog, but it is a real mess. Finally got to bed - headed back to Whitehorse tomorrow but it is a short drive - 15o miles so should be an easy day. More tomorrow....
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