0047 24th June - Skagway to Teslin Lake

It was a pretty grey morning when we woke up in Skagway, so we packed up as we ate breakfast, and then headed off to see the 4 new cruise ships that were tied up this morning, while the 4 that had been in yesterday were already gone and headed to their next port. We had seen the ships in Juneau where the dock is right on the main street of town, and they dwarf the town centre.  But Skagway is a lot smaller than Juneau, and 4 cruise ships a day now come into town first thing every morning, disgorging goodness knows how many people.  These ships really are enormous, and you only really get the true impact of their size when you are standing right next to them, and no other building in town is more than 2 stories tall. From there we drove into town, and although early, all the tours were already underway, and the main street was crowded - As Janet said, probably just like it used to be in 1899 when there were thousands of prospectors and gold rush people living in Skagway !!  Quite authentic, really !!

After a quick cruise through town we drove around the coast to Dyea, a town that no longer exists, but which was the original First Nation and then white settlement, until Skagway took over.  It was also the start of the Chilkoot trail which the prospectors followed over the mountain pass, and we wanted to see the start of the trail, so our understanding of the prospectors journey was complete.  Dyea is just about 15 kms

around a couple of headlands and up a creek, and there is nothing left there now except a few timbers around the old dock area - Woodland and flowers have returned it to nature. We wandered through the area of what was once a thriving and well laid out little town, before the mosquitoes drove us back to the car.  The blue iris's are stunning, and apart from here apparently exist only in more southern parts of the country. Also found a very drab, even dead, looking flower from the top, but when you turn it over the leaves and stamens are beautiful - In other words, not dead at all !!

We then returned to the river where some people were coming down in a raft, and then we wandered up the path at the start of the Chilkoot Trail.  Almost immediately it starts to climb, and just standing there at the foot of the steep trail,

imagining the prospectors in almost normal clothes, with 2000 lbs of goods, and in temperatures in the region of minus 40 deg, it was very easy to imagine what it must have been like - I wouldn't have liked to climb the trail with nothing to carry when it is plus 20 deg !!  Very thought provoking, and this really closed the loop for us on the journey's of the Yukon Gold Rush prospectors in 1898, that we have been following for the past 8 weeks, ever since we left Seattle.  If anyone is interested, there is lots more here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chilkoot_Trail

Due to the long hours of sunlight during the short summer, everything grows fast, and often big.  Even the dandelions here can be spectacular - twice the size of normal ones, and they seem to have more colouring to them.

We then followed the dirt road from Dyea back to Skagway, skirting a couple of inlets that are so scenic - A little log cabin nestles at the head of one inlet, and their views down the ford during the year must be superb.  There was also a view point on a hill over looking Skagway, and from the photos you can see how the 4 cruise ships tower over the little town.

Then it was time to leave Skagway, although we had one errand to run. We have a little plastic folding stool that helps us old fogies get up into the back of the van, and the one we had brought from Australia had cracked badly - Even I couldn't mend it !  They are quite hard to find, but we had found a replacement in the Skagway hardware store, of all places - So were going to pick it up.  We also bought a small hatchet there as they had surprisingly good prices - I need a hatchet for my firewood chopping for my camp fires !  Those items collected, and the car refuelled with (cheap) US diesel, we set off, back over the mountains and the Chilkoot Pass, and across the weird rock and lake strewn lands at the top to Canadian Customs.  "How many times have you crossed into Canada on your trip ?"  "Oh, about 8," I said.  "Ever had your car inspected ?" the officer asked.  "Oh yes" I said, trying to keep my nose from growing any longer. "Did they find anything ?", he asked.   "Oh no, its just our camping equipment" I told him - And with that he let us go.    Janet turned to me and said "I don't remember that inspection". "Don't worry about it", I said - 'One's memory gets worse with age....."     Ha ha.

And with that we drove on down to the ton of CarCross, where we planned to stop and explore a little - Not least the excellent little bakery they have there !!  Our travel buddies Arie and Raya had spent time in Carcross doing wood carving at a local workshop, and everyone including them had said it was worth a look.  So we turned into town off the man road, and it is almost a delightful old town, with old buildings, a railway station where the train from Skagway ends up, and the burnt an old stern wheeler that used to ply the area which was almost fully restored a few years ago, when it caught fire and was almost totally destroyed.  They have made a clever frame around the remaining parts to demonstrate what it was once like.   And the sourdough bakery was EXCELLENT, and had free coffee !!

Why did I write that it was "almost" a delightful old town ?  Well, they have built a kind of tourist plaza in the middle, operated by local First Nations, and instead of keeping the spirit of the old town in the buildings, they have built 3 or 4 steel monstrosities, and painted them garishly in kind of modern depictions of old First Nation art, and that's all most of the tourists see as they get off their train to catch their bus back to Skagway.  The old bakery, the other beautiful old original buildings around town, are not seen because the tourists are funnelled into the modern shops which are basically run by the shipping line.  So very sad.

Leaving Carcross we spotted our first live porcupine beside the road - I had seen one some time back, in Juneau, but Janet had missed it.  This one actually hung around for a couple of minutes to allow us to get some pics, before scuttling off into the bushes !!

After that, it was a couple of hours down the road, over the massive Teslin River Bridge, and then, beside the Lake, we found a great little State Parks campsite, where we set up, lit a fire (using my new hatchet to chop my kindling !), and had a very pleasant evening.  Tim and Kerry, from N York and NZ (originally) respectively came over later and we had a long chat with them about our respective journeys.  They were heading north, so we tried to persuade them that the Top of the World Highway was not as bad as they had been told - I wonder if they ended up driving it !!!

Anyway, pleasant evening, skeeters not too bad, (fire helped, I think), and settled down for the night.

Pics are here :- https://picasaweb.google.com/117739775480775657932/0047SkagwayToTetlinLake?authkey=Gv1sRgCOmNu83V8NTZLw#