We had a late morning - we didn't sleep well because it was SO COLD. It was around zero last night and it was so cold that we had the little heater going in the tent most of the night PLUS I had to sleep with long johns and my hoodie on but we woke up to sunny skies which was great after all the rain. We packed up camp and hit the road around 10am. The Alaska Highway west of Teslin is more of the same - lots of trees and not much else. There are quite a few side-of-the-road lodges/resorts/gas stations that have closed up. We made it to Jakes Corner and it was equally run down so it was hard to tell if it was open or not but it was. We bought some gas and inside, they have a very nice little bakery so we had some coffee and a sweet and carried on the road to Tagish and Carmacks. Here, the road gets narrow and twisty which was fun on the bikes - a little more interesting than the Alaska HIghway. Not much in Tagish but Carmacks has a little heritage town center and is a pit stop for many of the bus tours loaded with cruise ship folks from Skagway. From Carmacks, the trip gets very interesting. The mountains start showing up and you start gaining altitude as you head towards the American border.
We pulled over at Log Cabin, the location of an old townsite at the top of the Chilcoot Trail. Not much to see but the Federal Government has an info spot there that explains the significance of the site. The road continues to climb and quickly you get into the thick of HUGE mountains that spike into the sky. They're glorious and all around, the terrain quickly becomes rocky and barren as you ride along the top of the tree line. Big patches of snow still dot the mountains and sides of the road and, today, it was bitterly cold and windy. My thermometer said 3 degrees C and then you have to factor in the windchill. Thank heavens for electric gear. It sure came in handy today.
At the train stop of Fraser, the Canadian customs has their check point.
The US check point is 12kms further West. We crossed into the US and from here, the road drops from about 4500 ft. to sealevel in about 20 kms - the road just twists and winds it's way down through mountainous crevasses until you roll into the town of Skagway.
We would compare this road to the Going To The Sun Highway in Glacier National Park in Montana. It's spectacular. If you don't want to drive it, from Skagway you can take the White Pass heritage narrow-gauge train up the Chilcoot Pass and see the whole thing that way. It's just unbelievable that so many people walked up this pass loaded with literally tons of goods that the government required each person have to gain entry. I always think of the photo on the cover of the Pierre Burton book and wonder what would possess a sane person to set out on such a journey!
Skagway is a tourist town that hops for the 5 month cruise ship season. Today, there were 3 cruise ships in port and about 10,000 tourists (according to several of the locals) wandering about.
We talked to Chris, who owns Discount Tours, and he said there are about 24 cruise ships a week. All the businesses have the ship schedules so they know exactly when they will show up and how many people will get off. The majority of the businesses are seasonal and Skagway only has a resident population of about 450 during the winter months.
We went to the famous Red Onion Saloon and Brothel for dinner based on the recommendation of several people and had really good thin crust pizza. It really was a brothel back in the day and for $10, you can do The Quickie - the 20 minute guided tour of the upstairs brothel. Alas, we missed the last tour but might go back again tomorrow... :)
We're staying at the Garden City RV park but, after cruising through town after dinner, we happened upon the Pullan Creek RV park which is right on the waterfront by the marina. There is a nice park across the road and you can watch the goings-on of the cruise ships from there. If we came back again, we would stay there instead. The Garden RV park is OK but a little shaginappy. Only a very few of the sites have picnic tables and the whole place looks run down. The bathrooms smell mouldy and you have to pay for a shower.
Tomorrow, we have to catch the only ferry to Haines. Apparently, the ferry service is a little unpredictable. One local said that it's even up in the air if the runs will continue and, at the moment, some of them are passenger only and some will take vehciles and they don't always run consistently. We found out a vehicle ferry goes tomorrow at 3pm so we have to be on that one or we have to back track. We will do the circle route through Haines up to Haines Junction and then on to Whitehorse.
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