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Skagway
Tracy Arm Fjord
Prince Rupert, BC
Visions of the Sea

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Monday morning we awoke to find ourselves docked in Skagway. No tender boats this time, we could step right onto the pier. After a nice breakfast in the Windjammer Café, we took a shuttle bus into town. It was only about 5 blocks, but we decided to save our energy. Skagway is an old gold rush town that has been reborn as a tourist town. Not much here except gift shops. The regular population is only about 800, probably less in winter. We walked around most of the morning before stopping for coffee and a cookie and heading back to the pier to meet up with our respective tour groups.

We took the White Pass and Yukon Route train over White Pass to Fraser, British Columbia. We were in different cars because my group was going on the bike ride and Mother took the bus tour back. The train was built in 1898. It ascends about 3,000 feet in twenty miles. It is supposedly one of the steepest railroads in the world, but it was not a cog rail. The views were spectacular. White Pass is above the timber line and pretty stark tundra. The pass is the border between Alaska and British Columbia – that is, between USA and Canada. On the way we saw four caribou. There was also a bear sited, but not by me.

We proceeded about 10 more miles to Fraser, BC where the train station is. There the bicyclist got in a van and headed back down the Klondike Highway until we were in Alaska again and headed downhill. We were checked out on the Trek 18 speed mountain bikes, issued helmets, and pointed down the road. There were 9 guests and 2 guides in our group. We made a couple of stops and cruised into Skagway, 15 miles away in about an hour. I was sorry to see the town come into sight because I wasn’t done riding yet. We had a leisurely ride through town and stopped at the bike store to check in our equipment. I walked the half mile or so back to the ship.