I knew this year seemed longer.

Just out of curiosity, I looked at last year's entry for Sept. 27. We left that day and got snow the first two days out. This year we leave on the 30th, but only to Tagish, then out on the 1st. I hope the snows don't come. We can drive in snow, but it will be slower. And I don't really want to put chains on.
We went out for dessert last night (no dessert, too near the end-of-season). So we had a burger and onion rings. Looking around, we noticed, not for the first time, that young people here (both male and female) wear knit watch caps, and other European caps I don't know the names of. Are they doing that in AZ and NY? Is that just an Alaskan thing due to climate? Or is it a fashion statement like low pants? (Low pants are not in here.) The reason I ask is that it is the seasonal workers that dress that way, so I wonder if they bring the custom with them or pick it up once they get here. Curiously, there don't seem to be many locals in that twenty-something age group.
Speaking of dessert, I counted 21 restaurants operating seasonally in town. We have eaten at 16 of them, and only two are on the "don't go back" list. Eight are on the "really good" list. The rest are "okay." Four of them will be open for at least part of the winter. Never more than two at the same time, though. About half a dozen are already closed, along with about the same number of other shops. Some tour operators have also shuttered. Never book the last tour of the season, or, probably, the first.
Still speaking of dessert, I must go to the Lemon Rose bakery. She moved to a larger building this year and has a sit-down area, and does more sandwiches. She also still runs out of bread too soon. She intends to be one of the places open all year. I have only had two cinnamon rolls all summer, and no turnovers. Today is a hot chocolate (or coffee) and cinnamon roll kind of day. To make it truly rewarding, I will walk the tttwo bbblocks in the ccooold rraain. The cinnamon rolls better be fresh and warm!

And the rains came....

Okay, you've seen and heard about the snow storm on Friday. It has been raining ever since. Today it is coming with a vengeance. The wind is intermittently harsh. The temperature is in the thirties.
With four days between tours, there is a lot of time to fill. Luckily, packing is a time filling activity. I can't believe we brought so much stuff.
I took Peggie to work (they are doing inventory) and decided to drive up to the summit to see what had become of the snow. It is mostly melted.
On the way back, black bear number 101 came out of the canyon right in front of me. I hit the brakes and he ran off the road. It was close. Would have been ironic for 101 to be road kill.
Our card playing crew decided to go to the Stowaway for the final Sunday brunch of the season. Allyson is in the lower 48, but everybody else was there

l to r: Peggie, Trish, Keith, Jane, Robert, Lynn, Bill

Did Peggie say "winter?"

My tour today was supposed to go to the Yukon border, 52 miles north of Skagway. By the time we got to the Alaska border, 14 miles north of Skagway, this is what it looked like. The background of this sign is dark brown. The two intrepid photographers are my San Diego based passengers who were thrilled to see snow.

We pressed confidently on because I naively thought the snow would let up when we dropped in altitude. By the time we reached Fraser, six more miles, I remembered that up here it is latitude not altitude that matters. We turned back at that point, along with two other tour busses who got wise at the same time.

Do I look calm and confident? The passengers were so excited to see snow they didn't mind turning back early.
We were glad we had stopped at the Alaska sign on the way out, because by the time we got back to it the snow was several inches deeper, and it is uphill from the sign. By the time we got back to town it was clear that the word had spread, no tour busses were north bound.
I called to cancel tomorrow's oil change in Whitehorse and was told that was wise, since the road was closed anyway.
So we have until next Wednesday for the weather to improve. And I am off work until then.

We'd better leave cause winter is on its way!

This is the view out our front door this morning. That's new snow and new clouds. We'll see what develops through the weekend.

Historic Skagway Inn Garden

I came home for lunch at noon today. The sky was blue, the sun was shining, there was no wind and THE TEMPERATURE WAS 35 DEGREES!!! Even the people who live here year round agreed that it was a bit nippy. We're supposed to have a storm coming in tomorrow so I hurried out after work to get some pictures of the garden across the street.

Emily, the gardener at the Skagway Inn, has worked hard all summer to create a wonderful garden. She's out there early in the morning each day wearing a coat, hat and gloves. She was especially excited about ten days ago because the sunflowers started blooming. Yesterday was the first day we had frost on the cars so the end to the sunflowers is probably near. They didn't all open yet but I loved getting pictures of them at the various stages.

I've posted an album (I think). I don't do it often enough to be sure it will load. Greg gave me a set of close-up filters for my camera to enhance macro shots so I had a good time experimenting.

Hope you enjoy the pictures. I love the flowers up here.

A Trip With The Professional Driver

Peggie's pictures, Bill's narrative:

It is the end of the season, and we had three no-ship days surrounding a single-ship day, so we talked our employers into a four day weekend. The plan was to go to Dawson City, YT, where gold was discovered in 1896, setting off the gold rush that was responsible for the establishment of Skagway, the creation of The Yukon Territory, and the opening up of Alaska and NW Canada.
Since then, over $13,000,000,000 in gold has been mined. We needed to see this place!

So we woke up early, filled our travel mugs with coffee, and hit the road. We decided we could stop for breakfast in Whitehorse and pick up some other items while we were there. We left Skagway at 7:30.

This was our view at Fraser. (Canadian Customs) Fraser Lake was warmer than the air, so a nice fog was laid in, just over the water.

We had a nice breakfast at the Edgewater Hotel in Whitehorse, then continued up the North Klondike Highway to Dawson City. We crossed the Yukon River on the third of four bridges that cross the river. One is on the Alaska Highway, so we crossed it in '95. Two is in Whitehorse and we crossed it last summer going to get Peggie's haircut. Four is on the Dalton Highway along side the pipeline, and we crossed it in '95 also. So now we have driven across all the bridges that cross the Yukon.
Not far north of the bridge we came to this.

Five Finger Rapids is the only rapids remaining on the river now that Schwatka Lake covers the Whitehorse Rapids. During the first stampede 7123 homemade boats attempted the 550 mile float from Lake Bennett to Dawson. Some of the boats capsized in the swift water coursing between the islands making up the five channels.
We arrived at Dawson City B&B in the early evening and met our hosts, Jon and Inday. We got settled and found an open restaurant (many are closed for the season) called the Sluice Box Lounge. If that name won't get you in the door, what's wrong with you. The food was remarkably good. So we returned the second night.
Meanwhile, Inday was very helpful in telling us about places to go. One of the places was Midnight Dome. It is a mountain behind the town where early residents held a solstice party to see the midnight sun. They were dissappointed to find that the sun actually sets at 11:30 in Dawson. Oh, well. Here is what we saw on Saturday morning.

The fog was only on the river. The river coming in just below the fog is the Klondike. The town is on the delta created at the junction of the two rivers. The big river is the Yukon. If you zoom in, you can see a small houseboat floating in the Yukon.
Turning to the east we followed the course of the Klondike and got a picture of the earthworms left behind by the large dredges brought in by the large companies that bought up most of the claims.

These mounds are made as floating dredges dump the waste rock aside as they move along the stream bed. You can see the relative size of the mounds, called earthworms, due to the obvious similarity. Dredges are now illegal, as a means of extracting minerals. The Klondike and feeder creeks were dredged for miles. Look at Googleearth to get a good idea. As you can see, the mounds are flattened and reclaimed for use in various ways. There is even the attractively named Dredge Pond Subdivision up river a ways. We could hardly resist purchasing one of the seen-ick lots.

I really wanted to see Bonanza Creek, where the first, or Discovery Claim was made.

Here I am confirming that all the gold has been found. Actually, you can't take anything from this claim. But I didn't give up. Bring on the heavy equipment.

Big toys for big boys. This bad boy probably last pushed rock before I was born.

So we went on to Claim 6, which is public, and you can legally pan for gold. If you bring your own pan. Oh, well.

On Sunday we checked out and headed to the Top of the World Highway to go to Chicken, AK and on to Tok. But first you have to cross the Yukon River, without a bridge. So, to the George Black.

George Black is a ferry. Don't snicker. Check the spelling of ferry!

Yes, we actually trusted our lives to this little craft. So now we have crossed the Yukon at all five highway crossings and lived to tell about it.

The Top of the World Highway is appropriately named. It stays at or near the tops of the mountains, instead of going up and down along the sides as usual. At the Alaska border the name of the road changes to the Taylor Highway, and the surface goes from paved to dirt, and the road narrows considerably, and drops off the top down into the creek bottom. And earlier in the summer the creek did what creeks do and washed out the road. They are getting it back into shape, but we had to wait about an hour for a pilot car to take us through the construction.

But eventually we came back on top and got this view. You really have to zoom in and see the white capped peaks between the last blue mountains and the sky.

That is the Alaska Range. At least 300 miles away!!!!

We were blessed with clear skies for the entire trip. This picture looks like all of Alaska had clear skies.

We spent the night in Tok then drove home today.

We made four border crossings without any hassles. Changed time zones four times without getting confused. We drove over 1100 miles with no "adventures." The only four-legged animal we saw was a coyote. If we had four more days off, we would turn around and do the whole thing in reverse. Indescribable.

A short hiatus

Today we leave for Dawson City, Yukon. We will come back Monday.
Dawson City is the town that sprang up at the junction of the Klondike and Yukon Rivers during the gold rush. We will visit the actual creeks where the gold was discovered. Mostly we are going to see what the country looks like up there.
We will cross No. 3 of the four Yukon River bridges. Then, if conditions permit, we will ferry across before driving to Chicken, AK and on to Tetlin Junction for our return via Alaska Highway.
We are still enjoying clear skies and mild temperatures, though it drops below freezing every night in Dawson now. I see that AZ is still in the throws of full-on summer. You need to get past that so we can come home.

A milestone reached!

I have been keeping track out of curiosity, marking in my calendar on each occasion.
Monday, I had my 100th black bear sighting.
It averages out to about one per trip.
I purposely separated grizzlies into a different category because we seldom (once, this year) see them on tour. Thirteen, bty.
I saw THE BEAR six times, but only counted it once, because I knew for sure it was the same one every time.

No Snotty Weather!

Someone came into the quilt shop today and asked Trish, the owner, about September weather. She replied that Skagway is known for SNOTTY weather in September. It may be cloudy, raining, sleeting, snowing. It's just SNOTTY! The wind howls and you try to walk down the street and you're not sure you're moving forward. It's just SNOTTY! I think that's a great description because last year we found September to be like that--SNOTTY!

Well, not this week. We are having BEAUTIFUL, DROP-DEAD GORGEOUS WEATHER. No wind,no clouds, no rain, no snow, no sleet. Just plenty of sunshine. BEAUTIFUL and NOT SNOTTY weather. Combine that with the end of the season nearing and seasonal people beginning to leave and it's barbeque and party-time.

Definitely NOT SNOTTY! But a wee bit tiring--the partying, not the weather.

Northern Lights

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK
hmmm, whatsat?
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK
jussaminit
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK BILL, NORTHERN LIGHTS ALERT

That's how our neighbor, Chris, woke us up at midnight last night to let us know the lights were on. So we went out to our back yard and watched the green curtains of lights drift down from the north, then dissipate as they got overhead. Sometimes intense, sometimes looking like the glow over Phoenix from up in the mountains. You can see them moving, like a big curtain blowing in a slow wind.
So forgive me if I sound a little tired. I lost an hour's worth of sleep. But it really is a beautiful show. We both tried to get pictures, but they didn't come out.
And now we add one more new experience to our otherwise mundane existence.
Priceless.

Odds and Endings

Even when you get to be as old as I am, you can have new experiences. Honest.

Today, for instance, was the first time in my whole life that I got rained on while having my haircut. My barber this summer, Peggie, has a very primitive shop. It is in our back yard. It was going fine, the beard trimmer working hard to get through all that hair on my head (stop snickering, parts of my head have hair) when it began to rain. Peggie continued bravely on and finished the job without either of us getting soaked.

In other news, Jane is back. Yay!

Also, yesterday (Friday) was the annual Klondike Road Relay. About 1500 (really) runners come to Skagway from all over southeast Alaska and Yukon to run a relay from here to Whitehorse.
Why? Nobody knows. Least of all the participants. They take off in groups every half hour from 6pm to 11pm. Team members are transported to various transfer points where fires and toilets and food and water are available. The legs are of varying lengths depending on the relative difficulty. ie more uphill=shorter leg
There are running teams and walking teams. A winner is declared sometime this afternoon in Whitehorse. By this afternoon, the toilets, fire barrels and litter are all removed and you could never guess the road had been full of people all night.

Another sign the season is ending. Ships are making their last port call. Neither of today's two ships will return this year.

Let's go for a drive and see all the Fall colors, he said.

.

I must admit I was a doubting Thomas at the beginning of this little scenic drive but heck, he's a professional tour driver so...

I'm beginning to see some Fall colors...

Oh yeah...


Hmm...


Yep, he knew what he was talking about...

I gave him a tip. I told him which restaurant to take me to for dinner.

African Childrens' Choir

Tonight we went to the school to see the African Childrens' Choir perform.
The children are from war-torn and poverty stricken countries in Africa. They are given an education and other training and helped to establish meaningful careers. But first, they sing.
And they dance. Boy, do they dance!
If they come to perform near you, go see them.

Then we came out. And it was raining. And it was dark. And it was a cold rain.
It is September 5th, all you Arizonans, and it is cold and raining. The thermometer in the Jeep said 51. Just before we went, we were sitting outside with a friend, enjoying the break in the day-long rain, and we thought it was nice because we only had to wear light jackets.

We are both expecting very busy weeks. Peggie has several quilt clubs coming on cruises, and I have several double-run days. After Sunday it will start to taper off, with some no-ship days beginning on the 17th. We are still hoping the weather will allow us to go to Dawson City. We will not be able to make the loop drive around to Tok and back because a rock slide took out the road between Dawson City and Chicken and it won't be repaired any time soon.

Substitute photos

I know we are derelict in our duty to publish photos. But look at the ones Greg put on his blog. His whale photos are cool and the bear photos are amazing. And, of course, Ariana is cute.
We miss GaT already. It sure was great to have them here.

But now it is September. We await the return of Jane. Soon.

We waited too long to book the ferry, it is full. So we have no choice but to drive home. We didn't want to do it. But since we have to, we will spend a few days in British Columbia while trying to keep our jaws from dropping clear off at every turn and hill. The only real worry is winter weather. But, hey, we have a Jeep, we have chains. We are young and fearless.