Welcome to the Yukon

Posted on June 12, 2013June 12, 2013 by Dusty Roads

Move over Dudley Do-Right!

We are standing in the famous Yukon Territory! ( Not really. Its actually British Columbia but don’t tell the tourists) There be gold in them thar hills! Or so the stampeeders believed but once they reached Lake Bennett with all of their supplies they had to wait for the snow to melt. Then they built rafts and waited for the Yukon River to melt. Once spring came, they sailed down the rapids into gold territory.

According to the exhibits located at the visitor Center , miners put boats in the Tutshi River near the canyon where the suspension bridge is today. Looking at the rapids as they swirled down under the bridge and beyond its hard to believe they could take fully loaded boats and survive. Many didn’t survive and many other lost everything except their lives.

Tutshi River and Canyon today is one of the top white water rafting spots of North America.

It was cold here. The wind was blowing. This is the start of spring in the north and it was cold. I’d tried to imagine how cold it must have been when the miners dragged their supplies here to wait for the spring thaw.

But enough exploring the exhibits. It was time to cross the suspension bridge. That was what we came here for. No chickening out.

This was a pretty sturdy bridge as suspension bridges go but when you got to the middle you were at the mercy of the wind that gained momentum as it raced down the canyon from the icy tops of the surrounding mountains.

On the far side of the bridge was a platform and at the rear of the platform a wooden boardwalk that led to a tiny cabin. Just the basic 4 walls,a stove for heat, a bed frame and a tub for washing if you dared; this tiny cabin illustrated the conditions the stampeeders experienced as they waited for spring.

Chilled to the bone we returned across the suspension bridge to the visitor center to warm up and explore the souvenirs. The hot chocolate was pretty good too.

This was where we had out passports stamped with the Yukon Suspension Bridge stamp.

Gateway to the Klondike

Posted on June 11, 2013June 11, 2013 by Dusty Roads

The ship arrived in Skagway in the wee hours of the morning or maybe it was night.

It’s getting harder and harder to tell with the late sunsets and early sunrises the farther north we go.

Skagway is located at the northern tip of Alaska’s Inside Passage.

As we roused ourselves for the day’s adventures we looked out on a busy dock with a rock wall to hold the bank in place.

Above the rock wall on the boulders embedded in mountainside we saw logos and ship’s names painted. The story is that when a crew likes the captain they come ashore and paint the ship’s ID on the rocks, the higher and more dangerous, the more the captain is esteemed.

After breakfast, with the all clear to go ashore, we headed down to find the excursion bus that would take us to the White Pass and Yukon Railroad.

We needed our passports because this adventure would take us into the Klondike region of Canada.

The train would take us through the White Horse Pass. During the gold rush in 1896 there wasn’t a train. The stampeeders ( prospectors) had to either take the Chilkoot Trail which was shorter but steeper or the White Horse Pass that was longer but summited lower at 2885 ft. Both ways were challenging and deadly. The Canadian Mounties waited at Lake Bennett to check supplies. Anyone without enough to survive was turned back at the border.

I can assure you the train was much easier but even today it was easy to see the challenge. We passed huge gullies and mountainsides as the train wound its way to the summit.

We passed over trestle bridges and passed into and out of fog banks and clouds.

Water poured down the mountainsides in everything from torrents to trickles as the snow on the peaks began its spring melt.

Pretty soon we had reached the snowline but even though we were traveling through snow the water continued its downward path. At times we were so close to the mountain side that a foolish person could have reached out and touched the rocks as they flew by…and lost a hand or arm had they been so careless.

At times we could see across the “gulch” where another train ahead of us was already traveling upward or maybe returning downward.

We could see where we would soon be. More than any place else that we’d been, this train ride captured the true wildness of the Alaska mountains.

I admit, I stood in the cold outside the car in an attempt to capture some of the fantastic wilderness that surrounded us. My efforts fell far short of what we actually saw. The fog or clouds (depending on who you ask) only added to the drama of the ride.

Once we arrived at Lake Bennett we had to wait for the Canadian Customs Agents. We were told not to speak unless spoken to, to have our passports out and open and to NOT TAKE ANY PICTURES!

2 Agents boarded and made their way down the aisle. They never smiled. They were quite intimidating. The only time they spoke was to ask a foreign visitor for his visa as well as his passport. He had the visas for his whole family so they checked all of them then left the train.

The bus was waiting to take us to the next stop, a suspension bridge. Everyone headed to the lake to take pictures but the bus driver rounded us up with promises that we’d be back and we could take pictures then. He said we had a schedule to keep.

Next Stop, Skagway!

Posted on June 10, 2013June 10, 2013 by Dusty Roads

It was All Aboard at 8pm in Juneau as the Island Princess prepared to set sail shortly thereafter. It was getting lighter every night with sunset getting later and later as we traveled farther north.

Juneau to Skagway 99 nautical miles speed 10.8 knots

Before we leave Juneau behind a few tid-bits about the Capital of Alaska;

1. There are no roads into or out of Juneau. The only way to access the capital is by air or sea. If you have a need to visit the capital for Official Business then the state of Alaska will pay for your trip in and back out of the city.

2. Juneau is the 3rd largest City in Alaska in spite of it’s access problems.

3. The area of Juneau is larger than that of Rhode Island and Delaware individually and almost as large as the two states combined.

4. Downtown Juneau sits at sea level, with tides averaging 16 feet.

5. Juneau is the only U.S. state capital located on an international border. (Canada to the east)

So with that bit of trivia out of the way we will cast off and sail through the Upper Lynn Canal. By morning we will be safely moored in the Port of Skagway.

Skagway gets it’s name from the Tlingit people: ” a windy place with white caps on the water.” We have a very full day excursion in Skagway. We’re riding the rails on the White Pass & Yukon Railroad, visiting a suspension bridge, and ending with a “Garden Lunch”.

The Garden Lunch has me worried because I don’t eat Quiche and it sounds as though that might be the only option. We’ll just have to see.

2 for 2

Posted on June 9, 2013June 9, 2013 by Dusty Roads

Since it’s Sunday I thought I’d take a break from the Alaska story to brag a little bit. While we were in Alaska and unable to obtain a copy of the Boston Sunday Globe, another of my pictures got published. It was the Sunday May 19th issue. The picture appeared in the travel section under the feature called The Sight. That is the 2nd picture they have accepted. I managed to get some back issues so here it is.

Just had to share the news 🙂 Tomorrow I’ll start telling you about Skagway.

The Story of Romeo

Posted on June 8, 2013June 8, 2013 by Dusty Roads

Ok I promised to tell you about Romeo so here it is.

This is the story of Romeo, the Mendenhall Glacier Wolf. I first heard it from our guide, Phil, but since then I have seen many children’s’ books. This version is condensed from The Alaska Cruise Companion.

Romeo’s story began one day in April 2003, when a young black wolf was struck and killed by a car within 1/4 mile of Mendenhall Visitor Center. Sad as this event was, park officials made the best of it and retrieved the wolf so that at least it could be prepared for display in the visitor’s center. They determined it was a female black wolf, which is a sub species of the gray wolf, and they also determined it was a young female. Young females will generally only leave a family pack with a new mate to start a family of their own, so park officials expected to see the mate in the area. Over the summer there was no sign but during the long, cold winter nights of November that year, residents repeatedly heard howls of a lone wolf ringing across the wilderness of the lake.

The first sighting came shortly after the new year, in January 2004. A local naturalist and author, Nick Jans , was skiing across the Lake with his dog Dakota when he noticed a lone set of wolf tracks stretching across the lake. He took Dakota home and returned to the lake , and encountered the wolf for the first time. It was alone and it was a young male black wolf. A solitary wolf is unusual , especially in winter when wolves typically regroup with their family packs to ensure successful hunting, so when Jans reported the lone wolf sighting, wildlife officials presumed they had found the mate for the young female killed earlier in the year.

As the winter stretched on, the young wolf began to appear regularly , even accompanying Jans and Dakota on their routings across the lake. The wolf would play with Dakota , just like any other dog might, and even took to following the duo home. There he waited outside the house for the female lab to appear, leading to his nickname, Romeo. Unbelievably, this went on for many years. Romeo would disappear over the summer but return each winter once the visitors had left and the lake was frozen over.

The iconic appearance of a lone black wolf against the dramatic backdrop of the snow-white lake was enough to draw attention on it’s own , but Romeo was also sociable, and other visitors to the lake had the same experience as Jans and Dakota. Romeo would appear and play with the pets even fetching tennis balls. He didn’t become a pet. No one tried to feed him or pet him but he quickly became a living legend in the region.

In 2009, the story took a sad turn. Romeo failed to reappear that fall and in fact was not seen or heard of again. Eventually a wolf pelt surfaced that was identified as Romeo’s, and in May 2010, two hunters were charged with illegally shooting the protected wolf.

Although Romeo is gone now he dispelled many misconceptions about wolves and in so doing has become a legend.

For more details Nick Jans has written a new book, Glacier Wolf, about his encounters with Romeo.