Ah, sitting down at last! Unpacked, laundry running, and the chicken coop cleaned out. (Ken tried but boy, did it need fresh PDZ on the poop board and more litter down in the run and coop!) That banana bread smells delish! Let me just pull up my bucket and tell you the long, long story of the train ride!
We signed up for a "fun, adventure filled day on the Gold Rush Route" in Skagway. It was a 3 part tour, with a visit to a gold panning site, then a bus trip up the mountain where we were supposed to board this old steam powered train to take us back down. The tour was supposed to end at noon with a "gourmet lunch" in Skagway, then we had the rest of the day to shop and sightsee on our own. We had to be back on the ship by 4:30. Um, that was the plan!
.We left the ship about 7:30 am, met with our guide Tyler and headed for one of those touristy spots on a bus for the gold panning. The owners were really great people - shared lots of interesting information and then we each got a pan of gravel to wash. Know how much gold was found in Skagway during the gold rush? Exactly NONE!! I found it fascinating that the jump off point to the gold fields had no gold of its own! Well, except for in the tourist traps, that is. Tam ended up with $3.45 worth in her pan and I got $7.27 worth. Nobody on the tour struck it rich, although one gentleman panned $15.00 worth! Then it was back on the bus and we headed up the mountain.
If you've ever read the book "Alaska" by James Mitchner, this tour would mean something to you. Problem is I just can't make myself toss out books, even if they fall apart when I pick them up. Consequently I have 3 copies of it because I've read each of them so often they end up in really sorry shape and need replacing. Now I have it on my iPad. Anyway, there were two routes to Bennett Lake and one of them involved the famous Chilkoot Trail. The route crosses the mountains from Dyea to the lake and crosses into Canada. The Canadian Mounted Police wouldn't let anyone cross the border unless they were carrying at least a ton of provisions each, including food, mining equipment, and the materials to build their own boats once they reached the bottom of the trail at Bennett Lake. Imagine that! A narrow trail, too narrow for pack animals, and a line of people up and down the mountain as far as could be seen! Steps were cut into the trail where it was steepest (called the "Golden Steps") and most people could only carry about 60 pounds at a time. If they got out of the line for any reason, it could take them hours to step back in. Google "Chilkoot White Pass into Dawson" and the pictures of these miners walking with their heads down against the winds carrying all of this stuff will floor you!
They carried their packs as far as they could, dropped them, walked back down the mountain and grabbed the next pack, then started over again. They did this time after time, in the dead of winter, until all of their goods were stashed at the top of the mountain, then they had to do the same thing to get back down. There is one historic photo showing the line of prospectors on that "Golden Staircase" that says it all. White Pass was the other trail....not much easier but room for a pack animal.....in desperation they used dogs, horses, mules, and even sheep as pack animals. Many horses couldn't take the pass and would drop - they were killed if they weren't dead already and pushed over the side of the mountain into a place they later started calling "Dead Horse Gulch." An estimated 3000 horses died on this part of the trail.
Then a narrow gauge railroad was built over the pass. That's the part of the tour I wanted to take because I could see all of those spots I've read so much about. We opted for the one way train trip - up the mountain by bus and the train back down. The bus dropped us off at the Canadian/US border checkpoint (which is actually located beyond the border) after a member of the CRMP got on our bus and checked all of our passports. We got on the train for the 1&1/2 hour trip back down the mountain. We didn't get too far before the train came to a jarring halt...it uses a dynamic braking system and the stops are horrible! We sat there for over 10 minutes not knowing what was going on or why we were stopped. Then they announced that one of the engines had a warning light flashing and they needed to check it out. Without the engine functioning properly there is no braking, and on a grade that steep that's the last thing they wanted to try! A little bit later they said that everything looked okay so we would resume in a few minutes. Well, we did, but we didn't get too far before there was another neck-busting stop, this one near the boundary, one of the few spots where there is a siding, so we were less likely to cause a problem for other trains coming up and going down the trail.
We weren't going anywhere! I'm not sure how much time passed before they decided that all of the passengers in the rear 5 cars had to move forward and we all needed to make room for them. Then they unhooked the engines, used the good engine to move the bad engine onto the siding, and unhooked those last five cars, using the good engine to move them to the siding as well. Interestingly this was happening right at the official boundary marker between Canada and the US, so we crossed the border in that one spot 3 times with all the backing up and jockeying cars and engines into position! With one less engine and 5 fewer cars we were finally on our way. This pass is hairy nasty! It's a steep grade, lots of trestles, narrow and the drop offs are deep so we really had to proceed carefully. The engineer is fully qualified to operate the trains, but the tour itself is conducted mostly by kids on their summer break from college, which did little for our confidence - and they weren't too confident either.
When we were over halfway down, there was another siding. They announced that we had to pull off onto that siding to allow two trains going up to get past us. The climbing trains have the right-of-way because once they get some momentum going for the climb they can't just stop. They said we'd be sitting there for a little bit, then announced there were actually three trains coming up - no wait, make that four.....nope, wrong again, that would be five trains. So we just sat there again. The scenery was great! But we couldn't get off the train for any reason, and they kept giving us bottles of water - no bathroom, just water! We were tired and hungry, but I just kept thinking of the hardships that the people who had to walk over this thing faced and it seemed so petty to whine!
In all the train trip down, scheduled to take about an hour and a half, took over three and a half hours. We got to our tour bus at 20 after 3 instead of noon. We had already filled out our orders for the meal, either "Gourmet Chicken Pot Pie" or Smoked Salmon Pasta, and their staff had been advised about our delay so they were ready for us when we got there. Tyler dropped us off at the restaurant and said he'd be back in an hour to take us back to the ship, and that the ship had been notified of the problem and was prepared to wait for us. Lunch was absolutely awful - worst stuff I've ever put into my mouth! As hungry as I was, there was no way I could take any more than the two bites I did. If anyone ever offers you "Gourmet Chicken Pot Pie", RUN! I swear the owner had just discovered seasonings and tried them all in one dish! I wasn't the only one, either! And I didn't know that the gravy in chicken pot pie was supposed to be PINK! Not kidding here! Tam ordered an iced tea - it would have been nice to see a menu ahead of time to know that it was an herbal iced tea.......tasted exactly like the taste you get in your mouth when you are spraying OFF insect repellent on your skin on a windy day! We had all eaten breakfast on the ship at 6 am, had nothing until that lunch at 3:30, and not one person ate their lunches!! The restaurant used to be a bordello during the gold rush - the new owners would make more money and have more satisfied customers if they had kept it as one!
We made it back to the ship at exactly 4:25 - then had to go through security to board, which took a little more time. It was so funny to see all of the people on that particular train hitting the nearest restroom and then beating feet for the buffet lines. But while we were sitting on the train waiting for the 5 other trains to go by, the kids running the tour came to front of each car with a bag full of hats. They announced that the hats are usually for sale at the end of the train ride for 10 bucks each, but for our trouble they were going to give them out at no charge. Tam said she didn't want one - I made her take one for Evan anyway. Then I wore mine the rest of the day, as did many others! I figured I earned that hat!! Later on the ship announced that we'd all get a refund for that portion of the shore excursion, and heck, 50 bucks is 50 bucks!
Interesting side-note about Skagway and Wyodreamer's hubby's gift of rhubarb to all.....in Skagway during the gold rush days one intrepid young man figured he'd never make it to the Yukon but there were other ways of making money. He had rhubarb seeds! Miners and others were dropping dead of scurvy, so he used the seeds to start growing it there. It's cold hardy, comes up early in the spring, and is full of vitamin C. Now you can't see a yard or a lot without rhubarb growing on it! Tyler said that Skagway has so much rhubarb that it now grows wild.
And when I got home all the ducks let me pick them up and put them right in there house for the night. First night I'm not putting food or water in with them. Pretty happy they are finally old enough! Less mess I'm sure!
