We got up early as the ship docked in Skagway to go to a dis-embarkation presentation at 7:30. The National Park Service has acquired a number of buildings in Skagway. Apparently more historic buildings remain from the Gold Rush in Skagway than in any other towns, including all the California gold towns, so the Park Service has several museums and other exhibits in various buildings in the town, and more are in process of restoration or awaiting restoration. The Park Ranger gave a nice talk, then various groups were released over the course of forty minutes or so while the Ranger answered questions. We learned quite a bit about Skagway and the nearby town of Dyea’s roles in the Klondike Gold Rush (the northern-most ports that most ships from Seattle went to, so the beginning of the ‘overland portion’ of the Stampede trail to Dawson City), and the history and context of that Gold Rush.
We were the last group to go with our tour guide, Nate. We boarded a bus and took a tour of Skagway and the surrounding area. We drove through the historic downtown area, then up to an overlook on the ridge above the town.
Next we stopped at a cemetery where some of the Gold Rush people were buried. About 100,000 hopeful prospectors made it from the lower 48 states up to Skagway or Dyea, but only 20,000 - 30,000 of them made it to Dawson City where the gold was. And of those, it was primarily only the people who were there at the very beginning (before the rush) who got rich. Most ended up giving up and going home penniless, but some also died. The fanciest gravestone was that of Frank Reid, who died in a shootout with the notorious scammer and villain of Skagway, “Soapy Smith”.
There was another little plot with an unusual marker.
We also walked up to Reid Falls, a nearby waterfall named after Frank Reid.
With the tour over, we dropped some of our carry-on luggage at the hotel and went to the Skagway Brewing Company for lunch and had a taster flight and some appetizers. Their hummus was delicious and the French fries were OK. The brewery is most famous for their Spruce Tip Blonde beer, and it was the one we liked best. They made a Tongass Mule “beer cocktail” using Spruce Tip Blonde and some house-made ginger syrup that was the highlight of my day.
We had booked an excursion prior to the cruise to go to a sled dog “summer camp”, so after lunch we had only a short time to wander the town before we had to go back to the cruise ship dock to join the excursion. We rode a bus out to Dyea, then crossed the Taiya river to get to this unusual property which features the sled dogs as well as zip lines and, I think, some other tourism business. We boarded a Unimog to drive up the steep side of the glacier-sculpted valley to the sled dog camp.
Once we arrived, the dogs were very excited because they knew what was to come, so to keep them happy we quickly boarded little golf-cart-type wagons with tail-boards in the back for mushers to stand on. The dog teams pulled us in these carts around a short dirt road loop a few times, and it was entertaining to see how enthusiastic the dogs were to pull the heavy carts, how bratty the dogs sometimes tried to be, but also how quickly they responded to the musher’s commands and admonitions.
Many of the teams really are at a “dog summer camp” – it is a way to keep these racing dogs in shape over the summer and out of trouble while their owners pursue the non-sled-racing aspects of their careers. Our cart was mushed by a lady who needs only one more race finish to qualify for the Iditarod, and the dogs were all hers, so she had a very close relationship to the dogs.
After being pulled around for a while, we boarded the Unimog again and rode back down the hill. We stopped at an overlook of the Taiya river valley on the way back down the hill and managed to get some interesting photos of eagles. This may be a mating pair flirting, or it might have been a dispute – it was difficult to tell.
Back at the bottom of the hill they gave us a short presentation about the Iditarod. Then we got to pick up sled dog puppies, some three weeks old and some six weeks. The tourists help socialize the puppies who, if they go racing, will receive a lot of attention and need to be used to strangers touching them.
It was an unusual tour activity, but our guide was really nice and we learned a lot about sled dogs, racing, and the area. The Iditarod has an interesting history and has a large cultural significance in keeping up an interest in dog-pulled sleds, a long tradition that began to fade quickly when snow machines became popular. You can read more about it at Wikipedia.
We returned to town and checked in to our hotel. I did a bit of sink laundry and we had a glass of wine with my sister-in-law, then we went to a Thai restaurant for dinner. We ate fairly healthy food today, which felt good after being on the ship. Then we spent at least an hour in the hotel lobby making use of the WiFi there. And my nephew was re-united with his suitcase.