Skagway, Alaska (and Inside passage)

Today was another early morning, with a 4:20 am wake up, 5:00 am ferry check in and 7:00 am departure. It is amazing how easy it is to start the day that early when there is plenty of sunshine. The 36 degrees does slow me down a bit (but it did warm up nicely during the day).

After stowing our camper on the belly of the ferry and a full breakfast, we settled in for the first half of the day. We got front row seats on the ferry for the 100 mile trip between Juneau and Skagway, via Haines. The ferry voyage is spartan in accomodations, but rich in scenery.

Periodically, we are treated to whale spouts and fins as they cruise up the inside passage. Apparently, we are traversing the deepest and longest fijord in North America, the Lynn canal.

We are on the Leconte. It is one of the smaller ferries in the Alaska Ferry fleet and was built in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin.

Look at the size of the boat next to us.... huge

The view from our seats for the journey

Six hours of one beautiful view after another

There are plenty of humpback whales in the fijord.... this is not one of them. Photo lifted from the internet

What a spot in the middle of the channel

View from the solarium on the rear of the ferry

Our voyage for the day

View of Skagway

We arrived in Skagway a little after 1 pm and jumped into a new era of history, the Klondike Gold Rush. The gold rush in Juneau began in 1880. Gold was discovered in the rivers of the Klondike in 1896. The gold in this area was not mined, but panned out of the rivers. This caused a huge influx of people.

We town is very quaint, but there were 4 huge cruise ships in the docks. We decided to get away from things by going on a bike ride. We rented bikes (e-bikes, thankfully) and headed to the town of Dyea, about 10 miles away.

Dyea is (was) a town of 8,000-10,000 people during the height of the rush. It is up a narrow inlet and ships could not get to the town, so the people and goods needed to be transloaded to smaller boats to get to the town. It is the beginning of the Chilikoot trail, which went 30 miles inland. Your probably recall this photo of the trail in history books. Anyway, it was a very interesting ride with enough wind and elevation change to make the ebikes well worth renting.

Dinner was halibut fish and chips (for me) and a burger for Julie at the Klondike Brewing company. Best fish and chips ever and wonderful beer.