Welcome to Skagway

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The Cassiar Highway is known to be one of the rougher highways that people use as an access route to Alaska. Except for the last few miles, it is entirely a British Columbia north-south route and is 450 miles long total. What is very impressive is how fast the roads are maintained up here in the north world. Back in Connecticut a pot hole can last for years.

The Cassiar highway is named for the Cassiar Mountain range. This highway is 98% paved with some graveled areas. Since we do a good bit of off-roading with our Jeep, we're used to bad roads and this was no bad road. Frost heaves are marked with a little sign, orange cones or a big sign and all were easy to slow down for or drive around. The highway is also one of the lesser traveled roads. We stopped counting, but for the first 250 miles we passed one vehicle going in our direction and only saw 10 coming towards us.

The highway follows some breathtaking mountains, rivers and lakes. Signs kept saying to watch for wildlife...primarily deer. Near the end of the day...at long last...a bull moose...just crossing the road in front of us. But how to describe these mountains without sounding trite? There really are no words. The weather was perfect with the bluest skies so the contrast with the granite, snow and pine trees made for vivid pictures that our little point and shoot could barely capture. Of course, I made Mike geocache along the way. In some cases we were the first to find a particular cache for 2010.

The Cassiar ends in the Yukon Territory at a junction with the Alaska Highway, formerly known as the Al-Can Highway. The Yukon! Doesn't that sound cold, frozen and far away! We searched for lodging a mile left and at the junction, but they wanted almost $100 for the room. We turned east nine miles out of our way to Watson Lake and had an interesting night's stay at the Air Force Lodge Motel. But first a stop at the sign forest.

The sign forest is at the visitor center in Watson Lake although there was so much sign forest, we never saw the visitor center. The "forest" consists of 4x4 posts and boards onto which people have put signs: town signs, signs for a restaurant, license plates, pie plates, a bed pan, wooden signs, metal signs, something like 30,000 signs! It sounds tacky, but it's actually quite fun and a tourist attraction (and a free tourist attraction at that) just by itself. You just can't read all the signs in one visit.

The Air Force Lodge Motel was built to house air force engineers once upon a time and is now run by a German speaking man. Many motels and attractions in BC and YT announce that they speak German there. Curious. When we went in to check on the price of the room, we were first asked to remove our shoes. Ok. Wants to keep it clean. He showed us a small tidy room and that was ok. Neither of us noticed until after we'd paid that there were shared bathrooms and showers separated for the sexes. It was better than paying over $100. The next morning I met a woman in the bathroom and she and her husband were on their way to McKinley Lodge to work for Princess/Holland America. Mike actually knew her husband from last summer!

And so yesterday, we left for our final trip to Skagway of about 450 miles. And we were treated to seeing a small herd of caribou along the road. Again, we passed rivers, and lakes...more and more of the lakes still frozen. Sometimes we have seen snow in abundance on our journey at 1500 feet elevation and then sometimes very little snow at 3500 feet. It really depended on what the winter weather had been in that area. This part of the Alaska Highway was pretty enough, but didn't compare to the Cassiar.

We turned south on a spur road that would join with the South Klondike Highway that would take us from Carcross, YT to Skagway. The spur road was nice, pine trees, lakes and Carcross looked like so many other towns that we'd passed through. And then we started south on the South Klondike. Oh. My. God. We were back in winter in areas of stark mountains, avalanche watches, and waterfalls. How many times can I say the scenery was breathtaking before I die from lack of oxygen? But truly it was amazing.

We passed through customs without a hitch and headed down the 11% grade over 10 miles into Skagway. More mountains, more waterfalls...dramatic clouds behind snow capped peaks. Glimpses of the narrow gauge White Pass and Yukon Route railroad across the gorge. And then we were at the bottom...3 miles to the end of the road...which ends at the ferry terminal for the Alaska Marine Highway (ferry system).

We stopped at the Shop House where Mike looked up his friend Mike the Mechanic who is now head mechanic here. They had worked together up in Denali last summer. We talked of meeting for a beer after dinner. And on we went to the office, met our bosses, picked up our keys and went to the Westmark Hotel...home for the summer.

Well, we've stayed in a bunch of motels in the past 9 days and this one really was ok. Old. Burnt orange stained carpet. A box spring on the floor with two mattresses on top of it. But it's twice the size of the room Mike shared with his roommate last summer. We have our own bathroom. We unpacked, reorganized, moved stuff and got settled in. We met Braun, our RA. Yeesh...haven't had an RA since 1978! And then we walked around town...down to the pier, to the ferry terminal, looking at the empty gift shops...empty except for a bazillion cartons of gifts waiting to be put on shelves. Places are still hiring and offering housing, so if you want to come join us, there's air service to here! Come now!

It was overcast. The town has had many of its storefronts restored to look like the turn of the century. So, actually, it's pretty touristy. It's only 5 blocks by 20 blocks in size. The bus yard is 2 miles away, but they have a shuttle. Mike, however, says he may consider walking to work if the weather is cooperative. We met Mike the Mechanic at the Red Onion Saloon for pizza and beer. They have trivia night on Saturdays and open mike night on Tuesdays.

The bed was mush. So today, more rearranging, some pilfering of extra pillows and a couple of old towels. The instructions had said to bring your own bed linens. I am glad I did, but that wasn't necessary. They said nothing about bringing any kitchen equipment. I wish they had. Everything was filthy and very little of it. So did some scrubbing today. We also got rid of one of the mattresses and now have a mattress and box spring on the floor. There never was a frame. But hey...there are two dressers and two stand alone closets and a desk drawer. Life is good. Oh...and this afternoon we finally got hot water.

We also did a little grocery shopping. A 20 oz. bottle of soda that costs $1.49 in Peoria costs $1.89 in Skagway. A half gallon of milk is $3.16! The ferry brings supplies for the grocery store on Wednesday, so the best time to shop for fresh food is Wednesday afternoon or Thursday morning. The hardware store is more like a department store with everything from hardware to toys to kitchen goods to souvenirs to binoculars...and fishing licenses all jammed into one little building.

Mike took a little hike up onto the eastern mountain next to town up to Lower Dewey Lake and said it's still frozen in. Meantime I caught up on some computer stuff and looked at geocaching. Skagway is having its first geocaching event on July 4th! Not only that, but one of the caches in town was placed by Team Frog Dogs, a geocaching team from Glendale, AZ. The world is very small.

Today is sunnier. We've met Pamela who is the front house manager of the restaurant downstairs in the hotel and Vince who is a cook. We talked with the woman who works at the outfitter store and, of course, the woman at the liquor store. She told Mike that she usually goes to a different place to work every summer, but last year she came to Skagway and it was so good, she chose to return here. Says the people are great. The place is great. I may be spoiled at this location!

It's a whole subculture of people who work seasonal jobs...both summer and winter. Pamela owns two suitcases and a storage unit which holds family heirlooms and gifts from her grown children. How free is that? Not burdened by stuff! Every time I think I've really downsized, I realize how much more can be done.

And yes, I'm already missing family so very much. Amber and Joe closed on their house and are working on getting it fixed up and we're not there to help. Mike's Mom is having some tests and we're not there to put our 52 cents in or lend our support. Life is going on and we have this one and so many people we love are back in Arizona (or elsewhere) and we're not there to participate in their daily lives. Thank goodness for easy access to communications!