Money, honey

This is one of the guys on the block...or Klondike Highway. This is not a bear, this is a "tip" machine. You quickly find out in the Skagway Tour Guide business that no matter how good you are with facts or how many interesting stories you tell, that animal sightings - specifically bears - generate tips better than anything. Of course, a Moose or Caribou or Porkpine or Eagle will do nicely, but is one of the guys pictured which makes a tourist happy.

So what you have is a bear sighting which is ok; better to see a bear close by the side of the road and even better is the bear stares at your tour bus like he (or she) figures you and the folks inside are just a bit "off."

We haven't gotten jaded yet at sighting bears or seeing another spectacular mountain still covered with snow. Cruise ship traffic every day of the week can get a bit hectic, but they certainly never send ugly ships.

And speaking of "cute", if you want to see a Husky puppy from one of our neater tour stops visit: lydiahinshaw.blogspot.com. It's not all tourists and bus washing.

Harry, the Hoary Marmot..my little buddy from Montana..has ridden along with me on a couple of tours. When you don't see any animals, Harry gets to make a guest appearance. This is not one of his favorite chores. He wasn't along last week when I spied a couple of his Alaska cousins who had apparentnly just come out of hibernation as they were sort of scrawny guys.

This is one of the guys on the block...or Klondike Highway. This is not a bear, this is a "tip" machine.

Train-ing time

WHITE PASS SUMMIT, Alaska / Yukon Territory
Sunday, May 21, 2006

It's been 9 days since the last post which means lots of bus washing, vacuuming, window cleaning and talking. There are now at least 72 Aussies (3 tours of 24 each) who have had the pleasure of riding with the Silver Tongued Devil. "And how long have you lived here, mate?" (Three weeks). "My, but you sound like you've been doing this awhile." (7 separate tours to date). "How bad does it get in the winter?" (I'll be enjoying the sunshine back in Florida by then.)
Long story short: the Aussies (that's pronounced Ozzie, not auss like boss) are great, fun lovers who can take and give a bit of 'roughing it up'.

So today, Sunday, May 21, was a day off and in commemoration of this auspicious occassion we took a trail ride to the summit of the mountains to the North of us and back.
On this day in 1898 construction began on the British financed, American engineered and Canadian contracted White Pass & Yukon RailRoad. The project, which saw 35,000 individuals working -- at one time or another -- to finish it, continued non-stop for 26 months. Snow with depths to 30-feet, raging North winds and temperatures which dipped to nearly -60below did not deter the company from completion. Of course the sickness, frostbite and avalanches didn't help much...and when you're playing with 450 tons of explosives you have to expect a little collateral damage.
The rail line was supposed to make money from those pursuing their dreams in the Klondike Gold Rush, but by the time it was finished on July 29, 1900 gold had been discovered elsewhere and it was "freight and passengers" rather than Stampeeders and Gold that the line hauled.
**The above photo is of one of the trains as it is today, a tourist bonanza for the company. Here, we are just about to reach the summit of White Pass (2,865') still under snow cover. At this point the Stampeeders in 1898 are getting ready to cross the Canadian Border at the Royal Canadian Mounted Police checkpoint on the trail towards the Yukon. By Feb. 20, 1899 tracks had been laid to this point - - but the gold rush was in its waining days.
The best part about the train ride was that we got a deeeep discount on the tickets because the WP&YRR encourages all the "summer help" to take a ride so they can better inform cruise ship passengers about the trip. Even competitors like us because to really get the full impact of the scenery you need to do both types of tours.

Four legged friends on the trail

Turned loose in tour guide land

The season has started!!! That means that from when a ship comes in until it leave "cruise cows" meander down Broadway in Skagway like a drunken herd ignoring traffic and common sense in search of tacky souvenirs, numerous pictures and at times actually drinking in the surrounding snow covered mountains and glaciers = = when visible, of course.
Our job is to avoid running over any of those wandering while imparting out knowledge of the rigors of catching 'goldrush fever' and the hardship of those who ran the 70 saloons, were purveyers of 'negotiable affection' and the rest of those who worked hard to put Skagway on the map.
First day (Wednesday) jitters?? Nope. My first-ever tour was a group of 14 individuals from Taiwan who spoke little english and their tour guide who had some command of the language. He must have been paid by the word as he kept up a rapid-fire commentary for most of the trip. He could have been discussing anything as far as i knew.
Once we got to the top of the White Pass and into the deep snow country the folks showed their true colors...snowball fights, lots of picture taking and excited chatter.
You always hope to see some animals, but we didn't. So I had Harry (my marmot buddy) make an appearance. This brought about a lot of conversation which probably meant they were wondering what the guy with the grey beard was doing with that cute marmot. In any event, they clapped loudly when i stopped back at the dock (FIRST RULE FOR TOUR GUIDES: if they clap your tips are in the crapper). Luckily, the interpreter made a slick hand off - - ca-ching - - and day one was in the books.

Does a bear **** in the woods?? You betcha

Skagway, AK

History Lesson for today: The bears are awake and out wandering around looking for FOOD!!! And although we've been told that bears mainly eat berries, grubs, roots and various other items, they also eat MEAT!! And they've been asleep all winter and they are really, really HUNGRY!!

Which is why, when you come across a trail marker like the one above you pay special attention. This deposit right in the middle of the trail wasn't a case of bad manners. No, this was the bears' way of making us exclaim: Oh S**t. And we weren't pointing out to one another that the bear had poor potty training.

A find like this is usually followed to by two reactions: (1) You assess how fresh the find is. If it is still steaming in the cold air, you got problems because you're in his/her neighborhood and he/she may not know this because you've been hiking along quietly going through the 400 songs in you Ipod in your mind. So you talk loud, clap your hands and look very, very carefully around. (2) After assessing all the dangers you can think of, checking on how quick you can get at your bear spray (which is basically a super-sized can of Mace), photographing the evidence to report to the Park Ranger and assuring each other "hey, no problem", you continue your hike.

ITEMS: The upload of the photo to the blog site took longer than the download of the item photographed. If the situation you get into requires use of the bear spray the bear will be close enough to tell is he/she has bad breath.

Sunday was our day off and we wanted to get a feel for at least a little bit of the Chilkoot Trail. The first mile had enough up/down/gnarly/nasty/wet sections to make anybody with goldrush fever and a 50+ pound pack that undertaking 33 miles of the Chilkoot Trail might not be 'fun.' The good part was - - and you've got to be an optimist here - - that it was winter time so the bears were hibernating and there were no mosquitos.

We saw the Skagway chief of police (out on patrol) on the narrow dirt road which leads back towards town. I informed him of what we had found so he could pass it on to the Ranger. He asked me if I was disappointed that I didn't see the carnivore who had marked the trail. Yeah, right.

Tourist for a day

Skagway, AK, May 6
Actually we felt like tourists on Friday on a training run to Carcross, about 40 miles from Skagway. The sun came out. And stayed out for nearly an hour. This was the longest period of sunshine we have seen since arriving. It made the snow on the mountains really look sharp.
Leave it to the enterprising local merchants at the Red Onion to give us a Cinco de Mayo celebration in the anything-but-Mexico like weather. Mexican buffet, all you can eat, $7. You won't find dinner any cheaper. You won't find dinner at all if you don't arrive when they start to serve. No food 30 mins. after the buffet opened. Of course it did encourage those who like a bit of alcohol with the tex-mex-skagway style soft tacos to down a few.
For those with keen eyes, double-click on the pic of the list and check out what items you had to have to enter Canada during the Klondike Gold Rush. This isn't a wish list or a reccommended list; this is you better have it list or we won't let you in. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police had this list and, like Santa Claus, were checking it twice to make sure each individual had the required - - mandated, actually - - items; about 1-ton (2,000lbs) of goods which cost around $500 and had to be carrried up to the Mountie station / border crossing before the gold seekers could enter Canada and continue another 550 miles to get to where the gold was found.
It's raining so we're hiking. This is the end of a day of training we did by attending a number of local attractions. It was put on by the Skagway Chapter of the Alaska Travel Industry - - quite informative and free.
Back to the hike which was a short one up to Dewey Lake and pretty popular judging by all the locals who didn't mind the rain either.
We've had a NOAA ship in port for the past 3 days - - that's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency

Skagway Olympic Luge Run

Click on the accompanying photo to enlarge it and check out this winter time play ground. The thrill of a lifetime awaits the brave soul who can make it to the top of the run; you just hope you can hold your breath long enough to reach the bottom. Look closely and you can follow the course of the run from top to bottom.
Of course, if you don't get stopped you'll slide right out onto Lake Tutshi Olympic Skating Arena. No problem there as the lake is about 20 miles long and very wide.
Lest you think I am kidding we saw a parasail a few miles down the road back toward Skagway. The weather conditions at this point included below freezing temps with 20mph wind and blowing snow. You couldn't see the individual as they were in a depression/ravine away from the roadway. Whoever was attached to it was probably - - we think - - trying to air-power a sled or maybe skis.
This person was a definite candidate for the Luge Run.

Skagway Olympic Luge Run