Ferry to Skagway

Monday September 14th

Destruction Bay to Haines 373.2 km

Haines to Skagway: ferry crossing

Cumulative distance: 2924 km

Maximum speed: 102 km/h

Average speed:  71 km/h

Departing from Destruction Bay, we drive about a half hour along Kluane Lake and once again, the view does not disappoint. We are always torn between watching the road and watching the view; lots of stops to take pictures or to look things over. 

Our mid-morning stop is at Haines Junction. There is not much there but I am guessing the population is under 1,000. We stop for gas and beside the gas station is a little store next door called ``The Little Green Apple``. Keep in mind we are a long way from everywhere but this place is like a shi-shi shop in suburban Vancouver. Home baking, sandwiches and earthy goods. So we all get a sandwich for the road, plus cookies and other good stuff.

From Haines Junction, the route to Skagway is really remote. There is only one community along the way, a Kluane fishing village that is off the road about 7 km and it is the only surviving village in the area from the 19^th century. In the past, it was an active trading route for European settlers and First Nations peoples but that activity has long since expired.

We actually head over a pretty high pass and the wind is howling! We are all starving and looking for a suitable place to eat our sandwiches and goodies (awesome banana loaf with chocolate chips) from the Little Green Apple Gas Bar. Though, again, the rain is off and on, the wind makes it really cold. Nonetheless, out of desperation, we decide to eat at a maintenance facility where we think we might get out of the wind but it gets vetoed… somebody. So we are then looking for a better place – a picnic table would be nice – but we end up with a gravel pit that happens to have an outhouse, which everybody studiously avoids.

Back across the U.S. border, past the Eagle Preserves, and we arrive in Haines; we have plenty of time to kill as we have decided to take the afternoon ferry over to Skagway today rather than the next morning. This will afford us the opportunity to get an early start the next day and go in to Whitehorse.  We hit the coffee bar, which has the water shut off for repairs, and John and I, with pride in our bikes, go off to give them a nice shower. 

The ferry crossing is an hour, just enough time to stand in line at the dining room, where they have linen table cloths, wine glasses set on the tables, full cutlery and full menu, get told ten minutes into the crossing that they are not opening, and go to the cafeteria to have deep fried halibut-ish burgers.  

Sunrise at Destruction Bay

When we get off the ferry in Skagway, it is raining but not cold, and it looks like we have gone through a time warp. The buildings along the main street all look like they are turn of the century, the 20^th, that is, with wooden fronts and the over-sized facades that we know from western movies.  Of course, this is largely for show as Skagway is a tourist destination – there are two cruise ships in port this evening –  but it has a dramatic effect.  At the cruise owned – Westward Hotel, the place has just that day shut down for the season, so we are turned away. Skagway does not have too many choices but there is another place and it turns out to be just fine however, I spend an hour trying to get on the internet there as I have some work to do but their system is messed up and they don`t know what is wrong, let alone how to fix it. We all expect small, ma & pa hotel operators to be technical geniuses knowing how to solve our computer problems but let’s face it: what can they possible know? As it turns out, they really don’t know anything, as I would expect.