May 25 - Sandy

May 25

We can’t believe it’s been a month ago that we arrived in Skagway, going from 3,830 feet  in altitude to 50 feet,  in 15 miles.  We had burned out the brakes even in low gear, so the last two miles was done with minimum braking power.  Oh what a way to arrive!   So far this has been an awesome experience.

Many people here have a greenhouse of one sort or another.  We found out that tomatoes and okra don’t grow well here outside – it’s too cool.  Beans, squash and cool crops do very well all summer long.  AND rhubarb grows wild.  By the end of the summer the rhubarb will be five feet tall.   There is one rhubarb plant that’s 160 years old.  There’s a protective fence around it, and a sign asking people to only take pictures.

Local dogs—I still haven’t seen a small dog that actually lives here.  All the dogs are of musher size and all look to have the same gene pool.  We were on the dog field (no not a dog park) when a couple brought out their dogs.  Their dogs were afraid of our little RV sized dogs.  The lady told us their dogs have never seen small dogs such as ours.

The school!  Skagway built a new state of the art school complex for 8 million dollars.  It’s complete with a greenhouse, salmon hatchery, and state of art technology.  The territory of Alaska was bought for 7.2 million in 1867.  The school has an average of 70 to 80 kids per school year from kindergarten to twelfth grade.  This year three seniors graduated.  The prom is open to all high schoolers as well as the whole town. It’s a big community affair! 

Everything is celebrated!  We joined in the city wide clean sweep before the tourists began to arrive.  Businesses donated prizes and trips, there was a meal for all “sweepers”.  The next weekend there was a city wide garage sale to benefit the school, where again the whole town shows up.  As one old timer said,  “We just pass around the junk!” It was fun.  We got to meet quite a few locals.

We are known as summer locals, and get discounts in stores and free tourist trips, when there’s space.  For example:   We can hop a ride on an airplane tour that lands on the glacier and just pay a tip.  Any of the shows are free. 

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May 10 - Sandy

May 10^th

Happy Mother’s Day to all.  We had an adventurous day.  We went to Dyea (said like dye*ee), a ghost town nine miles from Skagway.  We passed through mud flats, filed with thousands of ducks and seagulls.  It smelled wonderfully salty and fishy, just like the mud flats in Port Aransas.  Then on into the rain forest, yes rain forest.  It was filled with light green moss; that grows up tree trunks and on any deadfall on the forest floor.  It is like walking on deep plush carpet. 

Back to Dyea.  Dyea during 1898 to 1899 had up 10,000 people, most heading up the Chilkoot Trail through mountain passes on their way to the gold fields in the Klondke 600 miles away.  In 1901 there were three people living there. The town was mostly a tent city with some false front stores, with tents behind the fronts.  People discovered the best gold claims were already taken and gold was discovered in Nome, Alaska.  So off they went in another direction.  All that is left of Dyea is a false front store, a fallen down warehouse and a crumbling wharf in the mud flats. 

May 8 - Sandy

May 8^th

Today we received our costumes. Don’t we look awesome!

Here is our office!

One of the great things about working in Skagway is we get to see the shows for free and take a lot of the tours for free including the train through the mountains to the summit just inside the Canadian border, and an air flight to a glacier where you can walk on a glacier. 

May 3 - Courtney

I don't know about you, but I think hiking is hard work. One of my dreams is to hike Scotland. And, hiking Alaska is starting to make me rethink that fantasy.
Yesterday, I hiked for four miles around two gorgeous lakes in the mountains. Both were glacier fed ponds. There were five of us hiking. And, here I was, an islander, trying to keep up with four people who were used to hiking. I could barely see them ahead of me. I was panting loud enough to scare off bears. And, I was walking quite funny thanks to the six or seven blisters forming on my feet.
There is an event called the Duff's Challenge. If you complete 12 trails in Skagway then you get a free hoodie and the pride of completely gorgeous trails through the Alaskan rainforests. I would like to complete it but it is a total of 85 miles (if not more, because I think that's all one way.) In the span of 5 months maybe I can create the dexterity I need to complete them.
Today, a few people from work and I hiked up another six miles. My blisters have gotten larger and I hobbled the majority of the way down.

May 2 - Jim And Sandy

May 2, 2105 Jim & Sandy

We got here on the 22^nd of April, expecting to start work on May 1. Well, things didn't quite work out that way. After 8 ½ days of driving, our boss let us off for about 3 days and we started work on the 27^th, anything from construction, demolition, clean up, polishing, scrubbing. We aren't used to this type of hard labor.

We got this weekend off after one day of training on Friday, May 1. We learned how to pan for gold, how a gold dredge works, and history of Skagway and the effect of the gold rush on Skagway. Monday, we get our costumes and the first boat arrives on Tuesday. Our job starts out being a dredge tour guide; then we work into guiding all the different jobs from gold panning, -40 degree room, entertainers, and of course, we will clean toilets, scrub, restock, etc. We've even been learning how to pan for gold and put it in a bezel.

                                      

Skagwayans will celebrate anything from the city clean-up, city rummage sale, to music on the sports field. We've been partaking in all the activities we can.

We wake up every morning looking up at Harding Glacier, and snow capped mountains. Temperatures are cool, sometimes, like today, it might get into the 60's, during the day and low 40s at night. Later this summer, it will get into the 70's during the day and 50s at night.

April 27 - Jim and Sandy

April 27

Today, Jim and Sandy decided to take one of twelve hikes that are offered throughout Skagway. We took the easiest tail, around the mountain, following the inlet. We hiked up, we hiked down, we hiked over rocks, and around trees. It was great.

The hooligan fish are beginning to run, and the eagles are taking full advantage of it.

We saw five young eagles with hooligan in their beaks. One passed so close over our heads we could hear it's wings beating. The seals were feasting and playing in the water. Then all of a sudden they swam away. We looked behind them to see what they were swimming away from. Much to our delight, a whale breached. During the next forty-five minutes we watched four whales beach as close 100 yards away to about a fourth mile away. What a delight! We didn't expect to see eagles, seals, and whales this morning. So much for our hike! We were getting cold, so we decided to head back and allow the animals the privacy of the Alaskan Inlets.