Alaska - Cruise Diary Glacier Bay and Skagway

Monday. Today was another cruising day (no ports to stop) as we went into Glacier Bay for several hours to the end where Margerie Glacier lies. The National Park Service rangers climbed aboard this morning via a small boat transfer and set up on deck to talk to people, answer questions and provide a commentary as the ship sailed into the bay.

Margerie Glacier was huge. The maps show how far out it was back in 1892 and how it has receded over the years to where it is now. The glacier face is now 1 mile wide, 80 m high and goes about 30m below sea level. The ship stopped at the end and parked for an hour or so everyone could walk about to take photos and get some fresh air. It was cold but not raining thankfully. Photos never do these things justice but we tried. We were lucky to see some ‘calving’ which is where the ice breaks away like a little avalanche. This happened several times but I was not lucky enough to capture on video. You could hear the groaning and cracking of the glacier though which was awesome but eerie too. They say the glaciers move 5 feet a day here so calving is regular. There are seven glaciers in this massive bay with the Margerie Glacier being one of the most photographed features in Alaska and one of the most active faces.

We didn’t see any bears, moose or whales but fingers crossed they will come later in the week on our land tours – we did see moose in Anchorage though which was very exciting. We’ve met more people during our deck travels and notice quite a lot of Australian accents getting around. It seems quite strange now to hear it frequently but also comforting and homely. We even heard and old lady say ‘stunned mullet’ and we giggled to ourselves. Another talked about doing a ‘cooee’ and there has been lots of ‘no worries’. We also get Sky news on the TV and can see some Australian news and politics. They have little sachets of vegemite at breakfast so to our friend DunnyBum back in DC, we will bring some little packets home for you to sample.

 I had a terrible sleep last night as it was quite rough on the open sea. The ship was rocking and rolling and I was curled up in bed shitting myself as I would on a turbulent plane flight. I just get scared and I wish I didn’t. I was awake for hours and hours, only dozing in patches. I know it wasn’t really ‘that’ rough but for me, it was rough enough. I checked the bridge cam data on the television and the crosswind was about 50 knots. I can hear you ol’ Navy whites scoffing but I wore a blue uniform, not sailor whites.

Deb has the signs of a sore throat – lets hope it doesn’t lead to anything serious. There are lots of coughing passengers around so it’s a bit of germ shell aboard. They are BIG on washing hands before dinner (mandatory) and around the ship in order to minimize spreading germs. The next three days are port stops and we have a tour in each port. We are very excited about tomorrow as we are doing a dog mushing tour and get to play with the sled dogs.

Tuesday. Wow, what a great day. The ship docked early into Skagway around 5am (anything before 8am is outrageously early by my standards these days), so by the time I woke up I could see the pier and dock rock wall from our balcony. We shared the port with 3 other ships. Deb has woken up feeling worse and sick with a crappy cold as expected so she slept in a little while I went to the gym and hit the treadmill – trying to not get behind in my marathon training. I did note several of my elder passenger folk were walking their calories off too so I was not alone. I was running facing the town of Skagway (pop around 1000) and it looked lovely in the morning light and it was a good weather day ahead.

Skagway was very interesting because of its gold rush days back in 1896-1899. It is located in the Klondike Gold Rush National Park which includes the Chilkoot and White Pass trails. Skagway and nearby Dyea were the entrance points to these trails which stampeders would traverse up to the Yukon in search of gold. We watched a short movie at the National Park visitor center on the Gold Rush and it was frightening to hear what the town was like and how treacherous the Chilkoot and White Pass trails were. These trails were around 30-40 miles long but over extremely steep and narrow terrain and snow, well you can imagine how bad the snow was up here. Look at the photo to see the steep steps carved into the snow/ice. That picture of the anthill of people climbing the steep traverse is etched in my memory. They had to climb it about 40 times to get all their food and supplies to the top (mandatory to have 1 years supply of food to continue on the trail). Anyway, many did not make it to the Yukon and many died. And those that did make it, found the gold rush was over long ago. The gold rush stampede only last a few years but it was one of the most dangerous to say the least. There is now a railway that connects Skagway to Whitehorse, over the White Pass trail and it would have been nice to do this train ride today but time was against us as always.

Skagway was full of jewellery, mineral and souvenier shops. We headed straight to the Red Onion Saloon as our friend JG suggested we do the ‘ladies of the night’ tour. JG is well travelled and known for her good food, coffee and tourist tips. So, we had to do it. The Saloon was chockers (Aust for full) but they were enjoying food and drink. The 20 minute tour is called the ‘quickie’ and the madam met us at the top of the stairs to tour upstairs where the original rooms were. She was excellent, very witty and added many dirty little jibes in her commentary. It was an interesting ‘quickie’ and always saddens me that women resort to this work in order to survive which was the case for these women back in that day. The madam said that the girls could earn $60 a night/week but if they had traditional cleaning/cooking jobs, they would only earn up to $5-10 a day (or week, can’t be sure now) if they were lucky.  So understandably many women worked in the brothel. At the end of the ‘quickie’ I gave the madam a tip. She commented on where to put the $$ and Deb hadn’t noticed the $1 bills tucked around her boobs – of course I had noticed as soon as we started !!  Naturally, she was happy for my tip and happy to get a cheeky photo with me. Thanks JG, this was a good tour and certainly something different.

We were very excited for our afternoon tour which was to visit the sled dog mushing kennels – this is actually a summer time training facility for the dogs to keep them fit in preparation for winter racing. We took a drive out of town and up the mountains to the dog kennels. After that it was a mog ride (big 4WD with a back) up to the sled ride track and mushers camp. Being summer time the sled ride was on wheels in the forest. There were about 4 sled teams and about 15 dogs per sled. They were barking with excitement when we arrived and did not stop barking until we got moving. Cricket would do well here I think as he is like this before we go for a walk. The dogs were incredible to say the least. Their tails were wagging and they just pulled us along with such great strength. 

 

At the end of the ride we got to pat the dogs which was really nice. We met several dog mushers (people who drive the sleds) and they absolutely love their dogs – mushing is a very popular pastime for Alaskans. They told us about the iconic Iditarod Race ‘the last great race’. The race is 1100 miles from Anchorage to Nome and the more recent Yukon Quest which is 1000 miles and considered more tougher and run up around Fairbanks. The history to the Iditarod is that Joe Redington bought a homestead not far off the Iditarod Trail which was an old dogsled route from Seward to Nome. He was fascinated by the trail and the famous ‘serum run’ that saved the town of Nome from diphtheria in 1925 when mushers used the trail to transport medical supplies across Alaska. 

Redington was worried snow mobiles might replace sled dogs so he proposed the sled race along the trail. The first race was in 1973 and the rest is history. It takes about 8 days now to finish the race and they race at night, sleep in the day. The dogs run better in colder weather at night. They run about 8 mph and the musher said his job is to hold them back to manage their endurance ability. Else they would run super fast and not make the distance. I read a bit about the people f’or and against’ the race and dog practices used by mushers and owners. I understand there would be debate. The mushers we saw today showed genuine great love for their dogs and I can only hope the sport is not like greyhound racing. We totally enjoyed seeing the dogs today and I would love to see the Iditarod Race one day – it just sounds amazing and the brief stories we heard today were very exciting to say the least.

The last thing we did was meet some puppies and they were totally gorgeous. We got to pat and cuddle them. They encourage the puppies to socialize with people so they are well prepared for their racing days ahead. This tour was amazing and I don’t think a trip to Alaska is complete without seeing these wonderful animals.

The ship sailed about 8.30 pm and we are headed to another port tomorrow. I’m writing my blog diary each day so I can remember as much as possible from our daily adventures. I’m sitting here watching the coastline slip by as we head out to sea and listening to the elephant upstairs stomp back and forth 40 times across the room. I still don’t understand the constant back and forth stomping. We have another great day in store for tomorrow with a helicopter ride to the glaciers.  

There were so many dog photos to choose from but hopefully this is a nice selection to make all you dog lovers go naaawwwww !!!!!