Haines to Skagway

You may ask why Haines AK ?

Haines is on located on the northern part of the inside passage. It is 14 miles from Skagway by water and 310 miles by road. Juneau is 81 miles from Haines and almost impossible to get to by road and a three hour ferry ride.

Haines small boat harbor

Having arrived in Haines on Saturday 8/31 we settled in to our campsite and after exploring the town started getting ready for our visit to Skagway on Sunday.
At @ 7:30 PM I was working on the blog and Beth was reading, the coach began to shake and roll back and forth for about 15 to 20 seconds. We had just experienced a 5.2 earthquake. There was no damage and no one was hurt. We came to find out that earthquakes like this are not uncommon.

We were up early and waiting at the commercial dock for the Fast Ferry to Skagway. The picture shows a low tide of @ 25 feet. It was impressive and made for a steep walk down the ramp to board the ferry.

Fast Ferry

The Fast Ferry runs between Haines and Skagway on a regular schedule. It's a 40 to 45  minute trip that leaves on the hour. On this day there was no breeze. it was a very smooth trip.

 It is interesting how different history is depending on who is telling the story. We did a short walking tour led by a National park Ranger. The Gold Rush story is told from a whole different perspective
in Skagway than in Dawson City. Each held the position that they were at the center of the gold rush and it wouldn't have happened without their contribution, I guess  in the grand scheme both may be true.

At 1:00 PM we boarded the White Pass Yukon Railroad train for an excursion to the top of the pass. The white pass was one of only two ways to get to the Whitehorse and Dawson City. This pass was supposed to be the easiest of the two which make me think how crazy or desparate these people had to be.
The Chilkoot pass was shorter but much steeper.

I wonder about Thomas O'Brien and what he must have been thinking. There were only two ways to get to the Yukon and neither was easy. The guide on the train said the nicknames for these trails were Hell or Damnation.

 At the top of the pass was the Canadian border. The
Royal Canadian Mounties had a checkpoint there, If the stampeders did not have the required 1000 lbs of supplies they were turned back to Skagway.

The train ride was a lot of fun and we learned a  great deal. The information filled in some gaps in the history of the gold rush that were new to us.The challenges the stampeders heading to the
gold fields became more real. After all the struggle to get to the Yukon most were unsuccessful by the time they got there most of the good claims had been staked out by the local people.

When the train returned to Skagway we had about an 1 1/2 hours before we had
to catch the fast ferry back to Haines. We did some shopping and grabbed a
snack and it was time to leave.