Wednesday 26 June
We got up early and Ross and Chris went and picked up the Jeep we hired for the day for Danika’s birthday. Downtown Skagway is very cool and it seemed that all the cruise people went on tours as the streets were nice and ‘tourist free’. Off we went with our audio commentary tour in the Jeep and headed out of town to drive on roads we had cycled on our honeymoon and visit places we camped. The scenery was spectacular, and we stopped and took plenty of photos as Ross drove in North America for the first time this trip. When you cycle a road, you remember it, and it was so special to experience this again. The day was planned around Danika’s birthday and the first main stop was to pat the husky puppies at the Tutshi Dog Kennels where Michelle Williams who has competed in several Iditarod Trail runs over the years, and still competes, breeds and trains their puppies. While Dani was sitting with the puppies, we brought out a beautiful carrot cake that Ruth-Ann had made Dani and the staff joined with us to sing Happy Birthday and shared the cake with us. We met Joy, a retired Husky Iditarod Competitor and got a photo with Michelle – we will be able to follow her progress with interest. After 2 hours we managed to drag Danika away from the puppies with the hope we would have time to revisit on our way back to Skagway if we had time (unfortunately we didn’t). We kept driving towards Carcross (Caribou Crossing) a place where we stayed a few days on our honeymoon as Ross was feeling sick and managed to cycle 8km to the Carcross Medical Centre and they gave him 3 litres of fluid as his BP was 50/20. We only recognised a few of the buildings and the rest of the town seemed unfamiliar, and when we spoke to a lady in the information centre she pointed out the original buildings – the rest of the ‘historical town’ has been built since. We saw the campground where we stayed and then went on to have lunch at Spirit Lake Lodge and Resort which was the old campground we stayed before Ross’s 8km ride into Carcross, 23 years ago. It was so run down and the food, well, it was not good! It was still good to show our kids and to reminisce. We then drove to Emerald Lake, which was beautiful (apparently the most photographed lake in the Yukon). We turned around and headed back to Skagway, and detoured to the town of Dyea, a tiny settlement that was the alternative route to the Klondike in Goldrush days and saw the head of the Chilkoot Trail. We also saw a cemetery where an avalanche (slide) killed around 65 people from all over the world who were chasing Gold in 1898. There were some stunning views over Skagway. We returned the Jeep right on closing time and highly recommend it to anyone visiting Skagway on a cruise ship. It was US$250 plus tax for the 5 of us for 10 hours. Most of the shore excursions cost that for 1 person and we had our independence and had the best day by ourselves. We were so tired but went to dinner where the waiters sung Happy Birthday to Dani as she hid under the table 😊 Another earlyish night was had so we could get up and enjoy the Glaciers in the morning.
