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| Map of the docking area |
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| WP &YR Downtown Train Depot |
Knowing today would be the last day that we could get off the ship before the final destination Whitter, we have planned to stay in the town as much as we could in order to maximize the “Land Hour”. The ship arrived around 7AM and we “power up” before we got off the ship. Last night I’ve checked with the receptionist at the excursion desk that “what and where should I eat at Skagway?” Ms reception thought for a while and then she said “Just go to the Main street and you will find all the popular pizza and burger places.” Hm~ pizza and burger? Not seafood or comfort food for miner?? Er~ Whatever~ will see.
Skagway is known to be the “gateway of Klondike”. A large quantity of gold was found in Klondike on Aug 16 1896 and a million of people tried to travel to Klondike hoping that they would find gold and became immensely rich. To get to Klondike, there was a shorter but steeper Chilkoot Trail which began in Dyea; or a longer but less steep White Pass trail began in Skagway. Both trail were filled with hazards and harrowing experiences and that has made men to think of an easier way to travel to Klondike. On May 28 1898, White Pass & Yukon Railroad Company began on the narrow gauge railroad construction and since, it has made traveling to Klondike much easier.
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| Broadway Street with Historic Buildings |
Nowaday, this narrow gauge railroad is an international historic civil engineering landmark and it’s one of the popular excursion that a lot of Alaska visitors voted its a “Must Do Activity” in Skagway. I’ve asked my nurse friend Christina that should I book this excursion while I’m in Skagway. I was contemplating to book this excursion just because there were quite a few reviewers gave a negative comments about this excursion. Christina visited Skagway in 2011 and she did the train excursion with her family. I’m glad that her husband STRONGLY recommending this shore excursion and I took his advice for it-- otherwise I could have miss this experience.
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| Train at the downtown station |
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| WP&YR excursion |
I’ve booked the 12:30 pm White Pass & Yukon Railroad excursion through the Princess cruise. One advantage to book it through the cruise is that you can board on the train on the dockside rails right next to the ship. However, this service has become a burden to us because we were in downtown from 10AM to 12PM and we had to walk back to the ship in order to get aboard the train. I could have get on the train at the downtown train station (Second and Spring street) if I booked through the White pass & Yukon Railroad website (http://www.wpyr.com/reservationroundtrip.html) and it would have saved us some time and walking. Unless you are planning to go with the 8:30 AM train (it would save you some sleeping-beauty time,) otherwise I’d suggest you to get on the train at the train depot so that you could have all the action in one place.
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| Rotary Snowplow No. 1 |
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| Rotary Snowplow No. 1 |
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| Original Handcar |
Downtown Skagway is about 10-15 minutes walking distance from the ship and a shuttle is also available from the ship pier to downtown ($2 one way or $5 all day pass). On our way walking toward the downtown, we saw the Rotary Snowplow No. 1 and the Original Handcar at the depot displays. The Snowplow was used in 2009 and 2011 to clear the rail from snow even though it was retired since 1965. I’m amazed that the machine is still workable after it has been rested for so many years. And then we went to the Klondike gold rush national historical park visitor centers for maps and information for hiking trails. (http://www.skagway.org/vertical/Sites/%7B7820C4E3-63B9-4E67-95BA-7C70FBA51E8F%7D/uploads/%7B68C35A36-4A10-4DB7-8A56-633B821CAF53%7D.PDF) Sandra the naturalist had mentioned that there are beautiful hiking trails such as upper dewey lake and lower dewey lake trails and it worth the energy expenditure to see those breath taking scenes.
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| Interior of WP&YR train |
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| Scenic view on the train |
We toured around the downtown and see those historic buildings on Broadway street such as the first cabin Marcot Saloon. And then we headed back to the ship dock around 12:15PM to get ready for our train excursion. The White Pass Summit excursion is a 20 miles scenic ride with an elevation of 2865 ft. The view was amazing especially when the train gained the latitude. The gauge of the railroad is so narrow that one side of the train is 3 feet away from the edge of the cliff and the other side of the train is 3 feet away from the mountain. I could imagine how difficult this project was in the 19 centuries when the workers had to work under the extreme winter weather with this steep and curvy mountain.
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| On To Alaska With Burchanan |
On our way going up to the White Pass Summit, we saw the famous train-turning arch, the class 6 rapid river, the big sign “on to Alaska with Buchanan” on the side of the mountain (which is painted to commemorate the Detroit coal merchant George Buchanan), beautiful mountain and lake scenery, blue glacier on the mountains and black bears!!! Everyone in the train was excited to see bears that close and that was one of the highlight of the day!
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| Train turning arch |
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| Blue glacier |
We came back to the ship docking area around 4:30PM and we were planning to do the upper dewey lake hiking trail right after this scenic ride. The trail’s entrance is close to the downtown skagway but instead of turning left at the railway, turn right and look for the entrance sign. When we were at the visitor center, the ranger had informed us that this is a very arduous and strenuous trail. He also emphasized that the trail is very steep and it hurt his knees badly despite he had a pair of very good hiking boots. We wore regular tennis shoes but I thought maybe we could make it if we paid extra attention and be careful.
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| BEAR!!!! |
After 5-10 minutes walking up on the dirt road, I truly believed what the ranger said--- you need a very good hiking shoes!! I slipped couple time while I was walking up hill with the slope of the hill is 45 degree! It worried me that if I couldn’t stop falling while I was going up, it would be worse when I come back down! My first instinct was to stop at where we were and turn around to find our way back. Too bad that we weren’t able to hike up to the beautiful upper dewey lake but at least we have tried.
When we came back down to the downtown, my hunger had made me realized that we haven’t had food for more than 6 hours~~!! I remembered what the receptionist has said --“ go to the Main street for the burger and pizza.” We walked 2 blocks east from the historic Broadway street and trying to look for restaurants on the Main street. However, when we walked toward the Main street, we realized that we were walking toward the residential area. (At least I didn’t see any restaurant on the street.) Wait~ so did the receptionist mean “go to the Main (Action) street” not the street named Main street!!! Oh My Goodness!! We walked for nothing! hahahaha
On our way walking back from the Main street toward the “Main Action” Broadway street, we found an internet cafe. We paid $2.5 for 30 minutes high speed internet-- way better deal then the internet on the ship (I think the internet cafe is located in between Main street and Broadway street, cross street 2nd street). We got back around 6-ish and had our dinner. We watched the magic show by the illusionist Landon Swank and we called off of the day.
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| Quail and Venison Terrine, Gingered red Onion Compote, Mesclun salad |
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| Twice baked goat cheese's souffle, garlic Sabayon |
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| French onion soup |
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| Strawberry and thyme infused Lemon sorbet, thyme sprig |
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| Scallops and potato |
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| Rack of lamb |
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| Assorted cookies~ |
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| Menage a Trois |
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| Traditional New York cheesecake with marinated strawberry |
第五天 史凱威
除了總站惠蒂爾外, 今天是船會停泊在岸的最後一天. 有見及此, 我們便打算盡量留在岸上,以增加在我們的”陸地時間”. 船在早上7時左右便抵達史凱威, 而我們梳洗吃過早餐後便起程出發. 昨晚我到遊輪的活動報名處查詢. 我問接待員小姐說: 明天在史凱威裡有沒有一些餐廳或哪些食物我是應該要嘗試的? 接待員想了一想便接著說: 你到Main Street 走走便會找到不同的漢堡飽或比薩餅店了. 我心想: 到阿拉斯加去吃漢堡及比薩餅? 不是吃海鮮或礦工們常吃的心靈食物? 嗄~ 試試看吧~
史凱威又稱為克朗代克的閘口. 在1986年 8月16日, 由於大批的黃金在克朗代克這地方被發掘出, 有數以萬計的掘金者都紛紛朝著克朗代克而來. 他們都希望能掘到大量的黃金令他們發達. 前往克朗代克的主要通道大至上有兩條: 一條是由Dyea出發的Chilkoot路徑, 路程比較短但是比較險要; 另一條是由 史凱威作起點的White
Pass路徑, 路程比較長但是沒有像Chilkoot路徑般險要. 雖然White Pass是比較容易, 但是兩條路徑仍然是充滿了危機及困難. 這令人想尋求出另一條更簡易的通道. 於1898年 5月, White
Pass & Yukon Railroad 鐵路公司便開始搭建這窄軌的火車路線, 令前往克朗代克的路平坦安全得多.
時至今日, 這窄軌火車路線已成為具代表性的國際土木工程歷史文物, 也是很多曾遊覽阿拉斯加史凱威的遊客推薦”必定要做的活動”. 我曾徵詢我的護士朋友Christina的意見, 看看她認為我應否乘坐這火車. 原因是當我搜索資料時, 看到有一些旅客對這活動有所微言及覺得不值得參加這項目, 我真的不知道我應否預定這項目. Christina於2011年與她的家人一起遊覽史凱威. 她的丈夫強力推薦這活動—我亦接受了他的建議,定了這活動,否則我必定會錯失了這具歷史性的體驗.
我透過Princess遊輪預約了12時30分的火車項目. 透過遊輪公司預約火車的其中一個好處是火車會停泊在港口, 旅客在船附近便可以上車,
不必走到市中心的火車站上車. 可是這優點對我們而言可能是缺點—因為我們由早上10時至中午12時是在市中心.
我們必須由市中心走回船邊才可以上車. 若果我是透過White pass &
Yukon Railroad 的官方網頁來預定這項目, 我們便可以在市中心的 火車站上車, (http://www.wpyr.com/reservationroundtrip.html) 這樣我們不用走回頭路, 浪費了時間及體力. 個人認為, 除非你是打算乘搭早上8時30分的列車(這樣可以省掉走到市中心的時間，你大可多睡一會)，否則我建議你預定到市中心的火車站上車，這樣所有活動都集中在一個地方，能省去很多時間．
史凱威的市中心距離遊輪大概是10-15 分鐘走路的路程，港口亦有巴士接載遊客到市中心 ($2單程，$5日票). 在走向市中心的途中,我們看到了旋轉式掃雪機一號及始祖手搖車. 掃雪機在1965年已經退休,但在2009 及2011年它被再度徵用掃雪. 退役後多年亦能運作真的不容易. 當我們到了市中心後,我們便到克朗代克國立歷史公園旅客中心拿取地圖及登山徑的資料. (http://www.skagway.org/vertical/Sites/%7B7820C4E3-63B9-4E67-95BA-7C70FBA51E8F%7D/uploads/%7B68C35A36-4A10-4DB7-8A56-633B821CAF53%7D.PDF)
博物學家Sandra曾提及在史凱威裡有很多優美的登山徑,例如upper dewey lake 及 lower
dewey lake行山徑. 那令人讚嘆的湖光山色絕對值得你所付出的體力.
我們在市中心參觀百老匯街Broadway street的歷史建築物,例如Marcot Saloon. 大概在下午12時15分左右我們便走回船邊的火車站登車. White Pass Summit這火車項目是一個路程長達20英里的觀光火車, 終點站距離海拔2865英尺. 鐵路沿山而建, 路軌闊度非常淺窄: 一邊是距離山3英里,
另一邊是距離懸崖3英里. 我能想像當時19世紀, 礦工需要在嚴寒的冬天建立這迂迴曲折,險峻的鐵路,實在是一項非常艱鉅的工作.
觀光火車的沿途風景非常優美; 我們看到著名的列車轉行的拱形, 六級的急流, 牆上的壁畫寫著 ”與布坎南先生一起到阿拉斯加” (壁畫以作記念底特律的煤礦商人布坎南先生), 美麗的湖光山色-特別是當火車駛向高處,風景越高越壯觀; 海藍色的冰川及看到黑熊! 所有乘客看到黑熊時都非常興奮—這也是全天其中一個重要時刻.
我們大概在下午4時30分左右抵達港口, 下車後我們打算到upper dewey lake行山徑去看美境. 行山徑的入口靠近市中心- 在路軌的左邊是市中心, 右邊是行山徑的入口. 早上我們在旅客中心時, 護林員曾說過upper dewey lake行山徑是非常艱鉅及費勁的山路. 他強調,即使他有一雙非常好的行山鞋, 走完這山路後, 他的雙膝也非常疼痛. 我們只有普通的運動鞋但我心想, 只要我們小心一點,格外留神, 或許我們能勝任這艱鉅的山路.
我們走了大概5-10分鐘後, 我開始相信護林員所說的話—你需要一雙很好的行山鞋!! 行山徑的斜率大概是45度角而我一邊向上走, 一邊滑倒. 這令我開始擔心--- 若果我沒法控制上山的步伐, 那下山的路便會更難行了. 我的直覺是我們應該在此終結,折道回府. 沒法到upper dewey lake去看湖光山色實在是太遺憾了~但至少我們嘗試過.
我們回到市中心後才發現我們已經6小時沒有吃過東西了, 難怪我們會肚子餓呢~ 這時候, 我頓然想起接待員小姐說的話--- 到Main street去吃漢堡飽及比薩餅. 我們由Broadway street向東走2個街口, 向Main street的方向邁進. 但是當我們來到了Main street時,發現這裡是民宅地區, 沒有商店或餐廳. 那~~接待員小姐的意思是 “走到最多人流的街（main action street）而不是到街名叫Main Street的街. 我們白行了一趟!!
我們回到市中心後才發現我們已經6小時沒有吃過東西了, 難怪我們會肚子餓呢~ 這時候, 我頓然想起接待員小姐說的話--- 到Main street去吃漢堡飽及比薩餅. 我們由Broadway street向東走2個街口, 向Main street的方向邁進. 但是當我們來到了Main street時,發現這裡是民宅地區, 沒有商店或餐廳. 那~~接待員小姐的意思是 “走到最多人流的街（main action street）而不是到街名叫Main Street的街. 我們白行了一趟!!
我們由Main Street走回最多人流的街Broadway street, 途中我們找到一家網路出租店. 30分鐘的高速上網只售$2.5, 比起船上的上網價格便宜得多. (網路出租店好像是在2nd街, 夾在Main
street 及 Broadway street中間.) 回到船上已是六時多了, 我們吃過晚餐, 看了Landon Swank的魔術表現後便回房休息, 結束這天的旅程．
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