Category: Railways

I’m on the road again, this time about 3,200 kilometers from home, in southern Ontario visiting Cathy’s parents. This is my first trip to Ontario since a school trip in 1968, and my first real look at any of the province. I found researching what to see and where...

Yesterday the people in my group had a somewhat different day than I did. While they traveled to Denali National Park in a glass-domed railway car, I went ahead with the bus. We don’t normally do early starts on these tours, but there are two – we had to...

The weather forecast for the next few days wasn’t great, so Friday seemed like the best day to go to Skagway. On the way down we stopped to see our cabin at Carcross and lucked into being on the deck there when the train to Skagway departed. The “must-do”...

The 4-minute video posted below is from a 16mm film shot in 1949 by a woman on an Alaska trip. The 55-minute reel I have is probaby the second of three films covering her cruise from Seattle or Vancouver to Skagway, week-long trip down the Yukon River to Dawson...

The Labour Day long weekend is a rather manic time in the North. Everyone is doing something outside, knowing that this is the last good-weather long weekend we’re going to see until May. Whether it’s berry picking, hiking, boating, camping or just getting out for a scenic drive, it’s...

This is the Yukon’s holiday weekend – Discovery Day – and it’s a beauty, with sunshine and record-breaking temperatures. We spent the first couple of days of it at our cabin in Carcross. This was our first overnight there since I moved completely to Whitehorse 3 years ago, and...

It’s a few minutes after 04:00 am, and we’re about 2½ hours away from picking up the NPS rangers at the mouth of Glacier Bay. It’s looking like a decent day, with a cloud ceiling at about 3,000 feet but no rain. I had a ball yesterday. I think...

I had to go to Skagway again yesterday – oh gee darn, one more day avoiding reality 🙂 We actually had a very good reason to go this time – the in-floor heating system I ordered for the kitchen reno was sitting at the Skagway post office. Even though...

I sorta got sucked in by the weather offices yesterday, but I suppose it’s okay because I really needed to hit the road for a day. The weather forecasts for both Whitehorse and Skagway were for mostly sun, clouding up in Whitehorse in the afternoon. As it turned out,...

One of the highlights of the Okanagan Valley for anyone with an interest in history has to be the Myra Canyon section of the former Kettle Valley Railway. Now a hiking and biking trail, this 12-kilometer section of the rail line has 18 trestles and 2 tunnels, and the...