A Christmas drive to Skagway, and other stuff
We’re 3 days past the shortest day of the year now. That’s always a significant point for me – PLEASE come back, Sun! 🙂 It’s actually been an easy winter so far, probably because I’m so busy with all kinds of projects. I’ll tell you about some of them, but first, I want to show you the drive to Skagway that Monty and I did yesterday.
The first photo was shot just south of Carcross at 10:24, 14 minutes after sunrise.
I made a change to the car a few days ago. The licence plate I had on the Outback, XPLOR, just wasn’t working for me on the Cadillac, so I got a new one (I was surprised that CRUZR was still available). I’m holding onto the old one for another vehicle, but I’m not sure yet which one.
It wasn’t a very photographically rewarding trip. I’d been waiting for a good weather forecast for a while but it just never came, so I gave up. Luckily, I don’t mind driving in this sort of condition. This is the US/Canada border, a few hundred yards north of the White Pass summit.
More and more, I spend much of my Skagway time down at the water. If Cathy and I ever leave the Yukon, it will be to a place within walking distance of the sea – we both love it.
Out at the fuel dock. It would be quite a day to be on a ferry coming up Taiya Inlet with a screaming south wind!
The tug Anna T from Ketchikan was docked, but it wasn’t clear why – perhaps to take away the crane that was working on the Small Boat Harbor improvements.
Skagway got a couple of inches of snow overnight, and crews were busy cleaning up. The temperature was -15°C (+5°F) when I left home, +3°C (37°F) in Skagway. Ah, Spring! 🙂
Cute. That’s probably illegal everywhere except Skagway.
Monty loves road trips, at least partly because he gets to go for lots of walks. Walk #4 was at the Gold Rush Cemetery. Clara Amelia Patton was only 29 years old when she died on December 13, 1904. Going to these old cemeteries that have so many young people and babies buried always reminds me how easy life is today. The stories seem even sadder when the graves are covered by snow.
I had a good lunch, and headed north again just after 1:30 Yukon time. The new avalanche signs through the pass look more in character now 🙂
Out in the middle of nowhere along Windy Arm, a Christmas tree appears every year. Thanks for putting it up, Jacqueline – Merry Christmas to you, too! She actually came along just as I was about to leave after taking this photo, and we chatted for a while.
So, that was yesterday. Now, what else is going on? Well, the big excitement is that we have a moose hanging around the property again. This very poor photo taken from the bedroom window in the pitch dark a few days ago is the only one I have of her yet, but there are lots of new tracks day after day, so she’s back pretty much every night.
I got a dedicated photo scanner a few days ago, so I can finally start scanning my thousands of slides. Most of the ones I’ve done so far have been old family photos, but this Air North DC-3 that I flew from Dawson to Whitehorse on in 1992 made the cut as well.
Speaking of airplanes, I’ve been spending a lot of time with my head in the air lately – both my Alaska Aviation and the equivalent Yukon page have gotten dozens of additions, including this one shot in Fairbanks while I was on the Riverboat Discovery with one of my tour groups.
The main reason for the drive to Skagway was that I had a few packages to pick up at the post office. I’ve added a large number of old transportation and tourism brochures and photos to the collection. If I run out of things to do, yesterday’s additions will keep me busy for many days. Here’s a sample of the sort of thing that I find interesting – from back in the days when the only way to get your vehicle from Skagway to Whitehorse was to put it on a White Pass rail car.
And finally there are the house renovations that I’m chipping away at. The first complete job is the basement bathroom – the before and after photos are below.
Well, the sun will be up in 4 hours, but I have to get into town long before that to pick up a couple of things, and I certainly want to be there before today’s craziness starts.
I hope that you all have a wonderful Christmas, in whatever way you celebrate or don’t 🙂 Cathy and I are pretty much on the “don’t” list except for having a dinner and a brunch with long-time friends. No stress, just a peaceful evening and morning.
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