Trains, ships, bears… and angels
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 the weather forecast was for showers all day both in Whitehorse and Skagway, the timing was perfect – and who knows, we might even see a bear.
At Dry Creek we saw a police car with his lights on – he was checking out a very bad car roll-over. The car was destroyed, and there were kid’s toys scattered all around it. We imagined all sorts of scenarios for what had happened – very sad….. An ambulance was leaving Carcross as we went into the village, and another cop that we were following spun around and followed, both with their emergency lights on.
I’m still playing with my new camera – this is the 1906 workings of the Venus Mine at full 18x zoom (504mm). The DSLR won’t be getting parked, but this little Fuji does do a fine job on most subjects.
As we neared Rocky Point, Cathy noticed some dark smoke down in the valley so we stopped and waited for the steam train that we knew was coming. WHOO-HOO – I loove steam trains!!!!
There were 3 cruise ships docked in Skagway – the Rhapsody of the Seas (which was in Victoria with us on Thursday), and Celebrity’s Mercury and Millennium, but there really didn’t seem to be very many people around.
On a perfect train day I’d meet the steamer at the Thompson River as well as Rocky Point. As it turned out, I was about 5 seconds too late to get it crossing that particularly scenic bridge, but did get a few shots from that location.
Our bear-hunting finally paid off in one of the usual spots, in a patch of dandelions along Tutshi Lake. This young black bear wasn’t the least bit concerned about our presence. He just kept sliding along on his belly nipping off the flower heads. No other vehicle stopped, though many raced by.
We spent about 10 minutes with that bear, then continued north. But not for long – 3-4 miles further down the lake we met this fellow. An older bear, he was quite nervous about us stopping so we didn’t stay long. Again, no other vehicles stopped, even the rental cars and RVs who I would think would like to see a bear this close.
We stopped at the cabin for a while, to check on things and to let the dogs play on the beach and in the lake. There were a couple of kids in the water – bbrrrrr!!
When I saw the light on Spirit Lake, I had to do a U-turn and go back for a shot – I love the sight of Spring slowly climbing the mountain. Spring at the bottom, still winter up top – “vertical seasons”.
I mentioned angels in the title. Cathy and I both believe that we all have angels trying to guide us, and that listening to them is a very good idea. For a few weeks I’ve had a gas smell in the Subaru – just before leaving for the cruise I took it into a shop and they were unable to find the source of the smell. Yesterday the smell seemed stronger than normal, but we headed out anyway. A few miles away Cathy asked if I had the dog leashes. The answer was “no” but normally I’d just go without them. For some reason I turned around and went back home to get them. Pulling out of the driveway again, I decided to have another look to see if the gas smell source could be seen now. This time it was obvous – a gas line had ruptured. If we had kept going the car would certainly have burst into flames somewhere down the road. Always listen to your angel…
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