5 nights in Skagway, Alaska - Gateway to the Klondike

hi from Skagway Alaska..
a town of 382 people when it's 50 below zero and 8,382 when the summer cruise ships are in town.. the town is 4 blocks wide and 22 blocks long.. downtown reminds me of big ant hill with ants going in all directions up and down a jaywalking across the streets.. it is a colorful town which is what attracts the ships.. it was the route to Klondike Gold Rush in Dawson City, Yukon.. 10,000 people came here and then discovered that they had another 600 rugged grueling miles to go to the Yukon.. there was no railroad, like now, the poor among them had to hike 3,800 feet up and over rocks in the coldest winter on record - 50 below zero.. to make matters worse the Canadian govt required that each miner have 1 ton of supplies to last them for an entire year in the remote Yukon area.. that meant 50 trips up and down the Chilkoot trails hauling that 1 ton of provisons to the customs station and have a partner watch it while the other went down for another load.. it took them two years to get to the Yukon and by that time all the claims had been staked and they were out of luck.. very sad story..

Peg and i rode on Dawson Dolly's Parlor Car a couple of days ago.. Dolly is my sister in law who i helped raise from age 8.. in Columbus, Ohio.. i have attached a link to the pictures in facebook that shows her in action and also the scenery along the train ride.. spectacular..

we are ready to move on to Atlin, Yukon with Cindy and Will.. they have gold mines in Atlin which is where that gold nugget in the pictures comes from.. From Atlin we will go on to Dawson City, the heart of the goldrush.. it remains much as it was at the turn of the century complete with dirt streets and old buildings.. hope to have plenty of pictures from there..

we are 3,800 miles from San Jose at the moment.. the night is shorter and shorter as we go north, it doesn't seem to bother us however.. we pull the curtains in the RT and we are in our only little world and we go right to sleep.. Peg reads herself to sleep and i usually fall asleep over the computer looking at pictures or writing..

Well time to go do something else like enjoy the town and capture it's beauty..

love to all ..
Pegndon

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=121914&id=749024017&l=5bd5b4de7b