Woke up at 0700, the boat had already docked in Skagway.
Went back to the formal dining room for breakfast, I had eggs benedict, Song had a parfait and porridge. Popped down to the excursions desk and booked a scenic train ride to White Pass summit, even though the weather wasn’t great – cloudy and raining – but we had to do something because we were there all day and it was a small town.
We walked into town, had a wander up and down the streets, mostly jewellery shops and souvenir places. These towns survive on tourism, and are only open 4 or 5 months a year.
Song went into a jewellery shop for about 30 minutes and bought some gold nuggets, haggling with the guy. At one stage he took off his shirt and handed it over, and brought out his first born son to offer – never haggle with a Chinese woman.
We walked a bit more, found a coffee place but it didn’t have wifi, the guy said internet was very expensive and no where had free wifi in town.
It was still early, so we had another whiz around the town, past the jewellery shop Song bought her stuff from where the guy was still crying. Went into a clothes shop where I bought a fleece lined waterproof jacket for $20 USD – we’d seen them on the boat for $60 and I thought they were a bargain then, but this was ridiculous. We then went back to the boat to have lunch – we both had salads then I had roast pork but skipped dessert. Song had sushi. We then went down to wait for the train which left from just next to the dock, I was wearing my new $20 jacket.
The trip was 3.5 hours and wound it’s way by the side of the town and up the mountain, following the river and through the forest.
The train climbed over 3000 feet, high above the river, a mountain on the opposite side of the valley with several thin waterfalls. There was also a road on the Mount opposite, and the guide said it took 30 years to build.
The train was slow, but had a mountain to climb. We could see the train track high above us on the other side of the mountain, and a couple of bridges.
We climbed into the clouds, and the views were incredible. The mountain had lots of small waterfalls, there was snow dotted around and it was still raining and cold, probably around 3c. Did I mention the views? The train track was cut into the side of the mountain with a steep, long drop into the gorge. After a while I stopped taking photos to enjoy the view.
We also passed into Canada, but couldn’t get off, stopped and then headed back down the mountain to the boat. We passed through cloud so couldn’t see much on the way back, but I did take some photos when it did clear. Song saw another bear but I missed it.
Back to the boat, dinner and sleep.
