Destination Circle: Day 13

May 26, 2016

Jeepers! I forgot the highlight of yesterday. For a couple of hours, we saw humpback whales south of Juneau. In the distance, someone would spot a "blow" and then we would soon see a whale's rounded back or one would waggle a long flipper or show its tail. Once, quite near, a whale breached...truly a thrill. Porpoises in small groups were also rapidly moving through the ocean close to the ship.

Only a dozen passengers were left by the time we got to Skagway early this morning. Three other cruise ships were berthed here, the most amazing being the Disney Wonder, a sister ship to the Disney Magic. It was incongruous to see this glamour and ostentation in the harbor of a small Alaskan town, towering OVER the town, at the end of its main street. It was the Donald Trump of cruise ships.

en.wikipedia.org:

"Both ships have 11 public decks, can accommodate 2,400 passengers in 875 staterooms, and have a crew of approximately 950. Disney Wonder was built in the year following completion of Disney Magic. As of 2015, Disney Wonder sails various North American itineraries on a seasonal basis.

Disney Wonder's Captain is Captain Fabian Dib and her "godmother" is Tinker Bell."

Skagway

Bald Eagles near Dyea / Skagway 

Skagway obviously has defined itself as a tourist destination with dozens (probably a hundred) shops and businesses lining the wooden sidewalks. They all have tasteful signs and many have expensive wares; there are small restaurants, aromatherapy stores, massage and yoga studios, art galleries and stores with the expected tackier tourist stuff but toned-down in presentation...all mingled with the necessary commerce that towns need. What I needed was a good cup of coffee. The air was fresh and cool but not cold. It was early and peaceful on Main Street with few people. While I waited in line in the coffee house, another customer with a very loud voice told me (and all the other clientele) about winning the lottery the only time he was ever in Michigan...like $750. Overhearing this, another guy asked me if I knew about Stony Lake. He had been a counselor at a camp there once. He talked quietly and called me Ma'am and told me to go to Dyea (Die-ee) which he spelled for me. "It's our sister town," he said and gave me directions. He was the typical recreational outdoorsy type one sees everywhere in the west where there are mountains or rivers or rocks to climb. So I went to Dyea. It was only a 16-mile detour off my road out of town. And I saw a life bird! an Arctic Tern. There is, of course, much attention given to gold rush era all through here. The Chilkoot Trail, which was the beginning of route to the Yukon gold fields in the late 1890s, starts in Dyea. The hopeful miners were headed to the Klondike river in Yukon Territory over the mountains to the north.

Grizzly on the road to Carcross

I spent the day moving in that direction, back into Canada, first through British Columbia and then into Yukon Territory. Within 10 minutes of passing through customs, a van ahead of me was stopped half on and half off the road. A young grizzly was foraging out in the open and very close. I carefully pulled off and watched it walk right past my car, a beautiful creature, its beauty and slow graceful movement a counterpoint to its potential ability to maul me to a bloody mess in seconds. I love reading bear attack stories which always, always describe how powerful and quick and ferocious bears can be. But this one had no bad intentions and ambled across the road just in front of a car coming around the curve, which fortunately saw it and slowed. 

I stopped in Carcross, BC, for a gas station lunch and coffee and thought about looking for the Polly's grave in the cemetery here. Someone on the ship had told me about this parrot of the Klondike era, how it got famous and finally died in 1972 reportedly having lived for 125 years, and how it was an awful bird known for "biting, drinking and swearing." But Carcross seemed especially dismal and charmless and I needed to get to Whitehorse and a good night's sleep. Actually, I forgot about Polly until I was well past the town. 

The scenery was again stunning, and even though the elevation of the route is not particularly high, it SEEMED high, with snow on the peaks and stunted, tundra-like flora. 

I love traveling where I've never been before. It all usually works out without too much planning ahead, and there are surprises. I thought, for instance, that Carcross would be at least a town of note, but it has a population of less than 300, so it's barely a village. I thought Whitehorse would be a small rough-around-the-edges western town, but it was bustling and much larger than I thought, sort of like a Missoula or a Traverse City.  It was raining hard when I arrived. I sat in my car, sorting things out, knowing the rain would soon stop as the sky was blue in the west. It eventually did, and I checked into a Best Western. I get Priceline deals that make motels an easy rationalization  And the current Best Western promotion is a $50 credit after two stays. 

A White-crowned Sparrow was singing loudly from a tree top in the parking lot, but I surely have not seen many birds on this trip. 

I had pork and veggie spring rolls in the hotel restaurant (a noisy sports bar) where most patrons were watching the Stanley Cup playoffs, even though Canada is no longer a contender. I watched a table near me: a girl and five guys. One guy looked a bit nerdy and was wearing a white shirt and tie; the other guys were typical 20-somethings bantering and decompressing after working in the office all day. The chick had thick blond braids loosely tied behind her head, beautiful skin, large glasses with pinkish plastic rims, a small piercing in her philtrum, tattoos from her elbows up which disappeared into her short-sleeved blouse; no makeup, talkative and flirty but not obnoxious...kind of like a Heidi who grew up and moved to the city. 

My room was a favorite location in motels: the second floor looking west. But I could easily hear the distracting TV next door. After an hour, I called the desk and the desk guy said it was the band downstairs and I said it wasn't. He offered to investigate but almost at that moment, the noise stopped, mostly for good. 

an amazing greenish color in a lake south of Whitehorse