Alaska: Day 10 - Vancouver BC

Well, we're home at last. After cruising through the night between Vancouver Island and the mainland, the Ryndam passed under the Lions Gate Bridge at 6:00 AM today. The sun was starting to come up over the North Shore mountains, casting a golden glow over the ship.  I have cycled over the Lions Gate Bridge at 6:00 AM many times during my early morning rides on Saturday mornings, and have enjoyed the amazing sight of watching these huge vessels passing below. So it was quite fun seeing it down here on deck looking up as a passenger.

<--Sunrise arrival at Canada Place

It's really nice we live here, as we cleared customs and arrived at our house, luggage in hand, by just after 8:00 AM.  Many passengers have a longer journey home today. They came from just about everywhere you can think of across the United States, parts of Canada, and as far away as Australia to take the tour with us.










I will try to write more of our trip after leaving Glacier Bay on August 11th to our arrival here in Vancouver.  I would have loved to have written it while we were on the ship, however, not surprisingly Internet access was very limited and VERY expensive on-board. So, instead, I took copious notes off-line and waited to upload photos until now.  So, please check back over the next few days... there's lots more stories to come.

In the meantime, we hope you enjoy what is here so far - and please feel free to leave comments.  It's good to be home!

- Stan and Hilary

UPDATE December 14th 2010: My goodness!!  I still haven't completed those journal entries since we left Glacier Bay.  I really must do so soon.  This is a good lesson for me to write in my journal as soon something special needs to be shared.  In the meantime, we're planning a trip to Hawaii, leaving on Monday.  So there will be more to write about there, too! - Stan

Alaska: Day 7 - Haines and Skagway

We arrived in Haines in time for a quick breakfast, then an outing ashore, A quiet little town, it was first settled by missionaries in 1879, and was later home to a US Army post, Fort William H. Seward. 

I was a bit puzzled at first why the Ryndam chose this place to visit, but, later, it became apparent that a much more interesting town was practically taken over by three cruise ships docked there that day.

Hilary and I were anxious to get out of the gym and do a real walk this morning. So, we picked a guided tour that left at 9:00 AM and set off for the Battery Point trailhead in Chilkat State Park, about a mile and a half from town.

<--Obviously this is NOT going to be a strenuous hike!!

Jedediah, one of two guides who walked with us, was very knowledgeable in natural history, pointing out various plants such as - Amanita muscaria, a poisonous, psychoactive mushroom with white knobs covering the mushroom surface, were growing in several places along the forest walk.  Something that very closely resembles them appears frequently in super Mario games, bestowing super-human powers to Luigi and Mario.... or at least they think they do.

note: consult an expert and proper references before trying to identify any mushroom. Don't rely on this photo.  It could be wrong. -->

...   

L

<--We saw Devil's Club, a broad leafy plant favored by Tlingit natives in the area for its ginseng medicinal qualities inside its thorn-encrusted stems.

.

Fireweed, growing by the side of the beach on the way to Battery Point-->

We enjoyed a short snack local smoked salmon and cream cheese on crackers near Battery Point, where gun emplacements were set up off the beach during the second world war, then made our way back to town to complete a very enjoyable walk.

Warm sunshine broke out in the afternoon. Summer has finally arrived!   We took a 45 minute ferry rude from Haines to Skagway, 

past Bridal Veil Falls, a spectacular sight with an vertical drop of approx. 1500 feet.

As we approached Skagway, it was apparent that our cruise ship was not the only one in these waters.  Four more ships were moored in Skagway.  Each of these ships have over two thousand passengers (twice as many as the ship we're on, the Ryndam).  I can only imagine what this little town of approx 720 registered voters must be like with thousands of passengers arriving literally overnight.  We'll soon find out!














We soon found ourselves in the midst of a bustling town, with historic buildings built in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Lots and LOTS of cruise ship tourists. By complete chance, we stumbled upon a free walking tour, conducted by Linda, a talented national parks ranger.  The introduction she gave to Skagway was terrific.  

We learned that Skagway was settled by white men just as the Klondike gold rush was getting underway.  Captain William Moore first settled there, homesteading 160 acres in 1887.  

Moore's original homestead-->

This fellow was quite an entrepreneur. He had built a reputation for being in the center of business activity in gold rushes throughout British Columbia and the Yukon. He provided transportation, worked claims, bought and sold goods, delivered mail, anything to make money during this wild time. 


Moore was also pretty shrewd. He predicted, based on similarities in hill formations in other places where it had been discovered, that gold would be found somewhere in the Yukon as well.  In preparation for the expected onslaught of men seeking their fortune, he built a wharf and a trail with a toll booth in Skagway to capitalize on what was about to take place.  Sure enough, gold was discovered in the Yukon in August 1896.  Moore opened his toll booth trail on July 14th 1897, just before steamships arrived in San Francisco and Seattle, carrying the famed "Ton of Gold" that set off the Klondike Gold rush.  The first steamers arrived in Skagway that month. Overnight, Skagway became a boomtown as steamer after steamer arrived with miners setting out for Dawson City over the White Pass trail.  The new residents and gold rush stampeders pushed Moore aside and took ownership of his land, leaving him five acres, the wharf and a sawmill. 


Ever the entrepreneur, Moore turned around and sold lumber to the same people who stole his property. And so, the stores, saloons and homes were built that we see to this day. Over 100,000 men made their way through this instant town, taking literally a ton of provisions for each man, enough to last a year (this was mandated by law) up the White Pass trail to the Klondike.  Less than 10% actually made it. The rest turned back, broken by terrible living conditions, rampant crime that swept the little town, and by the trail itself.  The trail was so bad that soon became known as "Dead Horse Trail" due to the corpses of thousands of horses that died after breaking their legs on its slopes.

This building, ornately decorated with driftwood, was built in 1899-->

Our park ranger guide, Linda, then told us about another man who came to town seeking his fortune.  He, too, was shrewd, but in a much different way. Starting out as a gambler and con artist in Colorado, he left Denver after being run out of town when he was caught rigging elections.  When he heard about Skagway, Jefferson Smith, aka "Soapy Smith",  brought his wealth of experience as a con man to the Yukon. 


Within months, Soapy Smith took control of the town, setting up a sophisticated system of 'marking' hapless and naive miners, then relieving them of their money by a variety of ingenious methods.  

Some were mugged in shops and saloons owned by him.  Some were sold fake transportation tickets to move their heavy provisions up the White Pass Trail, resulting in goods that never arrived. "Soapy" Smith even set up a telegraph shop in Skagway where miners could send telegraphed messages to their loved ones.  A few days later, they would get a reply. Everyone was happy with this service, despite the fact there were no telegraph lines linking Skagway with the outside world.


Linda then said that when the hapless gold seekers found out they had been swindled, they would be pretty mad about it. Once they found their goods never arrived in Dawson Creek, they would stumble down the White Pass trail looking for trouble. But the town sheriff was on Soapy's payroll, as was most of the town itself. The minor didn't have a chance.  Down on his luck and penniless, Soapy Smith would deliver the coupe de grace personally.  He would find the minor, and befriend him, buying him dinner, perhaps, and a ticket to leave for home.  The miner never knew his friend and benefactor was, in fact, the person who stole his goods in the first place. This act of generosity proved to be very helpful from a business point of view.  By giving him a ticket out of town, Soapy Smith had one less enemy in town he had to worry about.


In the end, residents of Skagway became fed up. They held a meeting with Smith, words were exchanged, and gunshots rang out, and "Soapy Smith" was dead at the age of 38.


After Soapy Smith's demise, the town became much quieter. However, much damage had been already done.  Many miners on the way to the Klondike were starting the go to Nome, a competing destination for steamships arriving in Alaska, in part due Stagway's unsavory reputation. It didn't help matters that the town itself was a mess. Poorly planned, businesses were spread out across the shanty town. And so excitement over Yukon gold was quickly fading in Skagway as interest moved elsewhere.  In a desperate act to gain an aura of respectability, city fathers decided it would bve best that the town be consolidated along Broadway, the main street. The terminus would be at the railway tracks and, beyond, the wharf, making it easy for minors to come ashore and get the provisions they need in a 'modern', progressive town. Rather than build new buildings, they did what folks affectionately call "the Skagway Shuffle". And so, beginning around 1907, entire buildings were picked up and moved to new locations along Broadway.  The Golden North Hotel was moved and a third floor added.  

And so, the stores and businesses that were once on Fourth, Fifth and Sixth avenues, were shifted 90 degrees to face the railway tracks down Broadway.

And the Trail Inn/Pack Train bar complex that had once housed two army brigades, was moved to where it is now, the Red Onion saloon.-->

The Red Onion Saloon, is a 'must see' for anyone who really wants to get a feeling for what entertainment was like in the late 1800's.  

Whoa, what do we have here?  

"$5 for 15 minutes???"  -->

Actually, the tour was great fun, with actors in period costumes giving a slightly risque but quite harmless account of what life and entertainment was like in Skagway at the turn of the century.  The young actress in the photo had a terrific sense of humor.






















































Coming to Skagway was quite an experience.  We could easily imagine what it must have been like here in the middle of the Klondike gold rush.

Skagway has now been reborn, with a whole new set of travelers coming off the boat,  Like the miners before them, no doubt many of these new visitors will return to their ship with lighter wallets than when they first arrived.  I think, however, that in this case, most will be returning with smiles.





















And so, after a long and satisfying afternoon, we returned on the ferry back to Haines, 

... and to our waiting ship, set to depart  at 6:30 PM.

The Ryndam is in the distance, overshadowed by the Chilkat mountain range.-->

Tomorrow, we travel to Juneau.

Alaska: Day 6 - Glacier Bay, my birthday, and "problem solved"!

We're now in Glacier Bay, an unforgettable way to celebrate my birthday today. Hilary and I woke in our temporary stateroom. It must be the fact we are on holidays, but we both seemed refreshed despite our little 'interruption' in the middle of the night.  We made it up to breakfast at the Lido restaurant, and set about enjoying the day while staff set about finding a solution to our stateroom problem.

And, yes, the Ryndam came through late in the day.  We were upgraded to an even nicer stateroom four decks above our original one, with a balcony view of the ocean.

Our stateroom, photo taken on our last day before disembarking in Vancouver-->

We were very fortunate. Apparently, our upgrade was made possibly only due to a last minute cancellation of someone who was supposed to board at Haines in the morning. Throughout our experience though, the manner in which staff treated our problem was highly professional, and in the end very helpful.  And the upgrade proved to be a pretty nice improvement!

The weather continued to be foggy in the morning as we entered Glacier Bay.  We stopped briefly to let a National Park ranger join the ship off  Bartlett Cove, just after 10:00 AM.  This park has is of such ecological value that UNESCO declared it a World Biosphere Reserve in 1986 and a World Heritage Site in 1992.


<-- Marjerie Glacier, on the port side.  In the distance, on the starboard side, is the Grand Pacific glacier.

The park ranger gave an interesting commentary about the region and the glaciers in the park as we traveled up the bay to the head of Tarr Inlet.  We learned how these glaciers have advanced and receded since 1680, when there was no Glacier Bay back then, to where the glaciers are now, 65 miles inland.  During this time, Huna Tlingit natives inhabited the region, moving their villages with the movement of the ice.  Today, the Huna Tlingit claim Glacier Bay as their spiritual homeland.
----------

It was in this park that John Muir built a cabin in 1890 and used it as a base to study glaciers. There, he championed a new theory, developed in Europe's Alps, that the Yousemite Valley in California had been carved by glaciers and not by the Biblical flood.

Thankfully, the fog had lifted by the time we reached the Tarr Inlet, the deepest inlet in Glacier Bay, and we were treated to the spectacular sights of Marjerie Glacier, a glacier flowing to the water's edge just in front of the ship. Beyond this, we could see the Grand Pacific glacier flowing into Tarr Inlet.

Marjerie Glacier-->

Margerie Glacier is huge, extending one mile wide, about 250 feet high, and about 150 feet into the water.  The photo does not do justice to its size and scale, or for the fact that what we see is only tiny fraction of an icefield that extends for 21 miles to south slope of Mount Root on the US-Canadian border. The glacier itself moves at an incredible rate, about six to eight feet per day, continuously pushed into the sea by ice and snow higher up in the mountains.  In contrast, the great Athabasca glacier between Banff and Jasper in Canada flows at just over one foot per day.

<--We could hear the ice cracking as the glacier flowed slowly into the ocean. 

The Grand Pacific Glacier-->

To the right of us was the Grand Pacific glacier, flowing from a separate valley into Tarr Inlet.  The Grand Pacific Glacier is an even longer icefield that extends 25 miles from British Columbia's Stikine region, to here, at the water's edge. It is easy to see in the photo why this glacier is called a 'dirty' glacier.  A huge amount of rock and debris is carried along by the ice as it flows into the inlet.

<--Ice  breaking off into the water lasts only a matter of hours before melting away. The water was so calm, it reflected the mountains above like a mirror.

Lamplugh Glacier-->

Next, we traveled slowly past the Lamplugh Glacier, another huge "tidewater" glacier flowing into John Hopkins Inlet. The sides of the mountain beside it has deep striations from the movement of ice and embedded rock running across it. This was the sort of evidence that John Muir used to advance his theory about the formation of Yosemite Valley. This glacier moves even faster than the Margerie glacier, at a rate of 10-15 feet per day, one of the fastest moving glaciers in Alaska. The ice movement is so dynamic you could hear the ice crackling deep within and almost see it move.

I found myself staying on deck for most of the afternoon, transfixed at the majestic sight of these great mountains and glaciers. Finally, we retraced our course to the mouth of Glacier Bay, and set course for Haines, our next destination in the morning.

This evening, we went for dinner at the Pinnacle, one of the finest French restaurants I've been to in a long time.  Before we left for dinner, however, I found some wonderful messages waiting for me in email and Facebook from friends and family for my birthday. Receiving them, in this remote, beautiful place was very special, and so appreciated.  Thank you!

Alaska: Day 5 - College Fjord and Prince William Sound

Well, we're on our way!   We woke this morning to breakfast being served in our stateroom, and a view of a massive iceberg outside our window.  Over the night, we were told, the Ryndam had passed through Knight Island Passage and Ferry Passage.  We had reached one of the first glaciers in College Fjord, where on a clear day we were told it was possible to see up to seven glaciers including Wellesley, Vasar, Harvard and Yale. Clear, being the operative word here... like McKinley, it was impossible to see most of them today.

But we had lots to enjoy here on the Ryndam.   First order of the day... get some exercise!   

<--Ryndam's gym.  The photo was taken as we were docking in Juneau, later on during our journey, on August 12th.

This was in part to help compensate for the fact we had spent the best part of the day for the past four days on planes, trains and automobiles (buses, actually, but you get the idea).  However, it was also due to an instinct for self-preservation, given the enormous amount of wonderfully rich, but great tasting food here on the boat.  Someone said (I have not idea if this is accurate or not), that you can easily gain a pound a day on cruise ships. Here, on the Ryndam, I can believe it!  So, I'm hoping an hour or two of hard work at the gym might help compensate for the inevitable caloric overload that my poor body will soon be subjected to.

The ship itself is truly luxurious.  Built in 1984, the ship, with a length of 720 feet, a beam of 101 feet and 10 decks, carries up to 1230 passengers and 602 crew members.  It's smaller than many of the other cruise ships we encountered in Alaska, but the smaller size made it relatively easy to get around.

Looking across from the lobby registration desk, with shops and a movie theatre on the other side-->

There are beautiful dining rooms and  lounges, 

... a casino (we didn't spend any time there... there were more fun things to do!)...

...a fairly extensive library combined with an Internet cafe (connection rates, however, are pretty expensive, but they worked), 

an art gallery, 

movie and live showroom theatres, 

swimming pools and hot tubs located in a multi-purpose area with a retractable roof for all-weather use, 

... fine dining and (pictured here) cafeteria style restaurants with fresh flowers, gourmet food, with a view that is pretty hard to match anywhere.

The day magically disappeared.  In the meantime, we proceeded on a southerly course towards Caps Hinchinbrook, marking the eastern exit of Prince William Sound.  The Ryndam then took a southeasterly course across the Gulf of Alaska towards Glacier Bay, our destination for tomorrow.

We had one rather unfortunate experience in the middle of the night, though. Hilary and I woke, quite independently of each other, to the smell of raw sewage in our room. Since neither of us had used the washroom, something was clearly amiss.  In fact, I had noticed it earlier in the hallway near our cabin and in our room earlier in the day, and had alerted senior staff at the registration desk about our concerns.  After an initial investigation, we had been assured the problem had been taken care of, and sure enough, when we had gone to bed all seemed well. Clearly it wasn't. Exiting quickly in our bathrobes, we arrived in front of the office registration desk where the night officer assessed the situation and gave us a temporary stateroom one floor below, to spend the night.   Hopefully a better solution will be provided in the morning.

Alaska: Day 4 - Journey to Seward and boarding the Ryndam

We're leaving Denali today, heading south to Seyward, approximately 270 miles long, translating, with rest stops, into a nine hour bus ride.. Our driver was  Dustin, a young man who grew up on an Iowa farm and is in his last year of mechanical engineering at a university in Utah.  Apparently, Holland and Princess cruise lines recruits promising young students, trains them to drive a bus and conduct these tours.  The results were surprisingly good. Dustin was obviously very competent, as well entertaining and enthusiastic.  The nine hour drive flew by, peppered with stories and jokes along the way.

One of our first rest stops was at the Veteran’s memorial, located in the Denali State Park at mile 147.1, between Anchorage and Fairbvanks.  It consists of five twenty-foot panels, representing the US Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard, all of which have been an important part of Alaskan history.  I was attracted to it as my father served as an aeronautical engineer in the US Air Force in Alaska.  He had been stationed in Fairbanks to fly B36 bombers as part of the US Strategic Air Commad during the height of the cold war. 

I was only four years old at the time, and together with mom and my brother, we lived in San Antonio Texas while Dad was away for weeks at a time in Alaska. I was interested to learn there that high mountain search and rescue is conducted by a special branch of the armed forces that also does rescue operations in Afghanistan.

About four hours after we left Denali National Park, we passed through Willow, on the way to Seward.  Dustin, our driver, told us about Willow’s near claim to becoming the capital of Alaska.  Apparently, a debate arose in the 1970's as to where the ideal capital should be.  And so, in 1976, a state-wide vote was held, and Willow was successfully chosen. However, once a more thorough study was done, it was found that it would cost approximately four BILLION dollars to move the capital there.  A vote to approve funding was held in 1982 and was resoundingly defeated., and with it, Willow’s chances of becoming the state capital.

A few minutes after leaving Willow, we entered Houston .  Our guide mentioned that it was first created as a sawmill town.  And, like many other small towns in Alaska, it has its share of colourful characters. This year Houston made national new when the local mayor impersonated a police officer and "borrowed" a police car to drive and drove recklessly to Fairbanks with flashing patrol lights at high speeds so that "he could get there faster".  However, he made a mistake of leaving the dash cam on as he drove, which ended up on YouTube.  The resulting scandal made him an Internet celebrity, and led to his resignation in June this year.

Houston is also the only place in Alaska where you can buy fireworks year round.  Interesting, one of the biggest forest fires in Alaska was located in Houstan and apparently was caused by fireworks--->

About five hours after we left Denali, we reached Anchorage, but only passed through it.  While we did, as our driver and guide gave a few details about the city, and some howlers, just to keep us awake.  For example, we were earnestly told that Conico building is the tallest building in Anchorage, “although I’ve heard the library has more stories”.   Later, we passed by a big balloon covered tent of a building, that, it turned out, was an indoor driving range.  And we learned from our driver that Alaska has a strange rule concerning golf.  Up there, everyone has to wear two pairs of pants when they go golfing.  The reason has nothing to do with the cold, or bugs.  It’s just added protection in case they “get a hole in one”.  Hahahaha...

On leaving Anchorage, we entered a very scenic part of the tour, the 130 mile journey to Seward along the Alaskan coast. Just outside of Anchorage, we passed by a long marsh that extended beside the highway alongside the ocean on the right, until we started ascending into the mountains.  

Apparently, the route we were travelling was voted one of the most scenic drives in the US. I have to agree, some of the views we passed, especially alog the water's edge, was quite beautiful.

Along the way, we passed along glacial silt deposits that empty out into the bay.  The driver told us that the silt extends over a thousand feet deep.  The silt is actually dangerous as the thick mud-like substance can act like guicksand if one were to walk on it.  The fore-tide in this bay is the second largest in the world, second to the Bay of Fundy.  Baluga Point is populated by Beluga whales.  When the road was constructed, found artifacts from all five Native peoples in the region that have hunted belugas for centuries.

Next, we passed by Hope, one of the first towns created as a result of the Alaskan gold rush.  A pretty small town, that a few years ago,  had the first high school graduate in eight years.  We were also told that Hope has 100 historical buildings, “eighteen of them are outhouses”.  Now, that's a small town. 

<--Roads are constantly being maintained during the short spring and summer season

The road into Seward is apparently one of the most dangerous in Alaska for avalanches.   The coastal road reminded us of the Sea to Sky highway... high mountains extending from the side of the road, as we passed along.  “Avalanche Alley”  is an area that is particularly hazardous,  so much so that a walking path was constructed in parallel above the highway that, apparently, helps to block some avalanches from reaching the highway.  In the year 2000, avalanches came down on both ends of the highway, trapping several cars in between until they could finally be removed. 

We then entered the Chugach National Forest, one of the largest national forests in the United states, located about 145 miles from Seward.  Just past it the sign, we saw the effects of a recent avalanche that came down this year, breaking trees and taking out several guard rails. Passed along dead standing trees, and the site of Portage, a town that was totally destroyed in the earthquake.  Residents living there decided not to rebuild, and so abandoned it.  Dustin said that locals call the dead forest in the area, a ‘ghost forest’. He prefers, however, to call it “dog forest” because the trees ‘have no bark’.   Groan, another joke.

As we moved deeper into the  Turnagainarm inlet, the mountains became more spectacular.  Covered in snow, it was apparent that there is much more precipitation here than in the Denali National Forest.  There can be over 100 feet of snow each year on the tops of these mountains.  About an hour from Seward, the weather turned cold and wet.  Apparently, winds in this area can reach 214 mph. It might have been higher, however, when that wind record was made, the instrumentation measuring it at the time broke.

A rest stop near Portege Lake, introduced us to our first ice berg, floating in the inlet off Glacier Bay.   This one, which over two stories high,  broke off Portege Glacier a couple of weeks ago.   Dustin, our driver said that the ice was approximately 88 tons when it broke off the glacier.  When it did, the glacier broke off as a ‘shooter’, a submerged chunk of massive ice.   

If a glacier like this were ever to break off under a ship and rise up underneath it, these chunks of ice would cause major damage.

Minutes after our arrival, a huge piece of the glacier broke off, crashing into the water.  The result which happened just before I managed to get to the beach, is the iceberg in the photos here.

At last.  We've reached Seward and are boarding the Ryndam!   

We checked into a beautiful stateroom on the main deck, then spent the rest of the evening exploring this huge ship.

As part of our orientation, we had to attend a mandatory safety meeting – basically assembling outside on deck underneath our pre-assigned lifeboat.  It was a rather sobering moment as attendants wearing life vests demonstrated how to put them on while the announcer gave a briefing on what we would need to do in case of evacuation. I was happy to see that “women and children first” are still the order of the day – I’m still old-fashioned that way.  Romantic notions of Alaskan icebergs aside, I’ll be quite happy if we don’t have to test out those lifeboats while were here!

And so ends our land journey.  Tomorrow, we begin cruising into College Fjord and across Prince William Sound.