June 24

We slept well, except for Mom getting a serious crick in her neck. I got up at 7 and went for a jog, then Lana and I walked around town. We windowshopped and went to the gold rush museum that I had seen last year but Lana had missed. Back to the hotel about 9:50 to get Mom and pick up our ride to the ferry. The desk clerk, a nice Indian man with grey hair, gave us a ride and ran us by the mailing center for Lana to mail back her waders and other stuff. While she was in the mailing center, we chatted with the driver, and found that he was from San Francisco. He retired from Templeton (the mutual fund company), and worked summers in Skagway for a room and a little pay. He had been a customer and turned into a worker! He spends 2 months in SF and then travels the rest of the time…he had been to Egypt recently and really enjoyed it.

Today was a gorgeous day in Skagway. Mid-50’s and sunny, the best weather of the trip so far. The boat boarded at 10:15 for an 11:15 departure, so there wasn’t a lot of time to mess around town…but we did find time to pick up a bottle of vodka for the trip!

Note the cruise ship at the end of the street.

A note about our short stay in Skagway. I had originally set us up to travel to Skagway and back on the fast ferry, a ride of less than 2 hours. This would have given us over 24 hours in town, and enough time for Mom to ride the White Pass Railroad. A few weeks before we left, the folks at the ferry service called, and told us that the fast ferry was in dry-dock for maintenance, and we would instead be on the slow ferry…a ride of more than 6 hours each way! So our stay in Skagway was shorter than we had planned, and there was not enough time for Mom to take the train ride, but at least she got to see the town.

The Malaspina was our new ferry, and we would be aboard her all the way to Bellingham, three days away. Our cabins were small and basic, with two bunk beds, a small vanity, stool and shower, and a tiny closet. Linens, towels, and soap were provided, and that was about it. They were by no means luxurious, but they were comfortable enough for the three nights we would spend in them. One thing that surprised us…the cabins were warm, almost hot. It seemed like they were heated, but did not have A/C. I turned the thermostat all the way to “COOL”, but it never got cool. Talking to other passengers, this was the case in all of the cabins.

Some notes on the ferries. The two ships that we sailed on were both about 370 feet long and built in 1963. They were certainly not up to cruise-ship standards. The halls were narrow and antiseptic, kind of like a hospital, there was very little carpet anywhere on the ships, no fancy art, etc. There was also no laundry. Tactical error on my part. We could have done laundry just before we left Eric’s, or found a laundromat in Skagway, but I was SURE that the ferry had laundry facilities. Now we were getting low on clean clothes…we ended up hand washing in the sink. But there were upsides. There were forest service rangers in the forward observation lounges, which gave talks, spotted wildlife, and answered questions. The also had a full set of laminated NOAA charts of our voyage set up on an easel, which I found very entertaining and informative. They had cafeterias with decent food at reasonable prices (dinner ran $7-$9). The occasionally showed movies (on a big TV and DVD player). They had a bar and a tiny gift shop. They had a large solarium on the upper deck, which was shielded from the wind, but open at the aft-end, heated, and loaded with plastic deck chairs. One of the coolest things about the ferries is that you did not have to rent a cabin. These are working boats that are used by the locals to get to and from the many Alaskan communities that are not served by roads. They are also used a lot by backpackers and other shoestring travelers. So the solarium was full of people who where camping out, with sleeping bags on the deck chairs and backpacks by their sides. There were also people sleeping on the floor of the observation lounge, and in another lounge that had big airline-style recliners and were kept dark so people could sleep. There were public showers available for those that did not have a cabin. The observation lounge has signs posted prohibiting sleeping, food, and drink, but these were universally ignored.

The ferries can carry almost any type of vehicle imaginable, from a motorcycle to a tractor trailer. There were quite a few RV’s using them, to get to the many Alaskan town that you cannot drive to. The ferry system will allow you, for a small fee, to get off just about anywhere you want to, and they catch the next boat, so you can spend as much or as little time as you want in the beautiful little fishing villages that dot the coast

I thought that all of this was pretty cool. I could see myself riding the ferry, sans-cabin…I think it would be pretty fun. It would also be a cheap way to see some wonderful country that most tourists never see. Fare for one person, no cabin, Bellingham to Skagway, was $352, and took two and a half days.

We transited back to Juneau via Haynes, where I watched a KTM 950, and KLR, and a Goldwing board. I later met the Winger, he was traveling with his 12-year-old son, and he lived not 15 miles from Mom! What a small world. The rest of the trip to Juneau was uneventful, with a few wildlife spottings…whales, sea lions, and the ever-present eagles.

At Juneau we got a new naturalist, and I quizzed her on what might be coming up. We didn’t want to miss any of her talks or any especially scenic areas, but it was close to dinnertime. We found that we would be passing through the Wrangell Narrows at about 3:45 AM, and she said it was not to be missed. We ended up hitting the sack about 10, and getting up at 3 so as not to miss the Narrows.