Skagway, the Town in the Mist

Day 02: July 15th, 2024

Weather: Light Rain, 14 degrees C

As you may recall, we left off yesterday with a Trimble Problem™. This morning, we went to a delightful coffee shop called The Kind Cafe, which is perfect if you're the hipster type. We ordered some breakfast and messed around with the Trimble some more. We confirmed that it could still connect to my phone and that the million and eight apps that you have to download to operate the Trimble and its subscription service (can you tell how annoyed I was?) were working—frankly, a Christmas miracle. After finishing our breakfast, we headed to an area free of trees near the SS Klondike to test the accuracy again. The Trimble continued to give a respectable 2.5ish meter average on its vertical and horizontal accuracy, but it wasn't good enough, so I pulled the trigger and called Cansel in Burnaby to purchase a Catalyst30 one-month subscription, which, supposedly, gives 30cm accuracy. The only catch is that you have to wait between 2-5 business days for the subscription to kick in. If this doesn't work, so help me God. 

After getting the most infuriating part of the day out of the way early, we stopped at Staples for some supplies in case I had to do any hand mapping and filled up the tank (gas was 1.82, in case you were wondering). Then we headed to Skagway and our first set of cemeteries, approximately 2.5 hours away in southern Alaska.

The drive to Skagway was characterized by fog, mist, mountains, stunning views of what Earl determined were glaciofluvial deposits and a U.S. border guard who just seemed happy to have someone to chat with and didn't seem to particularly care what we were crossing the border for.

Skagway is something. Unlike Whitehorse, which really had very little to do with the Klondike Gold Rush (Dawson City was the Yukon's original capital), Skagway and Dyea, the neighbouring town, are where the trailheads for the two most popular routes into the Yukon are located, the Whitepass and Chilkoot Trails respectively. When you first drive into Skagway, you're driving down a relatively unassuming road flanked by an old train station on one side and an RV park on the other. But then, looming in the distance above all of the buildings, you see cruise ships. Then, one street to the left, the main street, you see where those cruise ships' inhabitants are, touring around what you imagine is meant to be a colourful replica of the original gold rush era main street. There are saloons and wooden boardwalks all mixed in with a myriad of tourist shops with names that disguise what they are, and innumerable tour buses running through Skagway and beyond into the now abandoned Dyea. 

At this time, our goal was to figure out where we would spend the night. And, wouldn't you know it? Skagway, being a tourist town, made for some really expensive campsites ($50-70USD a night). So, Earl and I, being the thrifty folk we are, decided to camp out in the ghost town instead and headed off to Dyea. Dyea is only a short distance away, but the drive along the Taiya River is somewhat twisty and nailbiting (at least for me; Earl was fine), so it takes a little bit longer than it would along good roads at about 30 minutes.

Around this time, I learned from one of my grad committee members that the Trimble still likely would not be accurate enough without an RTK (real-time kinematic) unit—cool, cool, cool. 

We arrived at the Dyea Campground, or what we thought was the Dyea campground, only to learn from Dylan, the NPS officer in charge of the area, that this was some secret second option. Dylan had a lot of information about the Chikoot Trail and other things in the area. We like Dylan, we might have to visit Dylan again later. Anyway, we hopped back into the truck and carried on down the road and over a questionable bridge to where the actual Dyea campground lay, just past the former Dyea townsite and two left forks in the road (unless you want to sleep in the tidal flats or the cemetery). Now we had actually arrived at Dyea Campground (or the city campground as Dylan calls it, oh Dylan) and scoped out the best site, right along the tidal flats with stunning misty mountain views in the background. Once we picked our site, we registered using the truly sophisticated system of sticking 40 USD in an envelope and sticking the envelope in a wooden collection box. 

We still had a few hours left, so we popped next door to the Slide Cemetery to get an idea of what we would do tomorrow. I have only ever experienced these sites through the power of the internet, so it was exciting for me to finally meet my constant companions of the last 2.5 years in person. The site was small, set well back into the woods across a little footbridge, and, to my surprise, surrounded by a sturdy wooden fence. 

The Slide Cemetery is called the Slide Cemetery because it was established to house the remains of victims who died in the Palm Sunday (April 3rd) avalanche of 1898. That being said, there are one or two folk buried here who were not involved with the avalanche at all. 

Also, to my delight, just before the entrance to the Slide Cemetery, there were 7-9 markers lined up. According to the signboard, these turned out to be markers/disinterments that had been moved from the old Dyea Cemetery site before it was eroded away into the Taiya River. I had known from my previous research that the Dyea Cemetery was eroded away, and I had expected nothing to remain from that site, so this was a welcome sight.

After a quick tour and some observations about the age of the trees, the condition of the markers and some areas of sinking, we headed back to camp to set up and have some dinner. And what a glorious setup it is. Truly, we are masters, and this can only be the king of campsites. Glorious. As for dinner, as some of you may know, I have been dehydrating/vaccupacking meals for the last few months to bring on this trip because, as we have previously established, I am thrifty. Today's meal was ramen. It was alright; I should have added my little pack of dehydrated vegetables and let them cook for a bit before adding the ramen because they were not cooked enough. Also, toward the end, in a fit of madness, I poured just a tiny amount of my peppermint tea into the remaining broth to make it a little less spicy. Did I have a jug of water sitting right there? Yes. Was I tired? Also yes. 

This was a mistake; don't ever do this, and never speak of it again. 

After we wrapped up dinner and dishes, because Dyea is a dead zone, we headed over to Skagway to do some administrative tasks, sending e-mails and the like. Before we knew it, it was 9 pm and past Earl's bedtime (Skagway is one hour behind Vancouver). So, we headed back to camp and are now bedded down for the night, eager for some surveying tomorrow! See you then!

-Nikki