Day 09 - 07/06/22 - Skagway, AK

 It felt a little strange to wake up in Skagway just a month after we previously visited the city on the Quantum of the Seas.  The Noordam has the primo docking spot closest to downtown and at the end of Broadway Street where all the tourist shops are located. We ate a leisurely breakfast and made our way off the ship to pick up our Musher Camp tickets at the M&M ticket booth.  Interestingly, the shuttle picked us up at the Klondike National Historic Park and took us back to the Noordam where we transferred shuttles to a larger shuttle. Patrick was our guide and driver all day.

 

The musher camp is located about 30 minutes from town.  An enterprising entrepreneur figured out that he could establish a place where sled dogs could live during the summer, get their social and physical training needs met during the off season by pulling tourists around 7 days a week.  Then in the winter, the dogs would go back to the interior and pull sleds in the ice and snow.  Brilliant!

 

At the musher camp, we boarded Unimogs (a 4 wheel drive high clearance monster truck sized vehicle) to be taken up several thousand feet of elevation to where the dogs live.  It's much cooler up there.  There we were assigned to a wheeled sled being pulled by 15 sled dogs.  It was an exhilarating ride and afterwards we were encounter to pet the dogs.  The dogs pull the sleds 5-6 times per day and are super anxious to do it! From there we went back down the mountain and listened to a very boring fellow talk about sledding.  Then we were able to pet 5 month old and 5 week old puppies.They were super cute and very lethargic due to the heat.

 

But alas our time was over and Patrick drove us back to town where got off the shuttle at the far end of Broadway and made our way back to the ship.  We stopped at the Klondike National Historic Park where Katie got another Jr. Ranger book.  While she was doing that, I picked up our train tickets for our 5pm trip.

 

Back on the ship, we ate lunch and Katie finished her Jr. Ranger book.  We walked back into town where she received her 3rd Jr. Ranger award.  It was a short wait for our 5pm train, and we ended up with about 15 people on a 40 person car, so we could spread out.  The bulk of the remaining train passengers (in a separate car) were from the Norwegian Escape and they had boarded down the tracks near their ship while we boarded near the train station.  

 

The 40 mile round trip up the White Pass was spectacular with all sorts of scenic views, trestles, and tunnels.  We could see the highway into Skagway (which I rode on my motorcycle back in 2009 from Seattle).  There were also views of the remains of the Klondike trail from the gold rush of the late 1800's. I also watched the Radiance of the Seas sail away. The train had a turn around loop at the top and back down we went! 

 

We reached the bottom at 7:30pm which was about a 1/2 hour early probably due to the small number of passengers on the train. The town was vacant of tourists as we made our way to the ship. Back on board, we ate a very nice baked salmon dinner in the Lido and watched the Majestic Princess and the Norwegian Encore depart.

 

Once the Encore departed, we could see the damage from the rockslide that occurred after we visited in May. The dock is damaged enough that the Majestic Princess had to tender their passengers to shore even though they we tied up at a dock. Soon it was our turn to depart as we were the last ship in port. We backed out into the harbor, rotated 180°, and joined the line of cruise ship sailing out this beautiful fjord which actually stretches to Seattle. I ended up sitting out on our balcony watching the scenery for about an hour.  Most notable were the two large waterfalls.  

 

And so ended our stop in Skagway.  It was yet another good day on this trip.  Tomorrow is Juneau, and we have something special planned.