WerdehausenAdventures: Port Day

Skagway was our longest and busiest port day! We went into the day with two seperate excursions scheduled and tentative plans to find somewhere local to enjoy lunch along the way. Yesterday we enjoyed amazing weather in Juneau. Today did not follow. It rained basically all day.

1. Excursion #1 was the White Pass and Yukon Route Railway.

This antique train runs along tracks originally built for accessing the Yukon gold fields in the late 1800s. In order to reach the Yukon, prospective wealthy men had to first cross the dangerous white pass. Men, and many many horses died making the attempt. The railway was to quicken and simplify the process. By the time it was built, however, the gold rush was pretty well over. Our ride on the railway was scheduled for 8:00 am and we disembarked the ship around 7:45. Apparently we could have and should have disembarked earlier as seating on the train was first-come, first-served.

After some deliberation, we settled into two seats on the rear-most train car and awaited our departure.

Due to Covid, each train car did not have its own narrator/guide, but instead the narration was provided via the train's PA system.

Being in the rear-most train car gave us the ability to take great photos from the back observation platform.

We did not disembark the train while on its journey (it wasn't allowed, and the train didn't stop). At the end of the route (just shy of the pass) the engine car detached from the remainder of the passenger cars, switched ends, and then was ready to pull us back down the mountain. Inside each train car, the seats flipped so they were facing forward again, and anyone on the 'uphill' side of the train had to switch seats with their opposite on the 'downhill' side. The downhill side has much better views.

2. Lunch -

After disembarking the train in downtown Skagway, we walked to the nearby National Park Visitors center in hopes of a great lunch recommendation. The staff was not willing to offer any. It seemed as though doing so was against the rules? We've had similar conversations with other NP staff, but those were in much larger areas than Skagway. Who knows! Anyway, we had an alternate plan, made while on the train via google, tripadvisor, and facebook ... Olivia's Restaurant.

Our lunch - Wifey ended up eating basically all the french fries and salad. Hubby ate most of the reindeer Reuben and the Elk pastry. We make a good team :)

Reindeer Reuben served on a long bun w/balsamic red slaw, Swiss cheese,
Russian dressing & fresh cut fries

Creamy halibut chowder

Elk Puff served w/side of baby greens

Have I mentioned yet that it rained most all day? After lunch, we put our coats back on, and braved the weather to visit the National Park's museum on the Gold Rush! We still had several hours before our bike ride was scheduled to begin.

Video Link for mobile:

3. Bike Ride

Finishing up our education on the Gold Rush, we decided to go back to Ovation and check in with the excursion department to see if your biking excursion was a "go"! Seriously, so much rain! The answer came back that it was on, so we rested a bit, traded out some camera equipment, and headed back to town to meet up with our leaders!

We met up with a group of folks, boarded a van and began a drive back up the pass. We were driving parallel to the train tracks we had ridden on earlier in the day, just across the river.

Once we reached the border with Canada (or there abouts), we dressed in waterproof outer layers, started our fitbit tracking, and began our ride ... its all downhill from here (except where its not). Due to pretty excessive fog, our van drive tailed us for several miles.

LOOK AT THAT VIEW! STUNNING!

Eventually we broke below the fog and enjoyed some of the scenery around us.

It took us about 2 hours to reach the bike shop, a bit longer than I believe our guides intended.

Upon removing our 'water-proof' outer layers, Wifey discovered her leggings were soaking wet. What a day!

By the time we loaded back into the van, waited on one member of our group to ... waste more time ... and drove back to dock, we were back on board Ovation 2 minutes past our deadline. That deadline also happened to be exactly at our scheduled dinner time.