RSS FeedCruise: Day 5
We woke up early this morning to head out on our excursion in Skagway, AK. As we pulled in to port, it was amazing to see 3 other huge cruise ships already docked. Considering the size of Skagway, these ships will likely quadruple the city’s population. We ate breakfast via room service and headed out. Our excursion tickets said to meet at 7:15, so we arrived around 7:10. We were then told that we were 30-40 minutes early. That’s what we get for following directions, I guess. Our prize for being early was to get to stand in the cold and wind.
We finally loaded up in the van and headed off for the 9 mile trek to the musher’s camp. On the way the tour guide gave us a great narrative of the area, it’s history and such. He said there are about 800 year-round residents and another 1500 or so that live here during the summer months to handle the tourist trade.
Once we arrived at the musher’s camp, we were loaded up in to custom made wheeled carts that get hooked up to a string of dogs. As we exited the vans and were getting loaded on the cart, the dogs are all going nuts and barking up a storm. It’s quite loud and difficult to talk. As soon as we were loaded in and the musher gave the word to go, the dogs immediately stopped barking and took off running. These dogs are born to run. You could see them all pulling at the chain waiting to run. One other interesting fact. Even though the movies all show a string of blue-eyed Siberian Huskies with beautiful coats of fur pulling their sled through the snow, this just isn’t the case. The dogs that really do the work are a bunch of mutts bred with specific dogs for their talents. These are finely tuned pulling machines.
After our ride we were treated to a 15 minute talk with a musher. This guy raced in the 2007 Iditarod. He started with 16 dogs pulling his sled, but crossed the finish line 1100 miles later with only 8. No, none of the dogs died. Some had injuries, some got sick and some got too tired to continue. All the dogs get flown back to the starting location where the mushers return after the race to collect their dogs and head home.
After our excursion we had the tour guide drop us off in downtown Skagway. We did what everybody does in Skagway; shop. After walking the entire length of the town (about 8 blocks), we walked back to the ship, had a snack and then took a nap.
After our nap we got ready for dinner. Tonight I kept it to only 2 appetizers, 1 entree and 1 dessert. The halibut chowder was great, but I didn’t care much for the salmon. They bake it on a cedar plank. A little too much plank flavor took over the salmon.
We polished off the night by playing a bit in the casino and checking out the onboard shopping. After that it was time for bed as we have another early morning excursion tomorrow. It’s going to be a cold one. We are going on a float trip in Juneau on the Mendenhall river. Sure hope we stay dry!
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