One of the planned highlights of our trip through the Yukon was to ride the White Pass & Yukon Route train line. Now this is a train line that is over 100 years old and though it is maintained it is not for those who are accustomed to the red line in Boston.
This train actually derailed last year with passengers onboard. I made sure to state this loud enough so that the women sitting in front of Shawnda could hear. About halfway up the pass it became quite apparent that this women was incredibly afraid of heights, so I decided to have a little fun.
I still will never figure out why people do things that they know will make them uncomfortable? I just don’t get it. I would never go skydiving, never! I know the reason why I won’t, i’m ok with it and no amount of adrenalin rush will get me to do it. Yet people pay huge amounts of money to do these things just to get sea sick, air sick, frightened, nervous and anxious.
They don’t even want to do it but there families drag them along thinking for some reason this will all change when your going over a bridge built 100 years ago, on a train that weighs 500,000 lbs, a thousand feet up from the canyon floor.
Now back to me being; well being me I guess. Now I would probably not like it if people were making fun of me for being fearful of skydiving. However I would never put myself in a situation that would allow this to happen. So the way I see it this lady was fair game.
I pointed out that the train had derailed, felt like it was going to tip over, landslide could happen at any time and that sort of thing. I’m sure there were more comments made by me that were in earshot of this women but Shawnda gave me a look and told me to shut up, so I did. Well it was all in a bit of fun but that lady did not have fun on the ride. I guess it’s just something I will never understand. Her grand kids decided later in the trip to do the same thing to her once they figured out what I had.
Man kids say the darndest things.
Other than that being the highlight of my train ride it was a spectacular view. I don’t think that anyone can truly appreciate the engineering and work that went into building this line, all for gold that was never there in the first place.
Today we build skyscrapers that house the business of the world economy. Bridges that are needed to transport people to those building are designed and built almost without thought. Cars and trucks race around in frantic fashion trying to get to the next place as fast as possible. All of this trying to find the gold that is not there. A lot of energy is spent for not and someone always will get there before us.
It was no different for the stampeders of the Yukon. Though the railway was not built in a year and the searchers of gold had a much harder journey than we do on our way to work, they did it anyway. To hear the narrator on the train tell it this was no thrill. Weather, elements, disease and starvation were just some of the ways you could die going up theWhite Pass. This is what greeted them after there long steamship journey from Seattle.
Today the cruise ships bring people to Skagway to ride the train and shop. They do this to the course of 3 ships and 9,000 passengers a day. Skagway has a population of 1,057, just for perspective.
No one has had to endure hardship to get there and most don’t give it a second thought. Just another stop on the itinerary.
Do we push ourselves to achieve that what cannot be done? I don’t know but it will never make me jump out of an airplane!
Gallup Family Wanders 
Putting that train ride on my ToDo list.
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It is worth it. We just did the summit but you can go all the way to Fraser.
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Skagway and the Chilkoot Trail hold a special place in my life. February 1993 myself (19 yrs old), Jim Gillis and Kevin McCann boarded the Taku ferry in Sitka and journeyed to Skagway in hopes of a winter crossing of the Chilkoot. Myself and Jim were training for a Denali climb in May and this would be a fun cold weather test.
I recall the walk from the Ferry to the Skagway Inn being brutally cold with a stiff north wind. The following day we checked in with the Park Service and hitched a ride to Dyea to start our trip. Long story short we made the journey during an extreme cold spell with some suggesting -30F temps in Skagway the day we cramponed up the icy pass. I recall it being a fast easy climb on stiff snow but the winds and brutal cold atop the pass were unpleasant. We dug into a small A-frame shelter on the Canadian side and got sorted with a hot meal etc. The next day we faced strong blowing snow / ice but pressed on over stiff sastrugi snow. As we approached Lake Lindeman the snow was deep soft powder and the sherpa snowshoes were challenging. We found the cabin at Lindeman and built a big fire in the stove which drove the temp to near 90 inside! But we got warm and dried out and headed for Bennett. I’ll never forget snowshoeing up to the train depot at Lake Bennett and knocking on their door in the dark. They were still hauling ore in those days to Skagway from Whitehorse and they welcomed us with an element of disbelief about our crossing. It was exactly -40F. They fed us and provided a warm room for us to roll out our sleeping bags. The following morning they fed us and hooked up a passenger car and gave us a free ride back to Skagway, It was a gorgeous clear winter day and I’ll never forget that ride! Back in town we were treated like heroes as apparently no one had done such a winter crossing in recent history?? The Red Onion Saloon was still operating in winter to service the train workers and there was one hell of a party with fun dogs everywhere, sawdust floor, and amazing northern lights as folk were dancing in the street…. May 24th that year Jim and myself stood atop Denali together,,,,,my dads birthday.
That part of BC and the Yukon are magical to me. So fun reading your post!
Lastly on another topic: Shawnda whoever gave you feedback that suggested you were not as accessible to crew etc is WRONG. You were awesome, always a professional and always supportive and trusted by the fleet. Not all “feedback” is legit. And I never found your conversation dry or lacking in humor. My observations in response to your postings
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Thanks Murray! That adventure of yours sounds awesome. Not sure I would have dared it, but it definitely seems up your alley!
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