THE ALASKAN ADVENTURE Day 67 July 21, 2009 Skagway, AK Dyea Road

Today was an exiting day. I got to watch KATHY BEING CHASED BY A BEAR. However I will get to that later.

Our plans for the day were to head out the Dyea ( pronounced Die E ) Road and take in the ghost town of Dyea. We were then going to come back into town and go on a couple of hikes.

Well the day started right, we got gas for the truck and a Starbuck’s for Kathy and headed out. The drive is along the Taiya Inlet for most of the way and is quite nice. Shortly into the drive there is a scenic lookout looking back and down into Skagway. We took a couple of pictures and moved on.

The drive to Dyea was about 9 miles and there was a ranger stationed at the start of the old town to answer questions and to warn you about bears. I didn’t even know Dyea existed until today which is understandable considering its existence was very short.

Dyea was the closest port to the Chilkoot Trail which was used as a packing trail into the interior for thousands of years by the Tlingit Indians, the real native Alaskans. When gold was discovered in the Yukon, Dyea grew from nothing to 8,000 people in a few months. If you wanted to go gold hunting, Dyea was the closest point of entry.

The Chilkoot Trail was 33 miles long and rose from sea level to 3600 feet. Most of the prospectors made this climb in the winter time not once but up to 40 times. The RCMP would not let anyone into the Yukon with less than 2000 lbs. of supplies. The only way to get them there was to carry the supplies on their back. I couldn’t do the climb once with 50 lbs on my back, let alone 40 times.

Dyea’s existence lasted for only one year for two reasons. The White Pass which was the other major route into the Yukon had a railroad developed over the first part of the pass that would eventually go to Whitehorse. Why walk when you can ride. Secondly, on April 3, 1898 there was an avalanche on the Chilkoot trail that killed anywhere from 60 to 100 prospectors. I don’t think they really know for sure how many. The sad part is that the Tlingit Indians, who worked as packers, told everyone there was going to be an avalanche. They went home but nobody listened to them.

Overnight Dyea became a ghost town. By 1902 the one individual who lived there packed up and went home. Today all that is left is a few remains.

After leaving the town we headed for the Tidal Flats for what we thought would be a quick look. Tidal Flats is at the head of the Taiya Inlet where the Taiya River flows into it. The only thing left is the remains of a one mile long dock. How this plays into the Dyea saga is a whole other story.

As were looking around a lady asked Kathy if we had seen the bears. We learned that the brown bears come down to the river to fish for salmon and the run had just started. So we decided to hunker down and see if anything happened. Our speculative bear watching ventures hadn’t been fairing too well, but hey, we’re retired.

It wasn’t long before a bear was spotted but he was quite a piece away from us. Then another one showed up and I was able to get some pictures. Okay, a lot of pictures.

Over the course of the afternoon we spent 4 hours watching 4 different bears do everything from eat bulbs and grass to fish for salmon. Did I mention I took a few pictures.

We finally decided to leave and just before we left the area we spotted two more grizzlies, but they were across the river. All of sudden one starts chasing the other, a territorial dispute. It was pretty amazing to watch them run along the side of the river and then they turned onto the bridge. In doing this they headed our way and I was trying to get pictures out of the window of the truck. They would pass behind us. Kathy decided that if she got out of the truck and went to the back she would be able to get a video of them as they ran past. What she didn’t realize was that as she was getting out of the truck the bears made a left hand turn and were headed her way. Guess what she saw when she rounded the corner of the truck. Yup, not one, but two grizzlies heading right for her and they were close. Well I have never seen Kathy move so quick in all my life. Fortunately she had left the door open as she scissor kicked her way into the truck without even touching the running board. As she slammed the door shut the bears raced by not three feet from the truck. The look on her face was priceless. After reassuring that she was okay I started laughing, laughing so hard I forgot to take a picture. After all this is the same lady who kept telling me not to do anything foolish and then what does she do. Even as I write this I am still laughing. If only I had taken a picture.

After Kathy’s heart stopped pounding we headed down the road to the cemetery for the prospectors who died in the April 3rd Avalanche.

We then stopped at the Chikoot Trail Head but we didn’t go very far. If we were here for a longer period we would have enjoyed hiking a portion of it.

Next and final stop was The Gold Rush Cemetery. Some of the legendary folks of the Klondike and Skagway like Soapy Smith and Frank Reid are buried here. Soapy Smith was the notorious outlaw / pretend benefactor who was killed by Frank Reid. Frank Reid, a city engineer, also died as a result of a wound from the same gun battle.

By this time we were tired and hungry so we headed home. I had some blogging to catch up on and a whole bunch of pictures to look at.

It was a really fun day. At least it was for me, not sure about Kathy.