Alaskan Caching Cruise - Day 4: All Aboard!

Having enjoyed our brief visit to the Yukon town of Carcross, it was almost time to climb aboard the White Pass & Yukon Railway train and head back to Skagway.

But before we get to that, a little bit of trivia for you. The town of Carcross was originally called "Cariboo Crossing" but because too many other towns were similarly named the residents elected to rename their community since the name confusion seemed to result in a lot of lost mail on it's way to them. 

One of the (many) great stories from this cruise was hearing from cacher IndigoDave from Ontario about how he and his new bride spent a summer in the 70's working in Whitehorse - and that Dave's job was as brakeman on the White Pass & Yukon Railway! So not only did he have experience with this line, but he was allowed to ride the engine all the way from Carcross to Bennet, BC. 

To hear that full story from IndigoDave himself, take a listen to this episode of the Caching in the Northwest podcast where we played the audio interview I conducted with Dave. Get it? Conducted? Train pun. Dave would appreciate that.

Well, at this point it was time to board the train, and as we got underway to our first stop of Bennett and rolled along the narrow gauge railway along the iconic mountain and lake scenery of the north, there were opportunities for the classic "comin' 'round the corner" train shots and many other amazing photos by all aboard.

We even had the opportunity to complete another Earthcache from aboard the train which was pretty amazing.

Soon enough we had arrived at the stop of Bennett BC - last stop before crossing the international border back into the USA, but more importantly from a historic standpoint, Bennett marks the NW end of the famous Chilkoot Trail - the only passage available through the mountains to Gold Rush prospectors.

Prospectors would need to amass one tonne of supplies here, as inspected by the North West Mounted Police (predecessors of the famous RCMP), to ensure they had enough supplies to last a full winter in the harsh conditions of the Yukon.







We toured what remains of the gold rush tent-town along the shores of the lake, then headed back to our train for the final and amazingly scenic ride back into Skagway.


If you ever find yourself in Skagway - geocaching or not - we highly recommend the White Pass and Yukon Railway experience from Carcross to Skagway.

Having completed some more touring about the town and a few more geocache finds, we headed back aboard ship. Tonight our ship pulls out and heads for Glacier Bay - tune in for the next blog highlighting that amazing part of our trip.   

Alaskan Caching Cruise - Day 4: Skagway, Yukon Ho!

So day 4 of our Alaskan Cruise on The Neiuw Amsterdam rolled around bringing us to a slightly overcast Skagway, AK.

We had a big trip planned for today, but we wouldn't head out on it right away - first some geocaching in the picturesque northern town, which is the Gateway to the Yukon.

So why is Skagway the Gateway to the Yukon? Well that's because this is the port where miners came ashore after a long steamship ride north and tackled the  Chilkoot Trail over the mountain passes and into the Yukon. And you can still hike that trail today if you are up for it - more on that a bit later.

Our first stop was an amazing virtual cache  at the Camp Skagway building with our new caching friend WestCoastNavigator. Inside we chatted with the fellow at the desk who was very accustomed to geocachers but also had time to share some of the amazing history of the building and the organization it represents.

Moving on, we found a traditional cache at a collection of abandoned rail cars from the White Pass & Yukon line - the rail line built at the tail end of the Gold Rush to help move prospectors & supplies to the Yukon, and gold back to the coast. 

Not long after being built, the rail line instead became the supply line for all sorts of commodities between Skagway and Whitehorse for many years until it more recently became a tourist attraction, and no longer runs all the way to Whitehorse.

I still laugh at how long it took us to find this cache, but I'm going to claim that I was too fascinated by the old rail cars and the great photo opportunities in the area and wasn't really focused on searching. 

Well that's my story anyhow, and I'm sticking to it. I hope you enjoy a few of the photos I took as much as we enjoyed exploring the area.

Next up we headed back through town to meet up with the rest of our excursion crew for a bus ride to Carcross, YT. That's right, back into Canada for us! Yay!

Luckily, we had yet another cool bus driver who made great time to our destination despite some pretty inclement weather on the highway through the mountain pass, and was able to get us to the Carcross Desert. An amazing spot, and home to another great Earthcache.

Yeah, that's right - a desert in the Yukon Territory. Crazy right? 

After a brief stop to visit and explore the Carcross Desert, we were headed (by way of another Earthcache at Emerald Lake) to the town of Carcross, and the rail station where we'd board the train to take us along the original narrow gauge railway back to Skagway, AK.

So it was "All aboard!" as we got settled in for the ride, and continued our adventure by way of Bennet, British Columbia, and the North end of the famous Chilkoot Trail.