Skagway-July 30th

---

We arrived in to Skagway early Monday morning. We docked at 7 am sharp. We had to be out, with breakfast, and at the end of the dock by 8:15 for our morning excursion, a bike ride through the rain forest past Dyea.

Because of it's proximity to water, Dyea was a booming gold rush town in the late 1800s. Dyea was across the mountain and at the edge of water so the gold miners could float their 2 tons of gear and food down the river rather than try and cross the treacherous mountains. Once the railroads were built, Dyea just died. It's really interesting because the miners just picked up and left the town. Since it's in the rainforest, it's just been reclaimed by the forest around it. Dyea is now in the Tongass National Forest. The Forest Service just left what remained of the town to decay in the forest. There is still a false front standing at the beginning of the town. It was once the real estate office for the town. Dyea was a tent city and to make it appear more stable, the miners would build a front and attach the tent to the false front.

Sockeye Cycle picked us up at the dock a little after 8 and drove us over the mountain to the Tongass National Forest. Years ago we had used Sockeye Cycle to bike down the Klondike but that was a steep downhill ride and we didn't think Dylin was to that level yet. So, we took the more leisurely ride through the rain forest and we're glad we did. We rode for several hours to Dyea, to the mud flats, to the river and back. It was a great ride.

On the way back to Skagway, we had the van driver drop us off at the overlook outside Skagway. We walked down to the trail head for Smuggler's Cover. We hiked down in to Smugglers Cove, over rocks down to the water looking for seals, but the seals weren't there.....there was a beautiful view of the cove, though. We hiked out of the cove and along the coast to Yakutania point and back up through the rocks and the mountain toward Skagway. It was a great hike. We would have liked to expore more along that trail but we were getting hungry by now, so we went in to Skagway to the Red Onion Saloon and had lunch.

We walked around Skagway a little, but we weren't in to shopping so we got back on the ship early. It was a great day.

---