Hiking Above Skagway

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It’s my final cruise on the Spirit so today’s my last time to visit Skagway. The area around Skagway has lots of great hiking trails which I hadn’t gotten a chance to explore yet. So that was my main mission for the day. The weather had other plans. It was grey and cool and cloudy when I left the ship in the late morning. But I was determined to make the most of the time I had left.

I followed the waterway and the creek from the ship to the start of the Dewey Lake trail system. Then I headed up the mountain through the forest. Only a couple minutes up the hill I came to a waterfall. It was beautiful. Meanwhile, to the other side of the path through the trees were views over the town.

Soon after that, the rain started. Nature was not on my side today! But still, I continued. I reached a water reservoir and I have to say, that even though it’s man-made, it was still quite pretty.

Soon after that I reached Lower Dewey Lake. I knew that there was supposed to be a path around the lake so I set off in one direction intending to loop around the whole thing. At first it was very clear which way to go. Then the path got rougher. Then eventually I was wandering through the woods near the lake side but the path could barely be called a path. I don’t know if I was on the right track or not. By this point I was wet, cold and confused. I didn’t care to slip and hurt myself on the barely-existant in the middle of the woods where I doubted I’d see too many other people who could come to my rescue. So I headed back to where I first met the lake.

I then headed off in the opposite direction - where there was a definite path. I loved this section of the walk. The trees were gorgeous and the forest felt mystical. It was so quiet . . . until I heard loud cracking. Of course, I’m immediately concerned that there’s a bear somewhere in the woods! This isn’t an attempt to be dramatic, there are warnings everywhere about bears. I looked around and didn’t see anything. I tried to make more noise as I went along (this is the advice given, you need to let animals know you’re there and you’re human by making noise). Again, the loud cracking sound somewhere off to my left. I stood still, looking around and seeing nothing. Then I realized that the noise was from the trees! The evergreens were so tall but narrow that they swayed in the breeze and cracked and creeked as they moved back and forth. I of course felt very silly then, but also kind of wary of those trees!

There were a few openings in the trees along the walk that provided great views of the lake. I took as many pictures as I could manage - my waterproof camera has stopped working so I was using a “regular” one that couldn’t get wet.

Then it was time to retrace my steps and head back down to Skagway. There’s a little shop in town that sells homemade cupcakes. Every week I treat myself to one as a reward for another hard week’s work. I wanted to get to the shop (and out of the rain!) before I had to get back to work on the ship.

After my cupcake, some final souvenir/gift shopping and very wet walk back to the ship - it was pouring by this point - I headed to work. I had a couple hours of activities before dinner break. For dinner, Jenny and I went back out off the ship to one of the waterfront restaurants along the pier. I wanted one more meal of freshly caught beer-battered halibut! So good.

Only a couple more days left in Alaska . . .

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