From Skagway to the Interior!!!

One of the coolest experiences that I have had so far this summer is being chosen to participate in the 2010 Highway Fam Tour. Skagway used to have a highway division that was recently moved to be stationed in Fairbanks. To make a long story short, the highway division might be coming back into Skagway next year and one of our drivers this year is going to be doing a special highway tour in July. So in order for her to be prepared for her upcoming 10 day tour she needed to have a refresher course in the terrain and the location stops, etc. And the company decided that as a treat for 4 of us, we were able to come along on the tour. When I first heard about the PAID vacation I was very excited and signed up.... along with 20 other people. But I knew that only 4 of us in the company would be chosen, so my hopes weren't very high that I would get to go. But I was wrong. Dead wrong and got to have an amazing experience in the interior of Alaska and the Yukon that many of the other drivers were very jealous about.

The tour was 5 days long and we started our journey from Skagway to Dawson City in the Yukon on the first day. Dawson is an incredible city, with only dirt roads where the gold was originally discovered during the Klondike Gold Rush. We spent two nights in Dawson and then headed on the Yukon Queen Ship down the Yukon River to Eagle, Alaska. One of the greatest perks of this tour was that we are now all trained to drive the E-Model Luxury MotorCoach!

It was in Eagle that I had one of the most amazing/terrifying experiences of my life. While we were in Eagle, on the day of Summer Solstice I might add, we ran into the park ranger who told us that if we really wanted to experience Eagle we should climb to the tallest peak in order to see the town and a fantastic view of the Yukon River.

So.... we proceeded to climb the mountain. The climb was not actually a hike, but turned out to be a rock climb without the proper equipment. No harness, and the footing was VERY unstable. There was one point where I looked like spider man on the side of this cliff hanging on for dear life and shaking. Long story short, we made it up the mountain alive, except for my poor camera which got smashed to pieces against one of the boulders :(

After we made it to the top we couldn't go down the same way because it was too dangerous with rocks falling everywhere and so we continued climbing and then proceeded to make our way down. But we lost the trail and ended up bush whacking to the river again back to the Bed and Breakfast we were staying at. Our boss was very pleased to see us, since they were considering sending a search party in our direction soon. Luckily, the sun doesn't set this far north, so we had plenty of daylight to see!

The few days weren't as exciting as Eagle, but I did get to see the great Alaskan pipeline, Tok, Alaska and then Whitehorse, Yukon before heading back to Skagway. It was a fantastic experience!!!! But I might not be rock climbing anytime soon... :)