Flat Tire on Cassiar Highway

It was cloudy but not raining when we got up this morning. We left Baby Nugget RV Park at 9:30 and stopped long enough to take photos of the entrance and office and restaurant at the campground.

From Skagway to Nugget City

We headed east on the Alaska Highway for about ½ mile before turning south on the Cassiar Highway and after driving for 2 miles we crossed into British Columbia.

From Nugget City to Watson Lake

The Cassiar Highway is a 2 lane paved road with no shoulder and is narrow is some places. This section looked more like a roller coaster

From Nugget City to Watson Lake

and then there were long almost straight sections.

From Nugget City to Watson Lake

We had driven about 21 miles on the Cassiar Highway when I heard a “pop” and then “whoosh”. I told Mike that we “have a flat tire” and it sounded like it came from the right rear tires. Mike pulled over to the left lane and put the left wheels just off the road – remember, there are no shoulders to pull off on.

From Nugget City to Watson Lake

We got out and checked the rear tires and it was the inside right rear tire that had blown. Mike put out our orange cones and road hazard flashers. Of course, there is no cell phone service here and no OnStar service either – we have OnStar in the Vue. We disconnected the Vue and I put a sign in one of the windows saying we had a flat tire and had gone back to Watson Lake.
We hadn’t seen much traffic on the road but a couple of RVs came by and stopped to see if we needed any help and a couple of cars also stopped to offer help.

We drove the car back north to Watson Lake which is 34 miles from where we had the flat. It was 11:30 when we got into Watson Lake and we decided to eat lunch at Kathy’s Kitchen and call our roadside service. We both had the bacon cheeseburger and fries and it was really good.

From Nugget City to Watson Lake

We had had cell phone service when we stayed in Watson Lake on our trip north and now we couldn’t make a call! We had added the Canadian calling plan on our Verizon phones on the trip up and decided to save the extra cost this time – bad choice!

We drove over the Visitor Center and told Rena about our problem and she used the Visitor Center phone to call our roadside service (we have a calling card, but went off without it). When Mike tried to explain to the girl at Coach-Net that we were calling from the Yukon and the RV was in British Columbia, she had a hard time understanding it. Then she couldn’t locate Watson Lake on her map & finally Rena got on the phone to see if she could help and gave the girl the phone numbers of 3 tire businesses in Watson Lake. This was Saturday just before 1 p.m. and Rena said some of the businesses were closed on Saturday afternoon.

The girl from Coach-Net was supposed to call us back on the Visitor Center phone, but when it was 12:45 and we hadn’t heard from her, we called her back. She hadn’t had any success in getting hold of any of the businesses and then told Mike that changing a flat tire was labor and they don’t pay for labor. Mike told her the contract said they would pay for changing our mounted spare tire, but she was adamant about it being labor.

We drove across the street from the Visitor Center to Watson Lake Motors and spoke with Pat about sending someone out to change our tire. His truck was out on a call and wouldn’t be back until late tonight. Pat said the only solution would be for us to drive the RV slowly back up to Watson Lake and have it changed there.

We drove back out the Cassiar Highway to where we had left the RV and got there about 1:40. Since there is no shoulder and the road is very narrow, we were lucky that a few hundred feet from the RV was a place where we could back up the RV and get it turned around. Mike drove the RV and I followed in the Vue so I could watch the back tires in case the outside tire on the right went flat. We drove the 34 miles to Watson Lake at 20 mph and got there around 3:30.

From Nugget City to Watson Lake

It cost us $36.75 CAD to have the tire changed and Mike tipped Gordon $5 because he knew to torque the lug nuts at 450 ft. lbs. There is so much mud on the tire that went flat that we haven’t been able to see what the cause was.

From Nugget City to Watson Lake

We stopped at Watson Lake Tags Gas, Convenience Store and RV Park and got gas in the car (24.974 liters) & RV (93.499 liters) at $1.349 a liter CAD or $5.15 a gallon.

While Mike was getting gas in the RV, I went inside and checked us in for the campground. We are in site #5 with full hook-ups (30 amp) for $26.25 for the night.

It was 5:30 by the time we got to our campsite and we are 14 miles from where we spent last night.

After dinner we went back over to the Visitor Center to use the pay phone (we have our phone card with us now) there to call Verizon to see if we can get our cell phones to work here. After spending about 30 minutes talking with tech support we still can’t make calls on our cell phones.

Skagway to Nugget City, Yukon

We left Garden City RV Park a little before 8:00 drove north on the Klondike Highway. The drive north up the Klondike Highway is supposed to have great mountain views through the White Pass. But it started drizzling rain shortly after we left Skagway and there are low clouds over the mountains, so we’re going to miss a a lot of the views we had hoped to see.

From Skagway to Nugget City

We arrived at the U.S.-Canada border at 8:30 and stopped to take some photos. The Kiwanis had erected an inukshuk and we wanted to get some photos of it.

From Skagway to Nugget City

From Skagway to Nugget City

We passed through Canadian Customs a little before 9:00 and after answering the usual questions, we were on our way.

From Skagway to Nugget City

We stopped for lunch at a turnout near Johnsons Crossing.at 11:30. We crossed the Continental Divide at one of its lowest points.

From Skagway to Nugget City

We had light rain for most of the day and temperatures in the upper 40’s.

From Skagway to Nugget City

We arrived at Baby Nugget RV Park at 3:30 and got almost 36 gallons of gas at the gas station there. We paid $1.429 Liter (CAD) or $5.408 US a gallon.

There is a restaurant here and I went in to look at the menu. We were wanting a nice hamburger, but it wasn’t on the menu. We could have had a hamburger steak dinner for about $18 and most of the other dinner items were in the same price range – waaaaay too much.

We paid $10 to use their wi-fi and $34.52 for our campsite. We are in site #2 which is a pull-through with 50 amp electric and water.

From Skagway to Nugget City

We didn’t get any photos of the campground entrance today – will have to get the photos tomorrow.

Red Onion Saloon & Brothel Museum Tour and Days of ‘98 Show

This morning I walked over to the Laundromat here at the campground to wash a few loads of clothes. The laundry at the campground is also the public Laundromat for Skagway, so it is often busy.

After finishing the laundry, we drove to town to eat lunch at the Red Onion Saloon. We sat at the bar to wait for a table and ordered 2 Kodiak Brown beers. We both ordered the Trollop sandwich ($9.50 ea.)– a turkey & provolone on a deli roll - & 2 Kodiak Brown beers ($5.50 ea.) from Jess. Our sandwiches and beers were excellent.

From Red Onion Saloon

We waited around to go on the Brothel Tour of the upstairs at 1:00.

From Red Onion Saloon

We paid $5 each to our guide, Miss DeFlowers, and she explained about the procedures in the brothel.

From Red Onion Saloon

Down in the saloon were dolls that represented each of the girls and the men would chose the girl from the dolls. The bartender would lay the doll down and that meant she was occupied until the customer left. When a new girl came in to the brothel, she could “remodel” her crib and chose new wallpaper. Several layers of different wallpaper has been uncovered during the restoration of the upstairs.

Afterwards we walked around town and stopped at Corrington’s Ivory Museum. This Mammoth Hunters carving took the artist almost 2 years to complete and was so intricate that Mike made a movie of it showing all the detail.

From More Skagway Photos

Our nest stop was at the Days of ‘98 Show with Soapy Smith to watch the 2:30 show – a MUST See in Skagway. The show is in its’ 87th season and after paying $36.00 (after AAA discount for both of us), we went into the theater.

The play is about local outlaw Jefferson R. “Soapy” Smith and Belle Davenport and her “soiled doves”, Squirrel-Tooth Annie and Phewclothes Mollie. Soapy Smith started out selling soap – hence the name. He was a con man, saloon keeper, leader of a gang and tried to establish himself as a solid citizen.

From Days of '98 Show

The cast always chooses a couple of audience members to participate in the show and this fellow, Dick, was chosen by Alice & Mollie.

From Days of '98 Show

The next audience member participation was to dance the Can-Can. Alice chose someone and Mollie chose ME. After we were given a quick Can-Can lesson, we did it for real. Of course, Mike was filming it the whole time – I’ve put a clip of the movie in our album. It was a great show and we thoroughly enjoyed it.

Our next stop was at the Skagway Museum and Archives where we saw antiques and photos from Skagway’s history.

From Skagway Museum & Archives

We even saw Soapy Smith’s Derringer in a case.

From Skagway Museum & Archives

Our last stop for the day was at the Gold Rush Cemetery to see Jefferson R. “Soapy" Smith’s grave.

From Gold Rush Cemetery

There is a marked difference between Soapy Smith’s grave stone and the one for Frank Reid who headed up the Committee of 101 that wanted to rid Skagway of Soapy Smith.

From Gold Rush Cemetery

We had a lot of fun visiting here in Skagway and I’m proud to say that we did our own little part in helping the town’s economy. Skagway may be a town that caters to tourists, but unlike some tourist towns that are not kept up or are cheesy everything here was attractive and well-kept.

Tomorrow we leave and head north and eventually south back to the lower 48.

Sightseeing & Shopping in Skagway

This morning after breakfast I walked over to the campground office and paid $109.50 for 3 days here at Garden City RV Park. Last night when we arrived here we just did the minimum to set up the RV, so this morning Mike connected our sewer hose and I finished setting up the inside.

After lunch we drove around Skagway looking at some of the houses. We saw this house being built on a bluff overlooking Skagway – what a view they will have!

From Houses in Skagway

We saw this house being remodeled and I’m sure they will add siding to the exterior. But we had seen a lot of homes here in Alaska that we started referring to as “Tyvek” homes because it was obvious that the homes had been left like that for years.

From Houses in Skagway

We drove downtown and found a place on a side street to park the car – notice the wooden sidewalk.

From Skagway

We walked around and looked at the shops and did a little shopping. We enjoyed looking at the quaint architecture and walking on the wooden sidewalks. Skagway is a tourist town and as many as 20 cruise ships stop here during a week’s time.

From Skagway

We walked down to the docks to look at the cruise ships and discovered that there were 4 cruise ships docking here today – no wonder the streets and shops were so busy! Also we noticed that the closer we got to the docks, the more jewelry stores we walked past – they obviously cater to the tourists from the cruise ships.

From Skagway

We saw a crowd of people watching the water near one of the cruise ships and saw this harbor seal trying to catch some fish. We watched for a while and Mike took a movie of him, but we never saw him catch a fish.

From Skagway

We stopped at the White Pass & Yukon Depot and did a little shopping in The Train Shoppe.

From White Pass & Yukon Railroad

We walked back to our car and shopped in a few stores along the way. It was after 5:00 when we got back to the RV and we took a few photos of the campground.

From Skagway

We saw Steve and Merla who have a travel trailer in the row behind us and they told us that in a little while they were going to drive north of Skagway on the Dyea road to a spot where bears come to catch fish that are spawning. We told them we might drive out there later after we had dinner.

After dinner we took Tinker and drove north out of town and passed by the White Pass & Yukon Maintenance Yard.

From White Pass & Yukon Railroad

We stopped at a scenic lookout on Dyea Road and took a few photos of Skagway.

From Skagway

Dyea Road goes out to where the town of Dyea used to exist. During the Klondike Gold Rush of 1897-98 Dyea had a population of 10,000 and now very little remains of the town. This was the start of the 33-mile long Chilkoot Trail up to the gold fields Klondike Gold Fields.

From Skagway

We continued out on Dyea Road and found the turnoff to the Dyea Historic Site. The road was now a narrow gravel road surrounded by a dense forest.

From Skagway

We drove out to the Dyea Flats and did see salmon spawning and gulls hoping to catch some fish, but no bears.

From Skagway

We headed back to Skagway and this rabbit ran in front of the car on Dyea Road

From Skagway

and we saw some buildings that looked like they belonged to an old tourist stop.

From Skagway

We made one last stop at the scenic overlook and took this photo of a cruise ship docked at Skagway.

From Skagway

Haines to Skagway on the Alaska Ferry

According to the instructions for boarding the ferry, everyone was to be at the ferry terminal by 6:30 p.m. and as the afternoon progressed more and more RVs, cars and trucks started to arrive.

From Alaska Ferry from Haines to Skagway

We saw the ferry, Malaspina, coming up the Chilkoot Inlet about 8:15 and it docked at 8:30.

From Alaska Ferry from Haines to Skagway

From Alaska Ferry from Haines to Skagway

Once all of the passengers and vehicles had departed the ferry, the crew started directing the RVs on to the ferry first. A crew member checked each person’s ticket and ID before allowing the vehicles on the ferry.

From Alaska Ferry from Haines to Skagway

We were impressed with the care they took in making sure each RV was not damaged driving on the ramp and entering the ferry. A crew member even squatted down to make sure the undercarriage of each RV cleared the ramp leaving the parking lot and entering the ferry.

Then the crew had the other vehicles start loading and as I drove on the ferry, I saw Mike taking a movie of me driving the car.

I passed by our RV

From Alaska Ferry from Haines to Skagway

and was directed to the other side of the ferry where I parked the car. I met up with Mike near the vehicle entrance and we went up to the forward observation lounge on the boat deck.

We left Haines and headed north up the Taiya Inlet toward Skagway. In the distance we could see a couple of cruise ships leaving Skagway and heading south towards us. We went out onto the outer deck and took photos of the cruise ships.

From Alaska Ferry from Haines to Skagway

It's about 14 miles from Haines to Skagway by ferry and since the ferry's speed is about 14 mph, it takes an hour which is better than driving the over 300 miles by land from Haines to Skagway.

We spent a little time out on the deck and then went back inside the lounge to get warm. We went back outside when we were close to Skagway.

From Alaska Ferry from Haines to Skagway

The crew did an excellent job when we docked at 9:40. Normally you fell a "bump" when the boat touches up against the dock, but there was none. After a few minutes we heard the announcement that drivers could now go below decks and get in their vehicles.

From Alaska Ferry from Haines to Skagway

We were instructed not to start the engine until we were told to and I had just gotten in the car when the cars in front of me started to move. We offloaded in the opposite order we boarded the ferry, so I was off the ferry before Mike was. I found a place near the exit gate where I could pull over and wait for Mike to catch up with me.

Mike told me later that because the first ramp off the dock had such a steep angle, the ferry crew added some portable ramps to reduce the angle so the back of the RV wouldn't drag on the dock and be damaged.

Once we met up again, I took the lead and we headed through town to the Garden City RV Park. I had the Garmin gps and we kept in touch with our CB radios. We arrived at the campground at 10:00 and there was no one in the office. When Mike had called to make our reservation here, John (the owner) said he would probably be here when we got off the ferry and if not, just to find a campsite. A couple of men came out of the RVs and said the same thing, just find a campsite and hook-up.

We found a pull-through near the office and parked the RV there. We leveled the RV, put out our slides and Mike hooked up the electric and water. Some more RVers came in after us and Mike told them just to find a site and park.

This is the latest we've ever gotten in at a campground. Hopefully this is our one and only time to come in this late.

Tomorrow we'll register and pay for our campsite for the 3 nights we're here. We're both tired and ready for bed, so I'll say goodnight.

Hammer Museum & Waiting for the ferry to Skagway

Before we left the campground to go to the Alaska Ferry Terminal, we moved the RV to a 50 amp campsite and plugged in to the electric at it. Our Energy Management Panel worked correctly, so the problem we had yesterday seems to occur when we are plugged in to 30 amp service.

When we arrived at the Ferry Terminal, we parked the RV in our assigned lane (lane 9) and then went in to the Terminal and checked in for the 8:30 p.m. ferry.

We then drove out to Chilkoot Lake State Recreation Site in the car and stopped to look at the lake.

From More Haines Photos

We saw this bald eagle land in a tree across from us.

From More Haines Photos

We met this couple from the Netherlands at Chilkoot Lake and we compared photos we had taken of the bald eagle.

From More Haines Photos

We walked down to the boat ramp and Tinker dipped his paws in the lake and took a drink.

From More Haines Photos

After driving through the campground (we found a couple of sites that our motorhome would fit in) at Chilkoot Lake, we drove back along the Chilkoot River and took photos of some of the houses there.

From More Haines Photos

From More Haines Photos

We returned to the RV and had lunch before driving back into Haines to visit the Hammer Museum.

From Hammer Museum

We entered the museum and paid the $3 admission for each of us and saw every wall was covered with hammers. The hammers were organized by type or by the industry they were used in.

From Hammer Museum

Mike was especially interested to see this one - the Bell Helicopter Rotor-Blade Tapping Handle. Mike said when he was in the Army they used to use a nickel to tap on the rotor blades to locate bonding voids since they didn't have this hammer in the tool room.

From Hammer Museum

There are over 1500 hammers in the museum and 2 more came by mail while we were there.

We stopped in at the Rusty Compass Coffeehouse for some coffee before heading back to the RV.

From More Haines Photos

We bought some cinnamon rolls and ate 2 with our coffee and brought the rest back with us to eat later. The cinnamon rolls we had here were smaller than the ones we got from the Bear Den yesterday, but were much better.

When we got back to the Ferry Terminal, we parked the car in Lane 2 – our assigned lane for the ferry. We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening sitting in the RV watching DVDs until it was time to get ready to board the ferry.

See my next post about our ferry ride to Skagway.