The Penultimate Adventure

Today we had our next-to-the-last adventure, the trip on the White Pass and Yukon Railway. We were picked up by the driver of a small bus, since there were only nine of us. The bus would take us to Carcross in the Yukon where we would meet the train and come back by rail. This was a repeat, in reverse, of the drive we had made from Whitehorse on Friday, but our driver had a line of patter and filled us in on a lot of aspects of the Klondyke gold rush. He took this picture of us at the overlook on the Dyea Road. We turned around here and started up the Klondyke Highway.

There were only nine of us on a train of three or four cars from Carcross to Bennett. We travelled for thirty miles along the shores of Lake Bennett, and then along a series of long, narrow lakes that served as the headwaters of the Yukon River. I posted pictures of some of these a couple of days ago. Lunch was at Bennett in the railroad depot (below) where we had beef stew and apple pie, both apparently made by the cooks at the depot. Very good. It had begun to rain so we didn't do the walking tour of Bennett, which was too bad because there was an interesting old log church there, on the hill above the lake. I think the railroad is the only way to get to Bennett - no road in. At Bennett we picked up a bunch of hikers who had walked the thirty-some miles up the Chilkoot trail. One poor girl was bandaging blisters on most of her toes and both heels as she waited for the train to leave.

The trip from Bennett started out across a level terrain of lakes, muskeg, and spruce forest.

Then from the Canadian border we started down what they call the "Oh My" section of track along a very deep, narrow, rocky gorge with tunnels, trestles, and stomach-wrenching views down to the rocks and class 6 rapids of the river far below. We didn't cross this trestle, which has been replaced by a newer one, thanks be. The newer ones are bad enough. The train rocked back and forth and the brakes squealed. What a ride!

I got the picture below of the train on a curved section of track, which doesn't give any indication of how steep or deep the gorge was. In fact, none of my pictures did.

Our trip is winding up cold, wet, and windy after the hot, dry, and smoky start. We've pulled out the "cold weather" suitcases we had packed when it was 104 in Hood River - sweaters, down vests, down coats. We'll need them on the boat, I think. Tomorrow evening we board the ferry for home. No blog posts for awhile, I don't imagine the internet will be available on the ship, so we may see you before the final post is made.