Thursday was our stop in Skagway, home of the gold rush of 1898. I’d bet the miners would have given up some of their gold for a day as beautiful as ours.
We had scheduled a tour out to summer camp. A mushers camp, but summer camp all the same. Charleen wanted to see the dogs, and the promise of puppies was almost more than she could bear. Then Darcy, our guide, said that she’d be able to hold them, and Charleen was ready to drive the bus herself.
Good thing she didn’t drive. Camp, as all good camps, was pretty far out of town, up a dirt road that bumped and bucked until it opened out on a valley.
Now, that’s where camp should be.
After a short introduction to the dogs we were loaded into the modified golf cart that serves as the summer replacement for a sled. As soon as we started to load, the noise level among the dogs increased to hysteric proportions. They were ready to pull!
With a shouted “Git on” from the musher, the sound level dropped off, and the sled began to pick up speed. As a team, the dogs can pull a substantial load at a 30 miles per day pace; we didn’t go anywhere close to 30 miles.
Once we were back at base camp, it was time for puppies. Soft, cuddley, lickey, puppies.
Far too soon for Charleen, it was time for the trek back to town. Back to civilization among the boardwalked streets of Skagway. Back to the jewelry shops and clothing shops. Back to the Skagway Brewing Company for a quick pint of spruce tip beer, back to the local Starb*cks for a really good cup of coffee.
The wilderness is nice, but access to a good cup of coffee is hard to beat.
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