Day 2. I awoke this morning at 4:00. I was shuttled to
the Juneau airport at 5:00. I wanted to be their early
to be sure to get an early plane to Skagway. I had read
that the first flight was at 6:00 a.m. As it turned out
the first flight wasn't until 8:00 a.m. because pilots
flying these small planes fly VFR (visual flight rules),
which means that they have to see with their eyes, not
with instruments in their plane. So we had to wait until
the sun was up. As it turned out I was the only passenger
on a small four seater Piper Archer aircraft. We flew
north along the Inside Passage to a town called Haines,
then on to Skagway.
If I do nothing else while in Alaska that hour long
plane ride would have made the trip here worthwhile.
The views were breathtaking. I took lots of pictures,
which turned out great, but I can't get the computers here
to "read" them. Maybe I'll figure it out soon.
While flying to Skagway we passed at least four glaciers
flowing out of the mountains. The one closest to Skagway,
in fact it is visible from town, is the Harding Glacier.
It's named for President Warren G. Harding whose home was
and still is in what central Ohio town? Apparently Harding
visited Skagway at some point while he was President,
so they honored him by naming a glacier after him.
After arriving in Skagway I checked in at the Home Hostel
where I will be staying. It's a small private home where
the owners take in guests. I like it better than a hotel
because I get to meet other people who are traveling.
I have made arrangements to rent a car for the weekend to
drive to Whitehorse in the Yukon Territory of Canada. I
want to put my toes in the Yukon River, which I intend to
do.
I've already met some of Mr. Pickett's students and visited
the wier (look it up) that he and his students built on
a small stream where they catch salmon to collect their
eggs as part of their fish hatchery project. The school
here has only abouty 120 students in grades k through 12.
It feels a lot different than Willis with 1000 students.
I'm going to leave the school now and go walk the streets
of Skagway, which by the way, are very quiet now. The
tourists of summer are all gone. The town is beginning to
shut down for the long Alaska winter. It feels and looks
and sounds a bit like a ghost town right now. It's very
old looking and very beautiful with mountains surrounding
the town. The mountain peeks have a dusting of the first
snow of the season on them. It's all very beautiful.
I won't have the opportunity to write any more until
Monday. At that time I'll up-date you all on my weekend.
I hope I'll be able to get some photos onto the site.
Bye for now.
Mr. Hollinger
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