In the olden days, gold was to be found in the hills. Today it is scattered on the water, from the pockets of thousands upon thousands of tourists. Harvested with clinical efficiency by the tour and cruise companies. What a marvellous life, but certainly devoid of a free lunch. Or free wifi.
At Juneau, four cruise ships discharge about 8000 tourists ashore. The horde of customers of the infamous Red Dog Saloon spills out on to the street, along with the gravel voiced singing of the piano player. No hope of access to a shot of their signature poison as recommended by Don Lymer. Great recreation of the gold rush. Pity about us tourists.
The Mendenhall Glacier is only about 20 km from downtown Juneau. Now but a shadow of its former majesty, this glacier will almost certainly have completely disappeared by the year 2050. After all, we are in the closing stages of the current ice age. Us humans seem to be hastening the process. In the year 1934, the glacier came right down to the vantage point of this photo. We could have touched the ice form here.
Following the humiliating defeat of the Russians in the Crimean war, their cunning plan was to sell Alaska to the Americans in 1867 for as little as $7 million, hoping that this sweetheart deal would distance the Americans from the Brits. Thirty years on, Skagway was the gateway to the Klondike gold rush for many of the 100,000 prospectors. Much later, in the 1980’s things were so quiet in Skagway that they didn’t even have a McDonalds restaurant. So, when McDonald’s came to Juneau, way down South, Mac fever knew no bounds. 700 Skagwegians banded together to place an order for 150 big Macs, 50 quarter pounders and 200 large fries. The order was flown North from Juneau by Skagway Air. Welcomed by the Skagway High school band trying to play Old McDonald had a farm”.
Years later, Skagway was to spend $14 million on a new fire station, twice the buying price for the whole of Alaska. Today in Skagway, “The Days of ’98 Show” is still running after more than a hundred years. Embellishes the true story of the fatal shoot out between bad guy Soapy Smith and good guy Frank Reid who bled to death but has the most imposing tombstone in the cemetery.
One of the highlights of the whole trip. Absolutely no chance of walking on this one. Had the rare treat of seeing a couple of calvings. As with lake Louise, the perspective is deceptive. Margerie glacier is about a mile across and a few hundred feet high where it enters the water. The thunder from the calving on the mucky left side of the glacier took quite a few seconds to arrive after the splash.
This is a map of Glacier Bay. Today the only two significant glaciers draining into the bay are The Lamplugh and The Margerie. Both at the top end of the map. In the year 1780 the whole of glacier bay was one big glacier. By 1860 permanent ice had receded to half way up the bay. The remains, along with most of the Arctic ice are disappearing fast. Catch it while you can.
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Such is the spectacle that Sweetiepie claimed to be suffering a sort of Stendahlismo sensory overload from the panoramas of sea, sky, snow, glaciers, islands, whales and sea eagles. All on such a bright shiny summers day. A particular treat, as the weather is commonly cold, wet and fog.
Finally, a boat trip to check out the old salmon cannery and go catching crabs. For lunch. Shortly after the U.S. purchased Alaska in 1867 Charles Baranovich, a Yugoslav immigrant married the daughter of Chief Skowl and set up a salmon saltery. Others followed and by 1888 at the height of the first salmon boom there were 37 canneries in Alaska and dozens more in British Columbia. Today we are just interested in the crabs.
Sweetiepie sending a crab back home
scatterbrook 
Such a comprehensive run down of your holiday.Sweetypie was certainly starring.Looking forward to a single malt shortly🙌
So it was ‘catch your own lunch’? What happened if you failed the crabbing mission – no lunch? Did you name yours before it was doomed for the pot?
Cecilia
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div dir=”ltr”>Very crabby man