Skagway
Thankfully, there are ways to find outdoor employment which involve little or no contact with hordes of cruise ship tourists. Somehow I managed to land a seasonal job as a lackey for the US Forest Service cleaning cabins. Ten hour days, miles of hiking, hours of boating, an occasional train ride, typically staying several nights in various cabins in Southeast Alaska. All the while, my only reoccurring thoughts are an awed admiration of the natural beauty and an equal awe that I’m being paid to spend time in it.Â
As a child, I would frequently imagine myself exploring magnificent landscapes teeming with vast forests, rivers, oceans, and mountains. Often, the very moment the images grew in my mind I dismissed them as impossible locations. No place on Earth could hold so much beauty. Thinking back on those imagined settings and then realizing that the place I’m standing viciously defeats everything I’d dreamed about is, well, overwhelming.
Most recently, the team of four I was assigned to traveled up the Lynn Canal to Skagway by jet boat. The original departing time was delayed by a day due to dicey weather on the channel leading to Skagway. The next day wasn’t much better, but we managed to make things work, edging across choppy waves, rocking the ship as though it were no better than a toy. Mountains leap from the ocean as though they feel threatened by the water and are striving desperately to escape the swirling tide. Or perhaps they have just been overfed for centuries. Either way, they dwarf Juneau mountains and I can’t help but wish my life was long enough to climb them all.
Skagway is slightly drier than Juneau and holds high tourist appeal because of the Chilkoot pass and over a hundred miles of railroad tracks, both of which lead into the Yukon Territory, Canada. However, as nearly every location in Alaska, the line between guided, brochure tourism and untamed wilderness is literally a matter of a few miles, or a few feet. Then, upon reaching the destination and locating it upon a topographic map, one realizes that this colossal beauty is merely a small branch of a thousand other passes just like it. Imagine selecting adventure from a buffet. Feeling like a short glacier trek? No problem. Head to the right. In the mood for a 500 mile hike across ferocious wilderness? Easy. The starting place is the same. Choose wisely.                                        Seth Griffin
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