Today marks the end of our second major leg of the journey and the start of the third and final leg. Jeff, and the rest of the family that joined us are heading back to Toronto tomorrow via airplane, while Dad, Tim, and Phil are heading down to Skagway.

A quick trip to McDonalds to rustle up some Egg McMuffins and coffees though to start the day. Then another packing of the Mokes. We shuffled a couple of things to the family so they could bring things home that we weren’t going to need for the rest of the journey.

We then said our good-byes and parted ways. To follow the events of Jeff and the rest of the family, checkout the companion blog article.

The drive down to Skagway was spectacular, and we had been warned of this before we headed out. Emerald Lake was our first quick stop to grab photos.

A little bit further down the road we encountered the Carcross Desert, which is a real anomaly out here. It certainly looks desert like, but is technically not a desert. We’re sending you over to Wikipedia to learn more!

We continued on further and passed into British Columbia, and then hit the US-Canada border. Coming to the US Customs gate, we were met with an agent that was thrilled to see the vehicles and was much more interested in knowing about our cars and the trip we were on; the formalities of crossing the border were mere trivialities.

Coming up to the border is a bit of a climb, but the journey away from it is a spectacular drop down the mountains into the valley where Skagway is.

Skagway is nestled in the mountains, and the views there are awesome. It’s also completely a tourist town; done up to handle the never-ending flow of tourists that are coming in off the cruise ships.

We headed to the ferry terminal and got our boarding passes and vehicle ID tags, then dutifully pulled them into Lane #6 to be ready for boarding at 1:45pm. After that, we walked back into the downtown area to grab some food.

We grabbed lunch at the Skagway Brewing Company on the pub side, in their outside covered patio. We all order beef burgers, but Phil received a vegan burger, which was not discovered until the first bite! The waiter quickly brought over a PROPER burger and the problem was solved.

Heading back to the ferry terminal, we waited for the ferry to arrive. The ferry was to arrive at 1:15pm, but it didn’t actually arrive until after 3pm. It was running almost 2 hours behind. With dad falling asleep in the terminal, and then in the Moke, we didn’t get boarded until 3:45pm. Fortunately we were the first vehicles on, which gave us an ideal spot to park the Mokes at the very front of the ship. Maybe we’ll also be able to be one of the first vehicles off? That would be nice!

We then handbombed our gear up three flights of stairs to our room on the second deck, only to find out there was an elevator that could have helped us carry our heavy bags!

The room itself is sparse, but decent, given we are on a ferry:

• 2 bunk beds
• Bathroom with shower & toilet
• Sink
• Hanging rack
• Chair
• Window to the starboard side

The ferry also has a well stocked cafeteria and a dining room. Both of which are VERY WELL priced, and because this is state-run, tipping of employees is against the law (as state-employees a tip can be considered a bribe).

There are lots of areas to sit outside. There is also an interior space to view out the front of the ship. It’s also notable that not everyone on the ferry has a room, as many people choose to take the ferry and actually just lounge around the ship in the various areas, or setup a tent in one of the rear-decks in the tent-permitted areas!

This will be ‘home’ for 3-4 days for us. It will be a great time to rest before we begin the home-journey in earnest when we arrive in Bellingham, Washington, and then quickly head north over the border into Vancouver, British Columbia.

Tomorrow: more boating for Dad, Phil, and Tim! We’ll be consolidating the boating days down to a single blog post.

Starting Location & Time	Whitehorse, Yukon Territory – 9:19 am PDT
Ending Location & Time	Skagway, Alaska – 11:41 pm AKDT
Total Kilometers	179 km
Total Time	3h 22m