Another overnight passage, we woke up the next day in Skagway, another small, quaint little town. Today we grabbed some breakfast before heading out in a shuttle van out to a stable near Dyea Flats Recreation Area about 30 minutes away. A string of horses were saddled and ready for us, and we had the best orientation we've had yet (though it was wasted on us, it was good for many novices in the group), but unfortunately, they made us don helmets, something we never use. Because of my experience, they assigned me a horse that didn't like the mounting block, so I mounted away from the rest of the crowd, then we headed out a typical dirt forest road through the woods. I had a nice chat during the ride with the front wrangler, a girl from the lower 48, as the ride was pretty simple. My horse's name was Homer, which is such a scream, as Homer was the name of the town where I took my first ride on a horse named JJ (a nickname of mine for years), and in Palmer my horse's name was Trooper, which was the name the horse the wrangler was riding today. Crazy coincidence, if you believe in those! Eventually the trail came out of the forest and opened up into a field with a bit of a view, though nothing spectacular compared to many we've seen around the country. We stopped for a photo op before remounting and heading back to the stable. Not exactly an exciting ride, but a ride nevertheless, and we enjoyed it, particularly Hubby, who had recovered from his four hour ride last Saturday, and he reveled in a shorter, 90 minute ride. We had a brief snack under a picnic table gazebo before shuttling back to the ship, where we had planned to grab some lunch before our afternoon excursion, a ride on the old White Pass train, but I discovered we weren't allowed to take food off the ship, and we didn't have time to walk into town to get something to eat, so I was frantic for a while. Eventually I decided we had to board the ship and run down to the cafe and grab something, even if we had to put it in our pocket to smuggle it out, and that's pretty much what we did, though we ate something on the walk to the disembarkation area as well. Relieved that we wouldn't be starving the whole afternoon, we boarded the train, looking forward to a nice quiet ride. Unfortunately, that was quickly spoiled by a very rude foreign guy (German, I think) with a son about 3 years old. I knew we were in trouble when, rather than take the boy to the bathroom that was on every car, he led the boy over to the railing between cars and had him pee right over the side! Most of the rest of a trip was a nightmare, with the boy running around, the father either loudly fawning all over him or ignoring him while he spent most of the time on the platform between cars taking pictures and leaving the boy on his own to wander around, or cry for his daddy. It was pathetic, distracting and disturbing example of poor parenting, and frankly, it spoiled the entire trip for us. We enjoyed the views and tried to get some pictures, but every time I tried to get a shot from between the cars, I had to practically push my way past the German guy, who was hogging the entire platform. Eventually, the boy fell asleep on the seat, which just gave the father more freedom to ignore him. At the end of the line, we were supposed to change seats with the people across from us so that everyone got the view from both sides, but because the boy was sleeping in the seat, and no one wanted to wake him, we and the folks in the seat behind us refrained from moving. I think that made the father a little upset because he had wanted to see the view from the other side, despite the fact that he had been seeing it practically the entire time from hogging the public area. I finally got so disgusted I walked to the other end of the car and hung out with a couple of older guys who at least knew how to share photo ops. Again, a beautiful trip, spoiled by the actions of one selfish man. Part of the trip followed the original Yukon Trail, and the trail was still easily visible in many areas. Apparently, during the Gold Rush, the trail was so packed with folks that if you pulled off the trail to tighten a girth or anything else, it was almost impossible to get back on the trail, because people were just so anxious to not let anyone get in front of them and their rush to their fortunes. Be a great trail to try and ride again, though! Eventually we made it back to the Ketchikan station, and were soon boarding the ship. We enjoyed another delightful meal at the Italian restaurant before heading out to the main stage show, billed as the Ladder Guy, whose whole shtick was pretending (poorly) that he couldn't stay up on an extension ladder, as well as a few basic magician's tricks. A really pathetic show, which was as boring to the audience as it was to the performer. Fortunately, it was only about 40 minutes long, to the torture passed quickly. Had a nightcap, then headed back to our stateroom after a long, busy, and trying day!
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