Um ... When's the Float Part?
We had initially left our port day in Skagway open, just in case we needed to reschedule the glacier/sled dog excursion due to weather. So, the night before, we found another excursion that looked good: a hike/float combo along the Chilkoot Trail. Since this didn't leave until the afternoon, we had the morning to laze around the ship and slow roll our breakfast, which we took on the covered dining patio on 11 aft. Our excursion was billed as a two mile hike on the Chilkoot Trail followed by a float back down the river to our starting point in Dyea. Our tour guide John mentioned several times that the first 45 minutes of the hike would be the most strenuous. He offered us hiking poles, which Ned and I took more for show because why would we need hiking poles? Then, we saw that just the entry to the trail required a nearly completely vertical climb up a combination of tree root and boulder steps. My first inclination was t...