Lower Dewey Lake Skagway, Alaska

This will forever be remembered as the day my husband tried to kill me.  Oh well, in this day and age you have to be more careful with the K word.  I mean it figuratively…mostly.  Initially we had purchased a city tour for Skagway in a package through Port Promotions , but when it arrived the Skagway tour wasn’t on our itinerary.  That tour was full we were told.  No problem.  My husband got online and was so excited he couldn’t stand it.  He found awesome hiking.  I looked at the trails, and said there was no way.  Our time there was limited, and I didn’t want to head out by ourselves and end up missing our ship.  Guess who won?  Har har! 

With his information in hand first thing in the morning we headed to find Lake Dewey.  Our ship was docked the farthest away from town and the beginning of the trail to Lower Dewey Lake.  I want to say it was two miles, but was probably just over a mile and just before entering the city of Skagway.  There was a shuttle available for a nominal price, but we walked of course.  On the way we told fellow cruisers what we were doing.  “Did you bring bear bells?” we were asked.  “Bears?”  I looked at my husband.  Oh they were quite common in the area we were told…

Getting to Lower Dewey Lake was a bit of a hike.  The sign said it was strenuous, but it wasn’t that far.  We didn’t see anyone along the way though, and I was a bit jumpy as I kept a lookout for bears.  The hike was fun and gorgeous…but my husband was antsy.  Across the lake he saw a creek/waterfall coming down the mountain.  “That’s where I want to go!” he pointed, “Come on!”  He took off on a small trail to the left of the lake.  Well the trail was very narrow, and did not look much traveled to me, unless it was by small animals as I had to keep ducking branches and balancing myself so that I wouldn’t fall into the lake.  We still had not seen anyone else hiking.  Clearly the 6 thousand other cursiers did not know about Dewey Lake hiking.  I kept slipping on the trail and finally I put my food down.  This was not the trail to Upper Dewey Lake I insisted, and I did not want to get lost on that mountain or die up there.  Reluctantly my husband headed back with me. 

As we walked we met a couple.  Real live humans.  I was so excited!  The man was from the area and really talked up hiking to Upper Dewey Lake.  He said it was a “very strenuous hike” but that the view was amazing and pointed us in the right direction.  We came to this sign.  This is it.  The beginning of the trail three miles straight UP to Upper Dewey Lake.  I didn’t think we should do it.  We only had a few hours before the all aboard.  As we looked at the sign, a hiker came running down the trail.  He stopped and chatted for a minute.  He said he hiked all over the world and the view on this hike was one of the best he’d seen.  He encouraged us to go, not that my husband needed the encouragement mind you.  At this point I was the only thing standing in the way of his greatest dream.  I would never live this down if we didn’t go.  He would never live it down if we missed the ship.  But I try to do what is in my power to keep my man happy so…

The hike to Upper Dewey Lake.