Today I took the White Pass Railway from Skagway to White
Pass, the high mountain pass through which prospectors had to travel to get to
the Klondike gold field. At one time,
the railway was used to transport all goods into Skagway, but now that the
Yukon highway has been constructed, it is used only for sightseeing. The train makes its way up the mountain from
sea level to an altitude of 3,000 feet; the trip ends in Fraser, Canada, where
Canadian border officials checked all passports before passengers were
permitted to exit the train. Buses then
took everyone to a pedestrian suspension bridge over a creek several hundred
feet below, and then back down the mountain to the ship. As the bus passed down the mountain, it
passed the U.S. border control station, where U.S. customs officials had to
check passports. At the base of the
mountain, in Skagway, the bus stopped at a very pretty garden, “Jewell Garden”
for lunch and a walk in the garden. The
lunch was not very good, but the garden was really beautiful.
An interesting incident occurred while on the train. The weather was cold and raining, but I stood
on the little platform outside the rail car to take photos. At one point, two other men were standing
with me, and one of them asked me if I were Jon Voigt. When I told him that I was not, he said that
I must get that question a lot. Indeed,
over the years, many people have asked me if I were Jon Voigt, and several have
even gone so far as to ask for my autograph.
One man who had worked on a movie with Jon Voigt told me that he thought
I was Jon and even began to talk with me as if I were him, until he realized
that I was not him. He was quite
startled at the resemblance. I don’t see
the resemblance, but others do.
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