1 GRAM GOLD INGOT

Seen here, is an evening view of Summit Creek and a narrow guage railway bridge in the White Pass on the May long weekend. The photo was taken from the South Klondike Highway (Skagway Road) looking north. The "Pass" as it is known to locals, provides a route through the Coast Mountains that was used by an historic gold rush era railway from Skagway on the Alaskan coast to Whitehorse, Yukon some 200 km inland. A scenic, wide glacial valley dotted with lakes, and just at tree-line, it is a popular recreation and sight-seeing area. The train continues to operate in the summer months, carrying cruise ship tourists from Skagway on short excursions. Canada Customs is just down the road from here at Fraser, B.C. while the Yukon border is another 30 or so km further north.

As a goodwill gesture, every May long weekend, the White Pass & Yukon Railway Company offers Yukoners a 70% discount on the train excursion to open up their season, a deal I finally took advantage of, even if it was a little "touristy" for my preference, having hiked and skied this area for many years. As an aside, part of the headwaters of the Yukon river can be seen here, eventually becoming one of the longest rivers on the continent, flowing into the Bering Sea, some 3200 km away. Being a coastal pass, this area typically receives a lot of precipitation, and especially heavy snow falls during the winter months. Hikers don't usually start hiking the nearby Chilkoot Trail until late June or early July when the snow finally disappears. The South Klondike Highway that passes through here is considered one of the world's great scenic drives. When the weather cooperates, permitting a view of the magnificent scenery, which is not all that frequent, I would agree, it is an awesome drive.

More images below:

I bought these at fabrics-store.com . They have a 'doggie bag' area where you can purchase precut pieces of fabric at nice discounts. This comes in handy for experimenting.

The colors are (left to right): teak, ginger, buckthorn brown, firecracker red, hunter green, ceramic, chardonnay and krista. There is also a bleached white that didn't make the picture.