I began to grow fond of newspapers in high school. I enjoyed occasionally writing for the school paper when I wasn’t spending time on stage validating that I was an authentic member of the high school drama club.
This fondness explains why no matter where I go I can’t keep my eyes or hands off newspapers whether they are neatly placed in a sale rack in a store, free because they promise to offer more than the news “fit to print” and include coupons and shopping tips and suggestions as to how one can spend their time or are tossed in front of my hotel room door.
So naturally when my husband and I got up on June 27 and set out for the workout room at the Double Tree Hotel in Seattle, I was excited to see a copy of “USA Today” strewn in front of my door and every door on our floor.
My excitement grew as I flipped through the pages while the elevator took us from the fifth floor to the first floor gym. A feature, “Staynation,” which highlights favorite travel destinations, motivated my spirits to soar as I read about a place called Paradise that was less than a “one-tank getaway” from our home away from home.
There is an old saying: “You can’t believe everything you read.” From my experience, it can be appropriately called a maxim, a saying of utmost wisdom. For which of us hasn’t been misled and/or misinformed at one time or another by the press?
With close to a day and a half to kill before boarding the Norwegian Star for a cruise through the inside Passage of Alaska, it provided a travel tip we could not refuse.
After a short workout and quick breakfast, we set out to find what some have lost their lives searching for: Paradise. We motored for less than two hours and reached Paradise located on Mount Rainier. And it didn’t end there. We also lunched at the Paradise Inn and later enjoyed blackberry pie at the Copper Creek Inn, located two miles from Mount Rainier National Park.
Built in the 1920s, it is internationally celebrated for its pie, blackberry salmon, and trout dinner.
“Staynation” was truthful. It promised a visit to Paradise and it was.
Both the mountain and inn were worth the gas. Located 5,400 feet up Mount Rainier, Paradise offered breathtaking views of towering spruce, waterfalls that expressed a rebellious life of their own, and massive snow covered spaces that rebuffed the heat of the sun. It was close to 75 degrees when we were there.
The members of the wait staff were young, mostly college students, looking for their own piece of heaven. They said their employment ended with the summer season, because the Paradise Inn closes as it prepares to be blanketed in snow.
“They tell me that visitors can ski over the rooftops of our dorms in the winter. The Inn and the lodging area become buried in snow,” explained Anna, our waitress, a University of Portland sophomore.
From the way I see it, Mount Rainier is Paradise revisited. It served as the perfect appetizer that complemented the multi-course banquet we experienced on our cruise that took us to Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway, and Glacier Bay, Alaska and Prince Rupert, British Columbia.
Given this chance, as I reflect on the ten days we spent in America’s Northwest, all I can say is that “if” Mt. Rainier is not Paradise, it is at least the edge of heaven. If pressed, I might save the P word for Alaska herself. Based on the vistas I saw as we toured the Inside Passage, my visit to Skagway, known as the Garden City of Alaska with a gold “rich” journalistic history, and the Sawyer Glacier, Mount Rainier has some tough competition.
As for Skagway’s rich journalistic history, the tent erected in Liars Ville today to honor the press that conjured up the story that ran on July 17, 1897 in the “Seattle Post-Intelligencer” reporting that there was “Gold, Gold, Gold!” in the Klondike and that “Sixty Eight Rich Men on the Steamer Portland” arrived with “Stacks of Yellow Metal,” reminds us all, not to believe everything we read.
“Seattle Post-Intelligencer” reporters promised that in 12 easy days of travel through the White Pass one could become rich. What they neglected to tell is of the difficulty of the trek. So naturally tens of thousands went gold crazy.
For two years running, many risked their lives trekking over treacherous and dangerous trails and waterways to Klondike. Some chose the Chilkoot Trail and others the White Pass Trail. With a mandatory 2,000 pounds of supplies in tow, several never made it. By the time many did, there was little left other than gold flakes. In all, 30,000 to 40,000 prospectors reached the gold fields of Klondike. Four thousand or so found gold and only a few hundred became rich.
Many who found nothing were said to have had their hearts turned to stone due to the difficulties they faced by the time they arrived at their destination.
It was during this time that the White Pass and Yukon Railroad was constructed. But by the time it was finished, it took 35,000 men and 26 months to construct, the Klondike Gold Rush had passed. Travel became easy but there was no longer a promise of get rich fast in Klondike.
Yet, in some ways, there is still gold in those hills. For as I reflect on our seven-day cruise to Alaska and our train ride through the White Pass, it was worth every penny we paid. Once dubbed a railroad to Hell, it might more appropriately be called a train ride to the edge of heaven due to the height it reaches and the glorious vistas it allows its passengers to view without risking their lives.
The WP and YR railroad has helped me touch the sky and has reunited me with nature.
Westwood resident Carol Ziemian teaches writing at Northeastern University. Her column appears in the Daily News Transcript on Wednesday. She can be reached at YankeePenn@aol.com.
