Riding the Alaska State Ferries on the Inside Passage lets you feel how large Alaska truly is. We boarded the ferry at 10pm in Sitka, headed for Skagway to compete in the Klondike Relay. The Klondike Relay is a race from Skagway to Whitehorse in the Yukon, 110 miles away. Ten-person teams run the route starting on a Friday night in Skagway, finishing sometime the next afternoon in Whitehorse. The race is magical, standing beside a trash can fire in the middle of the Yukon darkness, waiting for a runner to come up and tag you and send you on your way into the arctic night.

We boarded the ferry to head to the race, and watched the stars overhead and northern lights dance over the mountains of Sitka. We drifted off to sleep in our sleeping bags on the deck of the ferry, waking to new star positions in the night and black mountains drifting by, the steady rumbling of ferry engines from deep beneath us. We woke to a beautiful sunrise on unfamiliar mountain ranges. This set of houses marked the turn towards Juneau.