Hello Everyone,

This post will focus on our Chilkoot Trail hike. The Chilkoot is the 33 mile hike the gold rushers took in 1898 to reach the head waters of the Yukon River system. They then traveled by boat to reach the Klondike river and, in theory, gold. Far more people lost life or limb than got rich on gold and the whole story is fascinating. I recommend Klondike Fever by Pierre Burton if you are interested in reading more.

The hike is difficult. You can see us looking clean and fresh at the start. Ruth and I are with our good friend Steve Benz. The first day was a 12 mile trek through the forest with only modest elevation gain. (no pictures) The second day took us over the pass with about a 3000 foot gain on an eight mile day. There is a famous photograph of the gold rushers hiking up to the pass on the "golden staircase". The staircase was cut out of ice in the winter and in the summer it is a boulder field. It is extremely steep and treacherous and we were all concerned about a loose rock slipping and causing us to break an ankle. In fact Steve's mother-in-law broke her ankle at this point several years ago and had to be air lifted out by helicopter. Fortunately we had no similar mishaps. The picture of Ruth gives some idea of what this portion of the trail was like.

After the summit we walked through a lot of snow which was also dangerous because at a certain point slipping meant a likely slide into an icy lake. Ruth did slip but a pole stopped her slid before she gained much momentum. As the pictures show the weather was damp and misty at the top. Fortunately by the end third day the weather cleared and we were able to dry out and warm up. The second to last picture was our campsite on the third night and the last picture is Bennett Lake, the end of the trail. We took a train back down the mountain from Bennett Lake back to Skagway where we started.

We were all tired and a bit sore. The best thing about this trail was the history. There was a lot of 19th century trash along the way which was fascinating to look at. We saw the remains of boats, sleds, shoes, engines, tram cables, countless tin cans and more. While I am glad we took the hike it was not the pristine isolated backpacking experience we usually have. There were lots of people on the trail and we shared the camping areas with as many as 40 people. While it is fun to share an experience with others I find it even more enjoyable to share a space alone with the wildlife of that area. That will be the experience I expect we will have in Denali National Park.

Right now we are in Anchorage staying with friends and enjoying civilization before we set out again. More later.

Brian