The Chilkoot Trail
In 1897 gold was discovered in the Yukon. Thus began the great Klondike Gold Rush. From 1897-1899 most of those who came in search of gold, arrived by boat in Dyea, Alaska and hiked over the Chilkoot Pass and into the vast Yukon. The trail is now called the Chilkoot Trail. It is 33 miles long and ascends 3500 feet, which, all in all, isn't so bad. The tough part is the pass. It is one mile straight up, all rocks, big ones, wet in the fog. Parts of it are literally at 45 degrees, making traveling with a 40 lb. pack difficult at best. The miners ended up discarding many excess items, since packers were charging up to $1/pound to take supplies over the pass, and this was a 100 years ago. The trail is now a historic route littered with the cast-off equipment and the remnants of discarded disused trams and telegraph wires. It winds from a boreal rainforest at the coast up through alpine forests over a rocky pass separating glaciers and down into beautiful lake-dotted Canadian highlands. Alicia and I took four days to follow the same route. Our feet still hurt.
