Chilkoot: Day 4 Home Again Home Again

On our fourth and final day of the Chilkoot, I woke up thrilled to see that all of our soaking wet clothes from the past two days, were now bone dry. We looked out the window to a bit of frost and fresh snow, but it didn't bother us much. Today was the day we were hiking out, and heading home.

Our hike out of Lindeman City was a bit of a climb, but we were rewarded by the sight of a little rainbow. You can see our little cabin at the base of it like a pot of gold.

The trail was pretty straight forward on this day. No crazy pointy rocks, huge puddles, or boulder fields.

Felt more like a little Christmas morning hike.

Cheese.

The sun even made an appearance. FINALLY!

One last look at the wilderness. After about two hours of hiking, we started hearing loud banging. We knew we were getting close to the railroad.

Once we hit the railroad tracks, we walked along them for five boring miles. I realized that I prefer rooty, rough trails to a repetitive man made railroad. But it didn't matter, because at the end of these tracks was our friend Margeaux, waiting to pick us up to bring us back to Skagway.
We made it! Right on time. She was waiting in her car for us, and we loaded our packs in the car, and then it was just 40 minutes back to Skagway! It was pretty bizarre to have it all be done so quickly. We completed our trek a week ago, but I am still reeling from our experience. We're already talking about doing it again...but at a different, more pleasant, time of year.

Chilkoot: Day 3 Rain Rain Rain

Day three started and ended with rain. Happy Camp, we realized, was not so happy. There was no stove, so we woke up to very wet and very cold clothes. Jeff recommended that we wear our wet clothes, and keep our limited dry clothes for an emergency. This was a smart recommendation, but it left us with an uncomfortable day. The rain was relentless, and the trail was full of ragged, slippery rocks. I continued to ride my high of conquering the summit the day before, but this seemed to be Jeff's day of discontent. He was totally upset by the rain. I tried to get him to do "Song Time", but he would have none of it.

I joked that this old boat could carry us the rest of the trail. But it was a bit of a fixer upper.

The fall colors were surprising and pleasing after a day of grey rocks and fog.

Jeff and I hiked for five miles in rain and soaking wet clothes, so were more than excited to find a cabin with a stove and dry wood on the lake in the Lindeman City camp. Even though we hadn't hiked for very long, we decided to stay, relax, and dry out.

As I was hanging up our clothes to dry, I put on my only dry clothes. Jeff said I looked cute.

We sat by the window and sipped hot chocolate. Someone even left us a cribbage board.

This was our view from our little porch. There was a little stream that we got our water from, and we sang songs to keep the bears away.

Jeff made sure to replace the wood in the cabin, and I think he enjoyed sawing wood in the woods.

Our perfect little egg holder.

This cabin was our sanctuary after days of cold. Jeff got the stove piping hot, and on our final day we woke up well-rested and happy to find that all of our clothes and packs had dried out completely. Time to head home!

Chilkoot: Day 2. The Golden Staircase.

During our journey, Jeff and I were able to sleep in the "warming cabins." Which, during the summertime, are off-limits to overnighters. There are camps spread out along the trail, and during the gold rush, these were nearly thriving cities. Some had saloons, dance halls, and even churches. Nowadays they have little huts, some picnic tables, and latrines.

Jeff cooked us up a breakfast of real bacon and eggs to fuel us up for the big day. And yes, a dozen eggs survived the whole trek without breaking. We woke up unsure if we were going to make it over the pass. We had been warned of fresh snow at the summit, and we found out afterward that many hikers backed out, because of their fear of bad weather. We decided to go for it, and if it looked bad we'd turn around. But we didn't turn around.

The first four miles we hiked on our second day are known as "Long Hill." Some miners even remarked that it was the hardest part of the trail. They said this before they climbed up the pass!

I enjoyed this hike up long hill, and felt pretty fierce after these few miles.

I wasn't bothered at all.

We were getting closer to the clouds, but not too worried.

That little summit was quite a little teaser.

Gaining a good amount of elevation. We were in a cloud, but could still see the trail.

Remnants of the Klondike Gold Rush.

We made it to "The Scales." This was the last chance all those miners had to weigh their goods to be sure they had their ONE TON of goods to carry up over the summit into Canada.

And it seems that some things were just too heavy for the weary miners.

We crossed this rocky valley to the base of our conquest. All the trail markers had been removed for the winter, so we put our trust in an rusty iron cable from an old tramway to guide us over the pass.

Ta-da. Now is the time. Now. We. Climb.

It wasn't so bad at first. We gave up using our trekking poles, and trusted our arms and legs to pull us up. Soon the harsh wind was pushing on us, and loose, jagged rocks started to make me struggle a little.

Jeff kept saying, "Good job, honey" over and over and over.

I soon began to say, "This is the stupidest thing I've ever done" over and over and over.

This is a view from the first summit. Yes, my friends, there were TWO more summits to go! No one told me until we were hiking, that their would be two false summits. It only got worse.

On our second summit. We encountered knee and then thigh deep snow. We were hiking on jagged loose rocks, and in the cracks you could see six feet down to a little river. And NOW that was all covered in snow. We didn't know where to step, as we could step into nothing and break our legs!

I AM NOT HAVING ANY FUN!

The wind was now howling from every direction, and we didn't know how far the real summit was. I was soaking wet and freezing, and the tears streaming down my face were the only thing keeping me warm.

This piece of machinery was left over from the tramway. Normally, I love looking at all the artifacts. But obviously I was more concerned with not slipping into a crevasse. We trekked on...

This picture is taken at the summit. Jeff's idea. It was so hard to smile, but we soon made it into a warming hut. I wanted to stay there and just wait for someone to come rescue us. I didn't want to hike four more miles down in similar conditions to camp. But Jeff forced me to change into all the dry clothes I had, he made me some ginger tea so I wouldn't throw up out of fear, and we kept going.

As we ventured down the other side of the pass, we saw some eerie sights. Fog covered all the breathtaking sights we would have seen in the summer. This was even another reminder of how alone and isolated we were from ... everything. I was still crying and scared, but every few minutes Jeff would yell out "Song time!" and he made me belt out my favorite camping tunes.

I mostly grumbled, but Jeff forced me to sing like a crazed stage mom.

After a while I started to realize what we had done. The Chilkoot Pass! The Golden Staircase! I started to feel like I could really do anything. Nothing would be as bad as that, and I felt pretty powerful.

I even started to enjoy it all. Just a little. Notice my puffy eyes from all the crying!

Natural snow cave. The silence around this phenomenon was haunting.

As we continued on with the cairns to our stop for the night at "Happy Camp" I couldn't get the summit out of my head. I was excited to get into the cabin, hang up our clothes to dry, eat a delicious dinner, and finally laugh about my fear. I was pretty proud of us, and excited for two more days of some much easier trail hiking.

Chilkoot: Day 1

I have spent seven summers in Skagway, Alaska, and have always wanted to hike the Chilkoot Trail. This is the trail the stampeders trudged through as just part of their journey to GOLD.

Skagway is known as the "Gateway to the Klondike Gold Rush." Back in 1898 hundreds of thousands of men and women journeyed up the Lynn Canal of Southeast Alaska, landed in Skagway, and hiked for 33 miles to Lake Bennett then took a boat over six hundred miles to Dawson City, Yukon and the gold fields.

Nowadays, backpackers hike those 33 miles up over the summit of the Chilkoot into British Columbia. Not for gold, but strictly for the experience. I've wanted to hike the trail, but my best friends in town have never run in the "outdoorsy-type-crowd." I like hiking and picnicking and a little bit of park and camp. I haven't felt a backpack on my back since I was 14 when I hiked three miles downhill for church camp. I have certainly never experienced any hike as extreme as this.

Lucky for me, I now have a boyfriend who is in love with outdoor adventure, and chose to live in Alaska strictly for opportunity for exploration right in our backyard. I mentioned to him that I might want to hike the Chilkoot one day, and he started studying, planning, preparing, and gearing up for our hike. He definitely made it happen. Just hours before our chosen time of departure the weather turned ugly and a layer of fresh snow at the summit induced warnings and worries from even our most seasoned hiker pals. But Jeff was confident that we were prepared, and even though I was scared sick, I wasn't afraid that he would keep us safe.

Here we are at the trailhead. We are layered in wool and Capilene and rain gear. After a couple of miles on the trail, we had to shed some layers.

We signed into the official trail registry.

We stumbled upon so many artifacts and remnants from the last century.

After about seven miles of hiking, I got into a groove, and realized that I could probably (dare I say it?) LIKE backpacking.

Happily standing on a tent platform at Finnegan's Point.

During the Gold Rush, Canyon City was the base of tramway the miners could use to carry their goods over the Pass.

This big piece of machinery was used for that tramway.

We didn't see any bears or moose. We did see a lot of animal tracks, bear scat, and some crazy looking mushrooms.

Thirteen miles of hiking brought us to our stop for the night-Sheep Camp. Luckily, we were hiking in the off-season, so we were allowed to sleep in the warming cabins. This was a nervous night, because the next day was the day of our summit hike. The 45-degree climb up over the pass. The rock climb in the snow. The "Golden Staircase."