Alaska or Bust: Chilkoot Trail Day 1

Chilkoot Trail Day 1 – Trail Head to Canyon City Campground (7.5 Miles)

The Chilkoot was originally a trail used by the Tlingit people as a vital trade route between the coastal areas and the interior indigenous groups. The Tlingit carried fish and seal oils, preserved salmon and plants over the pass to trade for copper, moose, caribou meats and hides as well as furs. Although they controlled the trail, they couldn't hold back the masses of people trying to gain access to the Klondike gold fields when the gold rush began.

Thursday, August 11 – This morning it was windy and rainy in Skagway with more rain and cold weather in the forecast. I really had my doubts about even attempting the Chilkoot Trail. When we arrived off the ferry in Skagway the night before we had to set up camp in a total downpour and it rained all night. We talked to the folks with the parks service and they confirmed that the weather forecast wasn’t going to be very good. Although we had all of our food and gear packed and ready to go, we didn’t make the decision to actually do the hike until 9:30 AM and we were on the 10:30 AM shuttle to Dyea (pronounced die-ee) where the trailhead is located. Dyea is a ghost town today but during the Klondike gold rush it was quite the hopping town with a population of 8,000-10,000 people! Dyea died after the White Pass and Yukon Route railroad opened in 1899.

We got dropped off at the trailhead at the end of the Dyea road (really a goat path) a muddy, slippery, bumpy excuse for a road, but it keeps Ruth from the Dyea shuttle service very busy since no one wants to drive out there and at only $15 a pop it’s a great deal. When we got dropped off, it was pouring down rain and I still wasn’t sold on the idea of backpacking for 5 days being wet and cold. Within 5 minutes I had to take off one layer under my raincoat because I was warming up. Between my raincoat, rain pants, gloves, baseball cap and hood, I was actually staying quite dry. The only problem is when using hiking poles, I was getting some rain coming up my coat sleeves but not too bad. Honestly though, it’s no fun wearing glasses in the rain! My pack cover kept my gear nice and dry in my backpack too. One good thing about the rain is there were no mosquitos :-).

About 100 yards into the trail and we hit our 1^st hill. The day was mostly up and down, over a swampy area, numerous creek crossings with 10-inch boards that were “bridges” and very slippery (actually more slimy than slippery) the trail was also very rocky in places and of course quite muddy. I fell twice, once I did a nice butt slide on some wet scree, the 2^nd time was on one of the lovely plank bridges. My foot just slid out from under me and I landed gracefully (yeah right!) across the plank like a turtle on it’s back. It could have been worse, I could have landed in the water. I had to get out of my pack to get up. But no harm done. My feet stayed completely dry, considering that my boots were totally wet. My old boots would have totally soaked through. There were lots of mosses and ferns, actually much of the hike reminded me of my hike last summer in the Redwoods National Park with all of the giant ferns and everything being very green. The rain let up just before we arrived at Canyon City Campground long enough for us to set up our tent. We got our food put away in the bear proof storage locker and headed into the warming hut to try to dry out our coats and make some dinner. At this point we started meeting lots of other hikers, all really nice folks and over the next 5 days we really would become a community and help each other out.

It was off to bed early where it rained all night, the bottom of the tent got a little flooded but our sleeping bags stayed dry since we had our air mattresses keeping us up off the floor of the tent. I didn’t sleep well. I think I was just too worried about our sleeping bags getting wet and having to turn back. At this point, I decided that it is a whole lot easier to go up hill than down and I really didn’t want to have to hike out. Once again, the rain stopped long enough to drain the water from the tent and get everything pack up and ready to roll for day 2.

Because of the really slow internet in the Yukon I have to break this up into shorter sections. More pictures later when I have decent internet...