Remember me why I am on this Chilkoot Trail

A great mix between natural beauty of the trail and the sense of history. Only a limited number of people are allowed on the trail each day (boook ahead!) and there are only a limited number of campsites so this hike turned out to be a strange sort of group trip: every shared their experiences in the evening!

Quick Tips:

Be reasonably fit, we drove up from Vancouver doing all kinds of day-hikes to prepare. After doing the trail we took the inside passage all the way down. The Parc Rangers at the visitors center give you all the advise you need.

Best Way To Get Around:

Dyea Dave has a cheap bus service from Skagway to the trailhead. We took the train back.

When people brought I huge load of gold into Seatlle the news spread quickly and the Goldrush was on!

There were (and still are) only a few ways to get to Dawson City. Because of the coast mountains of the panhandle of Alaska and Canada's British Columbia only a few passes exist to get to the interior.

A lot of people went by boat to Vancouver and Seatle, bought their equipment and a boat ride to Skagway, to the trailhead.

It was winter and in a hurry to get to the goldfields and stake a claim everybody embarked on the Chilkoot pass.

Little towns sprang up along the trail offering all kinds of services to the people.

Walking the trail you get an impression what went on. The trail is not so difficult to hike but the goldrush was on in the winter making it much more difficult to cross the pass.

Sad thing was, everybody arriving in Dawson early spring was much too late. All the good places were already taken...

THe original trail was already years old and operated by the local indians who used the pass as a trade route with the interior. The goldrush was on in the winter so al the paths were snowed under. People used sleds to go over the iced over river for the first part of the trip. Now you follow the river as well and the first two days are relatively easy.

During the third day you have to climb The Stairs and the dreaded Scales. Just a little steeper and you can call this mountainclimbing! On top of the pass is a Canadian Parc Ranger post to get a little rest. Early in the summer you will have to walk in the snow to the next campsite.

The last two days are again relatively easy and once you reach Bennet Lake you can be proud and feel sorry for the cruiseliners who take the train up!

We took the train back all the way to Skagway, being a bit smelly all the Chilkoot trailers have their own wagon!

You have to bring all your food for the whole 5 day trip with you (and carry the garbage out) since there are no camp stores.

The first couple of miles are a good warm up: climbing up and down along the rocky riverbanks gives you a little sweat. Most people do the trail in 5 days speding four nights on the trail. This makes only the third day very hard. The most miles to cover and the actual climb through the pass.

Plowing through the snow on the third day my girlfriend asked "Martin, remember we why I decided to come along on this trail?". The third day is the difficult one!

I think if you are reasonably fit you can do the trail. It gets even easier later in the summer when there is no more snow.

The experience is great and we are still proud we made it to Bennet Lake!