5% of the Chilkoot Trail

The Chilkoot Trail is a 33-mile trail through the Coast Mountains that leads from Dyea, Alaska to the town of Bennett at the base of Lake Bennett, in British Columbia.  It was a major access route from the coast to Yukon goldfields in the late 1890's. The Chilkoot Trail was designated a U.S. National Historic Landmark in 1978, and in 1987 was designated a National Historic Site of Canada. In 1998, the centennial of the gold rush, Chilkoot Trail National Historic Site in British Columbia merged with the U.S. park to create the Klondike Gold Rush International Historical Park.  The trail and the Dyea townsite comprise one of three units in the U.S. national park; the other two units are located in Skagway and Seattle.

The Klondike Gold Rush (1896–1899) transformed the Chilkoot Trail into a main transportation route to Dawson City, in Canada's interior. Of the several overland routes, the Chilkoot Trail was the most direct, least expensive, and, soon enough, most popular.  The other primary route to the headwaters of the Yukon River, however, was also based out of Skagway: the rival White Pass route. The White Pass route was slightly longer but less rigorous and steep, whereas the Chilkoot was shorter and more difficult. Prospectors who chose the Chilkoot were ferried to Dyea by small boat. Soon, both Skagway and Dyea were bustling tent cities as sensationalist headlines of the gold rush spurred men from across the United States to leave their jobs and families and gain passage up the Inside Passage to Skagway.

As it became apparent that many of the prospectors who chose the Chilkoot simply were not going to survive the arduous terrain and harsh weather, Canada's Northwest Mounted Police declared that prospectors could only enter Canada if they had at least one ton of gear (enough to supply a prospector for one year).  Prospectors ferried the gear from campsites along the trail, slowly moving closer to the headwaters of the Yukon. On average, a prospector might have to make as many as 20 round trips between Dyea (or Skagway) and Lake Bennett in order to get his supplies and gear to lakeside for the boat trip down the Yukon to Dawson City!

We drove from Skagway over to the Chilkoot Trail trailhead near the Dyea townsite on Wednesday, June 1, 2016.  To get there, we drove along the shores of Smugglers Cove and Taiya Inlet.  Here is a view down the inlet toward the Pacific Ocean and the Chilkoot Mountains (lost in the fog):

Driving north up the inlet, we caught view of the Dyea townsite on the flats:

Dyea is the site of a former town where the Taiya River empties into the Taiya Inlet on the north end of the Chilkoot Inlet, northwest of Skagway, Alaska.  During the Klondike Gold Rush prospectors disembarked at Dyea's port and used the Chilkoot Trail, a Tlingit trade route over the Coast Mountains, to begin their journey to the gold fields around Dawson City, Yukon, about 500 miles north. Confidence man and crime boss Soapy Smith, famous for his underworld control of the neighboring town of Skagway in 1897-98, is believed to have had control of Dyea as well.

While Dyea was at least as populated as Skagway at the height of the Yukon Stampede, Dyea was abandoned when the White Pass and Yukon Route railroad chose the White Pass Trail from Skagway for its route to Whitehorse, instead of the Chilkoot Trail route from Dyea.  Dyea is now within the Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park. All that remains are a number of foundations surrounded by scraps of lumber and metal, ruins of the wharf, and three cemeteries, including one where almost every person buried died on the same date in an avalanche on the gold rush trail.

We found the trailhead and took the obligatory trailhead photo:

In this case, we got two trailhead photos, because another sign was posted at the bridge over Taiya River to point us up the trail:

The Chilkoot Trail itself is 33 miles long, and many people will backpack it in order to follow the route of the Yukon Stampeders.  We, instead, decided we could only do a day-hike.  Because we also wanted to sample another trail near Skagway, we only had time for a half-day hike, which we decided would be about 2 miles up the trail, and 2 miles back.  Nevertheless, the first mile of the trail is pretty steep.  Here, Kathy is showing off the stone steps that mark the beginning of the trail:

Once up the first 0.8 mile or so, we then had to descend just as steeply to the valley floor along the Taiya River.  Here, the trail flattened out and wound its way through a rainforest.  Try to find Kathy in this lush jungle:

Our trail crossed several small tributaries of the Taiya River, and we eventually reached a bridge where we gazed at the glacial green, flowing waters before reluctantly turning around and heading back down the trail:

Eventually, we returned to the Taiya River Bridge on the Dyea Road --

-- only to discover some hikers we had met earlier on the trail floating down the river with their guide.  They had signed up for a hike-and-float tour and their guide generously offered to receive our photos of them and send the photos on to the hikers.  So they were all quite happy to oblige us with friendly waves as the waters carried them downstream:

We can't say that we fully understand the privations those 100,000 Yukon Stampeders suffered as they trudged over the Chilkoot Pass or White Pass, trying vainly to get to the Yukon goldfields before all the claims had been staked - slogging through rain, snow and ice and carrying one ton of gear in successive trips across one pass or the other.  However, we did get a sense of the country they trekked through, and had a chance to enjoy its rugged beauty.

But we have promises to keep and miles to go before we sleep, so we'll end this blog entry with the optimistic note that we proceeded right on to another enjoyable hike back in Skagway.