The Chilkoot Trail

Last weekend Titan, Star, Brian, and I hiked the historic Chilkoot Trail from Dyea, AK (former boomtown during the Gold Rush just around the corner from Skagway) to Lake Bennett in Canada.  I was hoping to hike the trail before the end of the season as it’s sort of a rite of passage for anyone spending the summer in Skagway.  On Friday morning, I casually asked Brian if he’d be interested in doing it over the weekend and then we went our separate ways to work without making any concrete plans.  After work, seeing a solid forecast for the weekend, (we’ve been experiencing a lot of rain and fog recently) I headed over to the trail center to see if there were any permits.  There were!  I purchased our permits, went to the store and bought all of our food for the trip, biked home, began packing, biked back to town and met Brian for our trail orientation, biked back home to finish packing, organized rides for the beginning and end of the trail, drove into town to pick up our ride Anna, drove to the trailhead, and began hiking.

All ready!

Unfortunately, we didn’t begin hiking until 7:30 PM.  Earlier in the summer, this wouldn’t have posed a problem as it was almost never completely dark, even in the dead of night, but now that fall is on it’s way the sun sets much earlier- 9:19 last Friday.  According to our permit we should have been hiking all the way to Sheep Camp, 13 miles in, on the first night.  We hiked earnestly until dark, pulled out our headlamps, and hiked for three more hours in the dark.  We reached Pleasant Camp around midnight, still three miles from our intended stopping point, and said “good enough.”   

   

We had a casual morning on Saturday, enjoyed a leisurely breakfast, and set out on the trail.  Today’s hike would include the famous Golden Staircase, a boulder field that climbs 1200 feet in 1/4 mile.  We hiked up and over Chilkoot Pass and were greeted at the Canadian border by lifting fog that revealed a bright blue lake and sunshine behind it.  We had a nice lunch on the sandy beach at the lake, and continued on.  We hiked all day long and after 16 miles made camp at Lindeman City.  We enjoyed a delicious dinner of chicken, gravy, and mashed potatoes, played half a game of cribbage, and fell asleep.  

Selfie time!

Still on the US side, before the pass

High clouds on the US side of the trail

The Golden Staircase

Wow!  The clouds parted and revealed this once we reached Canada

The dogs were really happy that there was some snow around

Taking a quick break

Titan enjoying the wind in his ears

Brian and Star admiring a glacier and a lake

A nice section of trail

Everything was so bright and colorful

Wildflowers!

Another great view!

Admiring the clear water

Glacier and a lake!

Titan checking out a little waterfall

Dinner time!

Weirdos

The next morning we were up a bit earlier as we had to meet our ride, Sam, at 2:00 PM.  We knew it was 7 miles to the end of the trail and some other hikers informed us at breakfast that it was another 8 to get back to the road.  Yikes!  I thought it might be more like 5!  You see, the trail ends at Lake Bennett and if you have done your planning well, you can catch a train there that takes you all the way back to Skagway.  The train doesn’t run on Sundays and as we only had Saturday and Sunday off we figured that it wouldn’t be a big deal to hike out on the tracks (plus we weren’t even sure if dogs were allowed on the train).  Knowing we had 15 miles to complete by 2:00, we strode out of camp purposefully.  We quickly made it to Lake Bennett and enjoyed a celebratory lunch before heading for the tracks.  Hiking out on the tracks was pretty brutal, super exposed in the sun, hard to walk on the ties without doing funny stutter steps, and seemingly never-ending.  At 2:15, we hopped off the tracks at the parking lot of Log Cabin Peak where Sam and Brooke were waiting for us with doughnut holes! 

Nearing the end

Lake Bennett just ahead

The dogs at Lake Bennett.  They were rewarded with lots of Zuke's treats

We did it!  Now for the tracks...

I couldn’t believe how breathtakingly beautiful the trail was.  I was in awe the whole hike of all the glaciers, lakes, and lovely terrain surrounding us.  It was fantastic that the dogs could come on the trail even though it is in US and Canadian National Parks.  I would love to do this hike again and would enjoy taking a lot more time on it next time.  Because we only had two days off, we completed all 41 miles in just under 43 hours of elapsed time!  The dogs had a blast, we had a blast, and I can’t wait for more adventures and less working!