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!

Friday Night Camp Out

The sub-alpine zone here in Alaska has quickly become our favorite place to explore.  The glacially carved landscape makes for easy exploration and all the lichen in the area are fascinating.  There is no shortage of little lakes to jump in, streams to drink from, and amazing scenery to stare at.  After a hot day in town, I was not looking forward to sleeping in the van so I suggested to Brian that we drive up the pass and go camping.  He said he needed a nap first (it was 7 PM) which greatly lowered my expectations that we would actually go.  I made dinner and when Brian woke up I fed him and convinced him that it would be awesome.  While we were driving up the pass it started pouring rain.  Fortunately, when we reached the summit the rain had already passed and we quickly packed up our bags.  We set out around 10 PM, took a short hike over the ridge, and found an incredible spot to pitch our tent for the night.  The dogs got to run around and explore and we had a refreshingly cool evening for sleep.  In the morning the dogs romped around while we slept in and then we all jumped in a lake before heading back to town for a yummy breakfast out.

Over Psyched and Under Prepared

As a van dweller, I have two schools of thought when it comes to preparedness.  

On the one hand, I feel prepared for anything at all times because everything I own is packed into the 55 square foot space that I live in.  I have downhill skis, cross country skis, snowshoes, crashpads, cams, ropes, harnesses, a road bike, a mountain bike, a PFD, dry bags, several backpacks, sleeping pads, two tents, several means of cooking food, art supplies, books, seven pounds of oats, three hammocks, a violin, and lots of other essentials.  Should I want to do an activity, chances are I have the basics somewhere in the van to make it happen.  

On the other hand, there are the times when we go away from the van.  Overnights and extended trips, and those rare times when people invite us to stay inside their home (usually we are invited to shower first, then inspected and if approved we are sometimes offered an indoor bed).  Suddenly, I panic because everything is no longer at my fingertips.  The van is outside in the driveway, or at a distant trailhead, or parked along the road somewhere and I am somewhere between 2 minutes and several days worth of travel away from it, and what if it were to suddenly snow and I should need my cross country skis?  Or what if I come across a cool boulder while backpacking and I need my climbing shoes? Or what if I'm inside someone's house and  I need my phone charger?  These are the things I think about, and these thoughts usually turn to action and that action is usually overstuffing my backpack.  On the Tahoe Rim Trail, my pack weighed about 60 pounds the day of our last resupply.  That's half my body weight.  But hey, I needed my glow sticks, two GoPros, a down jacket for those 65 degree overnight lows, and all that other necessary stuff.  

A sub-thought in the preparedness spectrum is this: because we live in a van, we travel to lots of different places where there are lots of different things to do.  And we like to try them all, but don't necessarily invest the time into them that would lead us to purchase the best gear for said activity, nor do we usually follow the proper sequence for introduction to activities.  We just jump in 100% using the gear we have and see how it turns out.  We usually end up being over-psyched and under-prepared.

Anyway, Chelsea, Titan, Star and I were in Alaska packing for our very first bike tour.  Two days before, we had one of the more epic failures we've ever experienced on what was supposed to be our very first bike tour.  We made it one mile.  That's not a joke.  On round two, we decided to try to cut a bit of weight.  Because that one mile felt pretty damn hard.  We were feeling very proud of ourselves because we both owned one of those tiny hand pumps that you hope you never have to use because there's no way you are going to get that tire to 100 psi standing on the side of the road in your spandex, cranking that thing until your arms fall off.  Look at us, we thought, bike touring pros.  Then we looked at my mountain bike tires and all four Burley tires and realized that they were all schrader valves and both the hand pumps were presta only.  Welp, we'll just take the WHOLE ENTIRE FLOOR PUMP with us on this 250 mile tour.  NBD.  Heaven forbid we spend $15 on another hand pump, because, please we just spent like $47 on Snickers bars and a teeny thermometer so we could confirm that it was freezing out when we felt freezing, so really there was no room left in the budget for such frivolous items.  So we weren't successful at saving weight in that department, but I made up for it by bringing a two inch toothbrush instead of a regular sized one, which meant that I got to carry an ounce less and that I got to stick my fingers fully in my mouth every night after dinner.  

We were physically prepared for bugs... mentally, not so much

Now may be a good time to reiterate that neither of us humans, nor either dog, had ever done a bike tour before.  We didn't have panniers or touring bikes or a super light tent or any of the items you might consider standard for a bike tour.  What we did have was one mountain bike, one hybrid cross bike, two Burley trailers and a lot of excitement.  We figured we would just go for it and hope it all panned out.  With the forecast showing a week straight of rain, we loaded up our Burleys with four bear canisters of human and dog food, our bike pump, some extra layers of clothing, camping and cooking gear, and Titan and Star, and we hit the road.    

All in all we spent eight days and 250 miles on the Denali Highway.  Sure, a little extra preparedness and know how would have made our lives easier a few times.  Like when I somehow lost the use of my granny gear and had to bike the hills on over half the ride at a glacial, threatening to tip over pace, it could have been nice to know a few things about bike maintenance.  It also would have been good to have prepared for the possibility of freezing temps and little snow flurries because it did do that (in August).  Fortunately, we had enough layers to keep fairly warm, and after biking for a bit we could maintain a comfortable temperature.  We did suffer a bit in the rain, but I don't think any amount of preparedness would have made that suck less.  But it all worked out.  We had the energy and the enthusiasm to make it happen.  Each day we woke up with the excitement of another day on the bike, exploring the majestic scenery of Alaska by our own power.  We worked together with Titan and Star, alternating their running and sitting in the Burleys and we completed an awesome journey together.  The Denali Highway was some of the best fun I've had this year, in a year spent doing only fun things.  Sometimes you just have to get out there and try new things and not worry about the fact that you're towing a 100 pound trailer behind your mountain bike for eight continuous days on your first bike tour ever.  Oh, and none of the eight tires needed air the entire trip.  So we brought that whole pump along for nothing.

Night Photography

After a couple of years of shooting pictures almost exclusively on my iPhone, I recently decided to get out my DSLR to make an attempt at learning to shoot on manual.  One reason I really wanted to do this was to be able to take nice night photos.  I am beginning to understand how to do this and have had the chance to practice quite a bit lately.  I still have trouble getting the shot to be focused, partly because I don't have a tripod, and partly because when I look through the viewfinder it's really dark out and I can't focus when I can't see anything, but I'm having a lot of fun learning.  If you have any tips on getting the focus right, please let me know!  I'm posting this from my phone, where the pictures are small enough to look decent, but if you're looking at this on a computer, they're probably pretty blurry!  I still have a long way to go, but here are some shots I've taken lately:

Silas on the side of the highway in Valdez, AK

Northern Lights over Silas and Old Gray in Yukon Territory

A rather blurry and a bit dark, but a nice view from our campground in Indian Creek.

Fun with headlamps

The neighbors campsite, they had a big fire and lots of headlamps on

Silas in the Manti-La Sal National Forest.

Same location as above, this time my camera is resting on a tractor shovel

Camped out in White Sands National Monument, NM

White Sands National Monument, NM       

One more from our 'backcountry' campsite in White Sands