The Chilkoot Trail retraces the route taken by gold prospectors during the 1890s Klondike Gold Rush. It is a 53km hike over 5 days through rugged terrain and wilderness in Alaska and Canada. Hikers experience challenging climbs such as the steep boulder field to reach Chilkoot Pass at the US-Canada border. Along the way, hikers encounter remnants of the gold rush era and scenic alpine landscapes while carrying full packs, as the prospectors had to do. Completing the hike provides insight into the hardships faced by those who came seeking fortune in the Klondike goldfields over a century ago.

1. Yellow feverGreat Walks retraces the footsteps of gold
prospectors on the spectacular Chilkoot Trail.
16 | GREAT WALKS OCTOBER_NOVEMBER 2015 AUSTRALIA’S BUSHWALKING MAGAZINE

2. WORDS AND PHOTOS_ MARK DAFFEY
GREAT GOLD RUSH WALKS
CHILKOOT TRAIL, USA/CANADA
OCTOBER_NOVEMBER 2015 GREAT WALKS | 17WWW.GREATWALKS.COM.AU
Hikers on the Chilkoot Trail
above Long Lake.

3. I
n 1896, gold prospectors George Carmack and ‘Skookum’
Jim Mason struck it rich at Bonanza Creek, in Canada’s Yukon
region. They initially kept their find quiet, extracting
whatever they could get their hands on. But the moment
the news leaked, all hell broke loose. The newspapers
carried the story as their lead headline and soon after
every man and his dog had caught yellow fever.
Low employment levels at the time forced tradesmen,
labourers, dentists, prostitutes and conmen to load up their
wagons and head north to the Klondike goldfields to try
their luck. It was a long and arduous journey – 2,575km
– and all but one small section between the port of Seattle
and the Yukon’s Dawson City was traversable by sea, lake or
river. More than any other, this 53km overland leg came to
symbolise the hardships prospectors faced in their scramble
for riches.
A coastal mountain range formed a barrier between
the Alaskan port of Skagway and the Yukon River hub of
Whitehorse. To get from one to the other prospectors had
to traverse the Chilkoot Trail – a timeworn trading route
controlled by First Nations tribes – on foot.
In July 2015, World Expeditions added the Chilkoot Trail to
their global trekking inventory, retracing the historical route over
a five-day hike. The altitudes reached aren’t particularly high
and the days aren’t overly long, and yet World Expeditions still
rates the hike as ‘moderate to challenging’. The reason for that
categorisation is that participants are required to carry a full pack.
Porters are hired to lug tents and food from camp to camp, and
you cart everything else.
“Be bold, start cold”
On our first morning, we drive from Whitehorse to Fraser then
catch the scenic White Pass & Yukon Railway to Skagway, the
Alaskan port town servicing the Inside Passage cruise industry.
It’s already 4pm when we reach the trailhead in Dyea, Alaska,
but it’s mid-summer and we’re 60° north of the Equator. In these
parts, and at this time of year, there’s almost 24 hours of daylight,
so there’s zero concern about reaching camp after dark. The 16°C
temperatures are hardly very summery though.
Nevertheless, our effervescent guide, Vanessa Stewart, urges us to
“be bold, start cold,” adding that we could expect “a bit of up and
down, so it won’t be long before you’re stripping the layers off.”
We spend that day and the next hiking through temperate
rainforest beside the frenzied flow of the Taiya River. It’s cloudy
overhead and damp underfoot, and rain drizzles incessantly. I ask
Stewart if leeches are a problem here.
“Leeches? Here? No way!” she barks, adding. “Well, not that
I’ve ever found.” There are no snakes or spiders either. And even
the bities that routinely plague Northern Canada and Alaska over
the summer months barely register in these parts.
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4. But there are nasties in this region, and they’re much bigger
and scarier than those that suck your blood or inject you with
poison. Bears – blacks and fearsome grizzlies – roam these
woods, and they’ve been known to startle trekkers on plenty of
occasions. More often though, bear encounters take place around
campsites, where the sweet smell of food appeals to their sense
of smell. For that reason, we’re advised never to leave our packs
unattended. We’re also told to lock all food and toiletries in
metal, tamper-proof lockers called ‘bear bins’. It’s our first task
upon reaching camp.
Squirrels, scales and scrambling
Over the next few days our run-ins with bears are thankfully
limited to bedtime stories and observation reports filled out by
others. Squirrels make up the majority of our wildlife encounters,
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Walk notes CHILKOOT TRAIL, USA-CANADA
Time/distance: 7 days/53km | Grade: moderate-challenging
Walknotes
Day 1: Whitehorse
Day 2: Finnegan’s Point – 7.9km/
3-4 hours)
Day 3: Sheep Camp – 13km/6-7hr
Day 4: Chilkoot Pass and Happy
Camp – 12km/8-11hr
Day 5: Lake Lindeman – 8.8km/4-5hr
Day 6: Lake Bennett – 11.3km/4-5hr
Day 7: Whitehorse
CANADA
GREAT GOLD RUSH WALKS
CHILKOOT TRAIL, USA/CANADA
Bennett-Whitehorse floatplane over Bennett Lake.
BELOW: Chilkoot Trail hikers on a Beaver Pond boardwalk in Alaska.
BELOW LEFT: Canyon City warming shelter, Alaska.

5. 20 | GREAT WALKS OCTOBER_NOVEMBER 2015 AUSTRALIA’S BUSHWALKING MAGAZINE
and artefacts left behind and consciously preserved from the gold
rush days are more common sightings. There are shovels and boots
and metal wagon wheels. On our second morning, we cross the
gushing river via a swing bridge to investigate a truck-sized boiler
used to power a freight tramway to the top of the Chilkoot Pass.
Later, we find a rusty old sled resting beside Lindeman Lake, on
the Canadian side of the trail.
Stampeders – as prospectors were called – considered it safer
and easier to make the trek to the Klondike during the harsh
winter season, when rivers and lakes would freeze and act as proxy
highways to the goldfields. Still, many who joined the convoy
were woefully unprepared for the conditions and the North West
Mounted Police, or Mounties, insisted that every person who
entered Canada via the pass carry a year’s worth of food supplies,
on top of the tents, cookware and prospecting tools they carted up.
Failure to do that risked being turned back.
Goods were weighed at the foot of the pass, at a place that came
to be known as The Scales, and it was this last steep climb to the
summit that became the stuff of legend. It would take stampeders
around 40 trips before they’d hauled all their goods to the top of
the pass. And each time they returned to The Scales, they would
have to wait their turn to do it all again.
Yet even that didn’t stop the flow of goods over the pass. Some
13,000 stampeders crossed between mid-February and May 1898,
carrying supplies with an estimated value of more than $100
million – 10 times the amount of gold that was eventually found
in the Yukon. Included in that inventory was a baby piano and a
steamship that was dismantled piece by piece then reassembled
soon after it had crossed the Canadian border.
Steps were cut into the ice from The Scales to the pass back then,
forming a passageway that came to be known as the Golden Stairs.
Being summer, we had no such luxury. Ahead of us lay a steep

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boulder field that we’d have to pick our way through all the way to
the top. The rocks were slippery and there was no obvious route.
At times, we were forced to scramble up on all fours.
Natural beauty
The Chilkoot Pass marks the border between the United States
and Canada, and the terrain changes dramatically thereafter.
Exposed boulders and alpine tarns replace the Alaskan rainforests.
Wildflowers litter the ground and the valleys open up. We could be
hiking through the highlands of Scotland or in central Tasmania.
The trail rises and dips over a series of undulations, passing
glaciers and streams that form the headwaters of the mighty Yukon
River until we reach Happy Camp, at the entrance to a ravine. It
has been our longest and most exhausting day of the trek, yet I feel
better at the end of it than any other.
The sun makes a rare, lingering appearance on our fourth
morning, showcasing nature’s wondrous pallet. The trail skirts the
turquoise waters of Long Lake then Deep Lake, and we descend
steadily into the dry boreal forest found across the Yukon. There’s
more downhill than up and the river steadily gains force, plunging
over waterfalls and ploughing through rapids. On our last night,
we camp on the sandy shores of Lindeman Lake, where most of us
choose to strip down to our underwear for an invigorating swim.
It’s our first wash in days, perhaps explaining why the bears have
kept their distance.
At the height of the gold rush, Lindeman City housed 40,000
stampeders. The surrounding forest was stripped of timber to
build boats and buildings and for many, this was the point where
their journey on foot ended. They could float across the lakes
and down the river from here, all the way to Dawson City. Most
continued on to Bennett, however, for between the two lakes lies
a mile of rapids.
GREAT GOLD RUSH WALKS
CHILKOOT TRAIL, USA/CANADA
Chilkoot Trail hikers
near The Scales.

7. 22 | GREAT WALKS OCTOBER_NOVEMBER 2015 AUSTRALIA’S BUSHWALKING MAGAZINE
There’s no such obstacle for us. Most of our last day’s hike is over
exposed rocks, save for a 20-minute slog through a section of the trail
Stewart describes as the “sand from hell”. It’s tough going over that
last section, as our boots sink and the ground shifts beneath our feet.
We arrive at Bennett at 2.30pm. It’s just enough time to prepare
a quick lunch before our chartered floatplanes touch down on the
lake, ready to take us back to Whitehorse. The alternative is to
jump aboard the White Pass & Yukon Route railway service back
to Skagway, which ironically marked the end for the Chilkoot Trail
route when it commenced operations in July 1899. Freight traffic
over the Chilkoot Pass disappeared almost overnight. Lindeman
City was deserted by 1900, and Bennett two years later.
By then the gold rush was running out of steam. After months
of arduous travel through snow and over mountains, the only
discovery most stampeders made was that they were too late. The
best claims had been staked. Like us, by the time they arrived in
Whitehorse, they may as well have gone home.
Great Walks was a guest of Destination Canada and World Expeditions.
NEED TO KNOW
Getting there
Air Canada fly direct from Sydney to Vancouver. In 2016, they will
launch an additional direct service from Brisbane. From Vancouver,
it's a two-hour flight to Whitehorse on Yukon's airline, Air North
(www.flyairnorth.com).
Best time to go
World Expeditions’ seven-day Chilkoot Trail retraces the
stampeders' route over the Chilkoot Pass in the scenically stunning
Alaska and British Columbia before finishing in Whitehorse, Yukon.
Cost is $2,990 per person, excluding international airfares. In
2015, there was only one departure, in July. For 2016 departures
and for further information, look up www.worldexpeditions.com or
call 1300 720 000.
Gear to take
You’ll be carrying all your own gear on your back, bar tents and food.
Wear hiking boots that are suitable for walking through snow and
crossing creeks.
i
GREAT GOLD RUSH WALKS
CHILKOOT TRAIL, USA/CANADA
Hikers on the Long Hill
to the Chilkoot Pass.