the chilkoot trail was the most-traveled route into the yukon where gold was discovered at the end of the 19th century.today, the chilkoot is "the longest museum in the world"--spanning 33 miles over the chilkoot pass at 4,000 feet.
greg & i just returned from hiking this great little trail. all along the way are old telegraph wires, old cable cars, rusted-out boat bodies, & cemeteries of opportunistic gold-hunters. the depression of the 1890s seems to have made enough people desperate enough that going to the yukon goldfields seemed like the best idea. whew.
the trail, as you can see from the map, crosses into british columbia--and the canadian mounties required that people carried, literally, a ton of supplies into canada. so sometimes people made up to 50 trips over the pass--which, by the way, was covered in snow last week. they were crazy.
so, now, the trees have finally recovered from being absolutely destroyed--the land was stripped so that the goldrushers (also called stampeders) could build boats and head down the headwaters of the yukon on the other side of the pass.
pictures greg took'll come later. we had a good time, even though we had to buddy up with 3 other people. and now we own a tent. funny.
1 comment:
cool dugan! that's something i'd like to do someday. we're still trucking on through ontario. we met a man biking this afternoon that offered us to stay at his house for the night. i'm using his computer now. nice hospitality! i can't wait to see you.
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