vapourtrails.ca

After a great vacation up North, we’re back. But I’m left wondering why? Was it the traffic we missed? The heat? The crowds of people? It’s nice to be home, but I already miss the simplicity of being on the trail or on the road, far from phones and e-mail and everyday worries.

The Chilkoot Trail was a fantastic hike and has become my all-time favourite. There are many stories to tell and I haven’t even begun to sort through the 600+ pictures we took on that trip. I’ll probably set up a small website to cover it rather than try to cram everything in here.

Along with some great camping and fun in the Yukon, we also crossed off another item on the “have to do” list: a flight-seeing tour of some of the lower glaciers in Kluane’s St. Elias range. Words fail to describe the experience of soaring above those jagged ridges and massive ice fields in a little 5-seater Cessna. That flight alone probably accounts for a quarter of the photos we took. Stay tuned, there should be some good ones.

And now back to life in the city. At least I brought back some of that Yukon Gold.

The Chilkoot Trail is probably the most enduring icon of the Klondike Gold Rush. Until the neighbouring White Pass Railway was built in 1899, it was the main route into the Yukon for those hoping to strike it rich. Making it up and over this steep and challenging climb was complicated by the North West Mounted Police: everyone coming over the pass were required to bring one ton of supplies in order to survive in this wilderness region. For some, that meant up to 30 trips - fully loaded with gear - over the frozen pass. Ironically, few of these hardy stampeders struck it rich since the best stakes had already been claimed long before the word got out.
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