No single image better conjures the human drama of the 1898 gold
rush than the lines of prospectors struggling over the Chilkoot
Trail , a 53-kilometre path over the Coast Mountains between
Dyea , north of Skagway in Alaska, and Bennett Lake
on the British Columbian border south of Whitehorse. Before the
rush, Dyea was a small village of Chilkat Tlingit, who made annual
trade runs over the trail to barter fish oil, clamshells and dried
fish with the Tutchone, Tagish and other interior Dene peoples in
exchange for animal hides, skin clothing and copper. The Chilkat
jealously guarded access to the Chilkoot Pass (1122m), the
key to the trail and one of only three glacier-free routes through
the Coast Mountains west of Juneau. Sheer numbers and a show of
force from a US gunboat, however, opened the trail to stampeders,
who used it as a link between the ferries at the Pacific Coast
ports and the Yukon River, which they then rode to the gold fields
at Dawson City.
For much of 1897 the pass and border were disputed by the US and
Canada until the Canadian NWMP (Northwest Mounted Police)
established a storm-battered shack at the summit and enforced the
fateful "ton of goods" entry requirement. Introduced because of
chronic shortages in the gold fields, this obliged every man
entering the Yukon to carry a ton of provisions - and, though it
probably saved many lives in the long run, the rule laid enormous
hardship on the back of the stampeders. Weather conditions and the
trail's fifty-degree slopes proved too severe even for horses or
mules, so that men had to carry supplies on their backs over as
many as fifty journeys to move their "ton of goods". Many died in
avalanches or lost everything during a winter when temperatures
dropped to -51°C and 25m of snow fell. Even so, the lure of gold
was enough to drag some 22,000 prospectors over the pass.
These days most people off the ferries from Prince Rupert and
the Alaska Panhandle make the fantastic journey across the
mountains by car or Gray Line bus on Hwy 2 from Skagway to
Whitehorse . This route parallels that taken by the restored
White Pass & Yukon Route railway (WP&YR; mid-May to
mid-Sept 1 daily; Skagway-White Pass by train then connecting bus
to Whitehorse; $95; tel 983-2217 or 1-800/343-7373,
www.whitepassrailroad.com ), originally built to supersede
the Chilkoot Trail. Increasing numbers, however, are walking the
old trail, which has been laid out and preserved by the Canadian
Parks Service as a long-distance hikers route . Its great
appeal lies not only in the scenery and natural habitats - which
embrace coastal rainforest, tundra and subalpine boreal woodland -
but also in the numerous artefacts like old huts, rotting boots,
mugs and broken bottles still scattered where they were left by the
prospectors.
The trail is well marked, regularly patrolled and generally fit
to walk between about June and September, though throughout June
you can expect snow on the trail. Most people hike the trail in
three or four days and if you're moderately fit it shouldn't be a
problem, but there are dangers from bears, avalanches, drastic
changes of weather and exhaustion - there's one twelve-kilometre
stretch, for example, for which you're advised to allow twelve
hours. Almost everyone hikes from south to north.
Although there are three warming huts on the trail, these
aren't designed for sleeping in, and you'll be making use of the
nine approved campsites spaced at intervals along the trail:
no rough camping is allowed.