Tuesday afternoon brought us to the Chilkoot’s base camp, Sheep Camp. From here, it can take ten to twelve hours to get to the next camp after climbing the pass, the most grueling day of the trek. It’s that long day which makes the Chilkoot trail such a challenge.

Sheep Camp is built on a hill with platforms for tents. The outhouses are quite a climb up a rocky path, the kind you don’t want to stumble around on in the middle of the night! Our guides were very attentive to the needs of their lady guests and quickly pointed out the path to the river so we could get cleaned up. 🙂 Dinner was chili and mashed potatoes, then a ranger came to brief us on the day ahead.

We had to cross this bridge after Pleasant Camp. Fun!

Until a few years ago, Sheep Camp was located about a half hour closer to Pleasant Camp. It was relocated after the site was flooded out several times. This is great because it shortens the hike over the pass.

Ranger station about ten minutes from Sheep Camp

Sheep Camp cabin. There are artifacts and reproductions of gold rush journals inside.

Tent platform (loved these!)

Amusing reading material found inside the cabin. Current magazines, too. Was someone trying to shed excess weight before going over the pass? 🙂

Our second morning of hiking took us through the gold rushers’ least favourite section of the trail as it requires you to hike up and down through several gullies which were apparently quite muddy at the time. The day starts off rudely with a steep section of trail and doesn’t let up until Pleasant Camp, thus named because it is located at the first pleasant stretch of trail since Canyon City. We had lunch right on the beach.

nowhere to go but UP

We occasionally broke out of the forest to areas with great views.

Telegraph wire!

This route was mostly used in winter. Gold rushers would push sleds over the frozen river and created a ladder system to go up waterfalls.

This regrowth marks the site of the original Pleasant Camp.

Park ranger checking our permit as we set up for lunch on the beach.

Pleasant Camp beach

We got our water from whatever clear source was on our path. This ceramic filter gets all of the potential bacteria out of the water. The result is cold and delicious. We never had warm or stale water on the trek, nor did we ever have to carry more than a litre at a time.

It was suggested we buy one litre wide mouth Nalgene bottles, which fit the filters perfectly. Screw it on and spend about a minute pumping to get your litre of water. It’s good for the biceps! Remember to alternate arms!

The rest of the first day of hiking was quite easy and we reached Canyon City mid-afternoon, covering a total distance of about 12km (7.5mi). This was my favourite campground, with private sites along the Taiya River. Camp routine hadn’t set in yet, but was starting. After setting up our tents, we all stripped down to wash off the day’s grime while our guides boiled hot water for afternoon drinks.

We had a pleasant afternoon at Canyon City and after dinner we hiked a few more klicks (without our packs!) to the site of the gold rush era Canyon City to see a few artifacts. This involved crossing a suspension bridge, something that I can now do without any fear or hesitation whatsoever. How far I’ve come since last September!

During each hiking segment we would take one ‘packs off break.’ This afternoon, the weather was tropical, so many of us dipped our head coverings in this glacial water!

Our first taste of alpine-like geography, but it didn’t last long and we were soon back in rain forest.

A cabin built by Canadian inmates in the late 60’s and 70’s; most campgrounds had one of these. The inmates were responsible for creating most of the modern trail and a lot of its current infrastructure.

The bedroom.

The bathroom.

The living room (in the cabin).

All but one of the campgrounds now has these bear-proof lockers so hikers no longer have to swing their food bags over high poles.

Mark and Victor making our first dinner. They were good cooks! Here, they’re making creamy garlic pasta with fresh bell peppers and broccoli.

Composting outhouses, hence why they’re up high.

Crossing a very wobbly suspension bridge while holding on to a mug of tea in one hand and taking a picture with the other. How far I’ve come acrophobia-wise in a year, LOL!

This stove would have been in a restaurant at Canyon City during the gold rush. A typical menu was bread, beans, and bacon.

close up of a baking pan (so neat that such details survive!)

This boiler operated an aerial tramway from Canyon City to an area past the pass called the Stone Crib. Goods could be transported easily over the pass using this system that was put out of use when the White Pass rail road was constructed. The cost of using the air tram was competitive to that of using packers to get over the pass on foot. (Oh, and I was having fun with the sepia setting on the camera!)

Last post left us at the trailhead in Dyea. Let’s pause for a bit and talk about who ‘we’ are. ‘We’ are a group of seven, five guests and two guides, Mark and Victor, from Sea to Sky Expeditions, based in Delta, BC (near Vancouver). There are only a handful of outfitters with permits for the Chilkoot Pass and I picked Sea to Sky for two reasons:

1) They are the only outfitters who start in Whitehorse and return guests to Whitehorse. All others start in Skagway and return to Skagway;

2) Their itinerary provides an extra night on the trail so the trip is less rushed.

I was extremely pleased with my experience with Sea to Sky and look forward to taking another trip with them in the future!

Back to Dyea:

Our guides made sure we started off on the right foot by feeding us a fabulous breakfast of fresh blueberries topped with vanilla yoghurt as well as muffins. Hot drinks were up to us, with hot water provided first thing each morning. When filling out our pre-trip paperwork, we had to state what sorts of hot drinks we wanted and I had asked for coffee in the morning and herbal tea in the evening so I did not have to go into caffeine withdrawal on this trip. 🙂

We set off at about 8:30, with a quick stop at the Chilkoot trailhead sign for a group photo and then the adventure finally began!

The meanest miles in history show their true colours just a few feet from the trailhead with challenging ‘Saintly Hill’ (ha!) that tests hikers even before they are warmed up. Once up that slippery mass of earth, roots, and rocks, it’s fairly easy trekking through marshland to the first campground, Finnigan’s Point, where we had lunch.

the group, minus our guide Mark who has hiked this trail at least 19 times!

the summit of Saintly Hill

walking on water

obviously not a gold rush relic 🙂

typical shelter at a US Chilkoot campground (used only for eating or getting warm in bad weather, not for sleeping)

Irene Glacier seen from Finnigan’s Point