Whitehorse, Yukon territory.
In Whitehorse, I meet with friends from travels in Peru. I am here to walk the Chilkoot trail which an historic goldmining trail which allowed access from Alaska to the Canadian gold fields.
I am in Whitehorse mainly as a means to get to the Chilkoot Trail and visit some friends.
My friends are Julia and her aunt Candace. I met them in Peru 2010: which was an interesting tale in itself. See my blog here for the detail. In brief we were on a walk to Aguas Calientes (gateway town to Machu Picchu) where a bridge was washed out. We had to cross by a trolley on a wire and I nearly missed a train because I let them in before me. We've kept in contact since.
I've had it in the back of my mind to do the Chilkoot trail since 1995 when I visited Skagway with my wife on an Alaskan inside passage cruise. We stopped at Bennet lake as it was the termination of the historic train trip (White Pass and Yukon Route). This train halted the arduous miner's traverse of the Chilkoot trail and opened up the interior of the Yukon.
The train is the same, and indeed the station at Bennet. The cruises are substantially larger and more frequent than the one we went on. When a ship comes into to town it will flood the town with up to and over 5000 people, especially if there is more than one vessel.
The Chilkoot trail is one of a few major entries into the Yukon Klondike gold rush - Wikipedia will provide more detail. It is a 33 mile trail, and famous as the miners had to take a year of provisions which weighed a ton or more up the pass from the US entry into Canada per the laws of Canada. Basically this was imposed in order to prevent people dying due to the privations imposed by the extreme winters. (pictured is the load simulation in the Bennet station museum) We are following the footsteps of those souls, luckily we had good weather, but I can imagine how tough it would be should the weather gods change their tune.
To do this walk you need to book it, especially in the high season (we were on the shoulder). This is done via Parks Canada. I was fortunate that Candace did a lot of preliminary enquiry for me - here is a brief. "talked to them... looks like we have to be on bus to Skagway @7.30 on AM on 19th...get there, do orientation then start go to Finnegan's point.3 hours. Next day to Sheep Camp, have to leave Sheep @6 am to be at top of pass noon latest due to avalanche go on to Happy Camp. Bearloon Lake on 22nd.. hike 3-4 hours to catch 11 am train next morning for Whitehorse No train on Monday... I'll call back to book tomorrow if you are ok with this"
Our first effort was to get to Skagway from Whitehorse. There is a bus service. Nobody knows where the bus is, not even the web site we booked it from ! Somehow we managed to catch it, as Whitehorse is a small town. We did, however come close to missing the bus as in their wisdom they left 1/2 an hour earlier than the scheduled time (not many people and they need to do some hotel and other pick ups !). The building with the billboard 'White Pass & Yukon Route' situated by the river is also the bus station for those who wish to know.
The bus trip was pleasant enough, it is actually a tour as well. A stop is at the town Carcross and spiel is provided along the way about the Klondike miners and other historical details. As an aside: it was funny - the lady bus driver was all officious and dutiful on the Canadian side, but as soon as most of the passengers left for their side trips it all changed: no longer were we required to wait for a special step before leaving the bus and her demeanor was more relaxed.
As an Australian I had to pay a further $6 US border as for some reason the 'ESTA' is for sea or air entry and not land. Go figure. We also had to register our walk and attend a special talk in Skagway: the bear briefing and other details. (It was actually quite informative.)
Read on for the walk itself.
- Previous Page: Stanley Park, a pleasant way to bide time.
- Next Page: Chilkoot Trail - Finnegan's Point
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