"The Yellow Gold Trail"

For the past several days, I've been cogitating.  Or in other words, spending some time attempting to get my mind around some of the events that are the stuff of Alaskan legend and history - pertaining to the famous Gold Rush.

And, I have to admit; it's beginning to feel just a tad frustrating - to be sitting only 14 nautical miles away from an epicenter of the Rush - Scagway, AK - and to still be attempting to work out the logistics of getting there.  However, that's not anything new.  A lot of folk - who have preceded me - have wrestled with the identical dilemma; i.e., how to get to Skagway!!

Actually, persons today have a couple of additional options - than were available over a hundred years ago.  One can, of course, travel - as persons have traveled Alaska for centuries; and, that is - by water.  Many of the early miners came by steamer up the Lynn Canal to Dyea, and then hiked overland - to Scagway.  I'll say more about that in a jiffy!!

Today, additional, available access options exist.  One can either fly to Scagway, or one can drive to Skagway - entering from Canada's Yukon through White Pass.  As I've noted in an earlier note, driving is a 350 mile jaunt from Haines - and, I mean 350 miles one-way; not a round trip!!

So, what is the attraction of Skagway for me?

According to Alaska Magazine, February 2010, "Skagway is home to the only self-sustaining national historic park in the United States" - the U.S. Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park.  As the article further notes, the park consists of four parts: "a visitors center at 117 Main St. in Seattle's Pioneer Square; a six-block historic business district in Skagway; a 17-mile corridor of land following the Chilkoot Trail; and a corridor of land along the White Pass Trail - both routes that Gold Rush prospectors took to the Klondike".

Almost every article that one reads about the Gold Rush, consistently uses a common term.  That is the word, "stampede".  It was a "stampede" of miners who came - seeking their fortune in the gold fields.  And, as one writer, I think, - wryly noted - close behind the miners followed a "stampede of prostitutes"!  To say the least, that creates a vivid mental image to play across the screen of one's mind - does it not?

I know that persons older than I, have hiked the backbone of our Eastern U.S. - the Appalachian Trail.  However, I don't quite see that feat in my future.  Nor, I might add, do my feet!  But the 17 mile Chilkoot Trail - that just might be doable!  When my brother-in-law, who is currently hiking, in segments, the Appalachian Trail, sees this, it won't surprise me, in the least, if he blinks his eyes, and does a double-take!!

But 17 miles over four days?  Even a 71+ year old geezer should be able to get up for that - I think.

The first day is 11.75 miles through the Pacific Northwest Coastal Forest from near sea-level to an elevation of about 900 feet - following the Taiya River, where pink and chum salmon return to spawn.  The trail - as it winds through the floodplain consists, primarily of old-growth Sitka spruce, alder, and tall, black cottonwoods - as the first day ends - at the first night's campsite - Sheep Camp.  That sounds doable, I think.

Serene Halvorson, from whose account, I've gleaned most of this article, states that one thought entertained - as the group arrived into camp - was an attempt to imagine the myriad of tents of "stampeders" - there's that word, again; and what possessed over a 100,000 persons "to risk their lives, haul a ton of goods on their backs, spend their life savings, and leave their families for the remote chance of finding gold".

My guess is that the mining prospectors didn't view their chances as being so "remote".  A "remote chance", is - I think - how our current day historical perspective, enables us to frame - what was the reality, that the miners faced.  What is our common adage about hindsight?  Something about being 20/20 is it not?

The second day's leg is noted as being significantly different from the first day - moving into the alpine tundra - and by midday, having moved to about 2,500 feet elevation.  Not nearly as far - as on the first day - and definitely, not as fast.  Lots of boulder fields, streams, and snowfields; not to mention, the famous, and most difficult part of the Chilkoot Trail - the Golden Staircase!

The Golden Staircase - documented in photos and paintings, and portraying a long, extended line of persons ascending a steep, snow-covered incline - is a "mess of loose boulders, ascending 1,000 feet in a little more than a quarter of a mile".  It's crest marked the Canadian border, where stampeders could enter British Columbia - provided customs officials approved their supplies "against a detailed list of mandatory gear considered essential for survival".

With the requirement being that each person have 2,000 pounds of supplies, does it not speak to the force of both anticipation and determination - to imagine persons, who were ascending and descending the Golden Staircase, repeatedly - up to 30 or 40 times - so as to get their gear and supplies, up and over?

When I read that guides, today, warn "don't look up, because your pack will pull you backward", whether or not this is something in my future - to do - does evoke some second thoughts!  However, knowing that one climb - not multiple climb events - is all that is involved, does place a somewhat, different perspective upon my cogitations!!

The third day is a hike through a different ecosystem - one that is designated a subalpine boreal forest, of alpine fur, lodgepole pine, willow and alder.  It is also an area where moose, wolves, porcupine, and wolverine - as well as ruffed grouse and white-throated sparrows live.  That sounds like a day that would be filled with beauty, and sights that these old eyes have never viewed.

The fourth and final day ends in Bennett, British Columbia, where one has, I'm sure, the welcome luxury of taking a train - the White Pass and Yukon Route Railway - back to Skagway.

For the stampeders who journeyed to Skagway through the White Pass, conditions were such that over 3,000 horses died - undertaking the transporting tasks, to which they were subjected.  Today, negotiating the White Pass by railroad is a journey of "cliff-hanging turns, two tunnels, numerous bridges, trestles, and an elevation descent from 3,000 feet".  Small wonder that this "narrow-gauge railroad wears the honor of being an International Historic Civil Engineering Landmark - an honor it shares with the Eiffel Tower, the Statue of Liberty, and the Panama Canal".

Will I ever hike the Chilkoot Trail?  Some might respond, "only in your dreams, Paul;  only, in your dreams".

Oh, well!!  Whether I'm ever back, to hike the Chilkoot Trail - in fact - or, whether it's just an event - in my dreams, I'll still be sharing a lot, in common, with those old Klondike stampeders.  For, they were dreamers, too.  They knew, quite well, that nothing is ever accomplished - without initially being dreamed, in one's mind and in one's heart.

What feels important to remember and mark - about those long-ago, stampeders - is that they live in story, legend, and song, because they were persons who followed their dreams - dreams of "a yellow gold trail"!!