Chilkoot Trail

The Chilkoot Trail is the famed Alaskan gold rush trail that thousands would hike over on there route to Dawson city in 1890's. Several cities, bridges, dams were built to accommodate but it was short lived. The White Pass Rail Road was built in Skagway and made the trail and cities obsolete.
Today it is a popular hiking trail. About three thousand people hike it ever year.
After work on Saturday I had to catch several of my friends that left earlier in the day. I was by myself and cranked it up the trail. I was slowed down by the Game Wardens wife which told me that fast hikers could do it in 5.5 hours and that I'd better have a good head lamp because it was going to get dark. That was around 5 pm. I knew I could make good time and turned into Sheep Camp at 9 pm. An hour before the sun went down. I was able to hike the 13 miles in 4 hours and 45 min.
The next morning we had the hardest section of the Chilkoot Trail which is the Golden Staircase. When the pioneers went through the pass they carved ice steps into the steep pass to make it over. Lucky for us it was summer but the weather wasn't that great. As we got closer to the summit the clouds were getting thicker and thicker and by the time we hit the Golden Staircase we were getting pounded with thick rain. I was leading at this time and when I reached the summit I was completely soaked and to cold to wait, I continued down the trail. After some time I could see 2 members of our group in the distance so I found a larger rock to hide behind and waited for them to come. We continued to hike to Happy Camp. I was curious before the trip why it was called so and I knew why. There was a warming hut there and we were the first ones in camp to use it. This was very uplifting for our drenched bodies. We added one hiker to our group, Chris from Poland who gave us good company for the remainder of our trip.
We were able to dry out a lot of our gear and headed to our camp in Deep lake. We logged another 10 miles that day and we're the last group to leave Sheep Camp and the first ones over and done. We were all happy with our efforts this day and ate a lot of food around the dinner table and exchanged a lot of stories.
The next morning we woke up at 5 am to be on the trail by 6. We had the final 10 miles to finish the total 33 miles to Bennet Lake. We were all ready to make it back and put up a good pace of 3 mph. We arrived at lake Bennet at 10:00 am, 4 hours before the train would be leaving back to Skagway. Lucky for us (not knowing) they serve hot food at the train station special for back packers. We had all you could eat ma & pa food!! All but smiles around the table.

Since I've gotten to Skagway I've heard a lot about the Chilkoot Trail. It was really cool to re-walk the paths of the pioneers and to enjoy the beautiful Alaskan backcountry.
Unfortunately, doing the marathon a week earlier and the 33 miles of the Chilkoot have left my knees extremely sore. I will be taking a break to recuperate for a few days and then start cycling again. I'm excited to compete in the next two triathlons in September!