They are celebrating at Happy Camp every night this time of year. It’s high season.
If you’ve never been, check this trip report / article and photos from guru Peter Potterfield on Great Outdoors:
The rocky slope is dusted with light snow and coated with freezing rain. I take one more big step—slowly and carefully–and then another. Here, on the steepest part of this storied route, the next step is the only one that matters. These are the so called Golden Stairs leading to Chilkoot Pass, and a similar caution must have been the mantra of hardy miners who plied this cruel slope in 1898. Here, the most trying section of the long ascent climbs steeply up past the “Scales,†the historic rocky ledge where miners had to prove they carried the requisite weight of equipment and supplies to pass muster with the Mounties.
Both sides of the trail are littered with rusting relics, equipment the miners jettisoned out of exhaustion. Even today, the offal of their back-breaking burdens remains, strewn along the way, giving the trail an authentic aroma of human struggle. But these treasure seekers weren’t the first to use this great trail. One of the few glacier-free corridors through the intimidating Coast Range of British Columbia, the Yukon and Alaska, the Chilkoot Pass had for centuries been a crucial trade route for the native peoples of the coast. And now it remains one of the most interesting backcountry routes in North America. …
Want to go?
Check our information page on The Chilkoot Trail – besthike.com
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