My wife and I walked the Chilkoot Trail this past week with light packs. We took our time with four nights, though we were elated to travel 14 miles the day we went over the pass. That was fueled by the hope of a warm stove in the shelter at the camp in Lindemann City, and a strong desire to avoid camping in snow. The trail is a historic walk covering the steps of the 1898 Stampeders, its not our usual wilderness adventure -- which is in our kayaks and lasts 4 or 5 times as long -- but was fun.

Edited by Umnak on 08/20/2008 22:27:02 MDT.

Thanks for sharing the photos. I hiked that trail as a kid when I was spending the summer in Haines many years ago. I noticed the tarp photos in your Flickr link. You're brave to do it without bug protection. Did you ride the narrow gauge train back to Skagway? That's a great ride. I was just mentioning to my wife last week that I would like to make a 2 week vacation out of riding the AK Marine Hwy ferry up from Washington, hike the Chilkoot trail, and then catch the ferry back. My next dream vacation.

The pics are fantastic...but the eagle pic is spectacular!

That eagle wanted to land on me. There were a lot of them in Dutch Harbor last January, almost as many as there are now here in Juneau with the coming of the salmon.

Edited by Umnak on 09/01/2008 22:25:02 MDT.

I know this thread is a few years old, but I'll be doing this same trip next month and would love to hear more about any experiences there. We are also taking 4 days and going in late July. I've heard it can be quiet rainy and am wondering if I should take my down bag, or the synthetic which weighs a few oz more.

I've looked for other Chilkoot threads on this site but haven't come across any. If you know of any others I'd love to have the link!

Awesome pictures by the way!!!!