Chilkoot Trail Planning

Chilkoot Pass

We hiked the Chilkoot the last weekend of July 2012. Pre-planning is a big part of a successful trip.

It is a busy hike so it is a good idea to look a long way into the season…so here are some hints.

The trail is 53 km long…horizontal measurement. The trail is no way horizontal with an elevation gain of 3600 feet and many ups and downs along the way.

Trail booking begins in February. Things to consider…

When you book you have to book the campgrounds you intend to stay at each night.

We took five days and stayed at Canyon City, Sheep Camp, Happy Camp and Bare Loon Lake.

Each day was about 10 – 13 km…that was about enough hiking for one day and gave us the opportunity to enjoy each day. We did meet people who were doing it faster but…really, what is the point. We stayed at Canyon City the first day as we got an early start that day for hiking. If you were going to start later in the day, Finnigan’s Point may be were you want to camp.

You need to work backwards….that being the trail finishes at Bennett train station. The only way out is to take the train and some days the train runs north to Carcross and some days it runs south to Log Cabin or Skagway. Depending on your transportation after the hike and where you plan on going will determine the day you end. It is coordinated that if you go to Carcross, there is a bus back to Skagway the same day.

The trail itself is fairly regulated. It is a National Park on both sides of the border. US National Park Service on the American side and Parks Canada on the Canadian side. There is no customs at the summit….you are to phone Customs when you get back to Canada.

Campsites are regulated too…given the number of people who hike the trail, this is a good idea. Each campsite has designated tent areas. Sheep Camp, Canyon City and Bare Loon Lake have actual tent platforms. Each site also has a cooking tent. Cooking food must be done at or around the cooking tents to limit the area that may attract bears…there is no cooking allowed at the tent pads. Each campground also has bear boxes…steel boxes to put your food in at night.

You are required to attend an orientation at the US Parks Office in Skagway prior to your trip. They will tell you all the things you need to know prior to the hike, give you your pass and check your passport. Be prepared…they will also tell you all the things that could go wrong…weather, bears etc…you will find yourself shopping afterwards picking up all the things you didn’t need.

We were fortunate enough to have great weather…only three hours of rain the whole five days…this is not normal.

It was a wonderful, fulfilling fives days. I will post a more detail trip log.

Hiking the Crack Killarney Provincial Park

The Chilkoot is a month away so some serious training is required. I was thinking about a hike in Ontario that would be similar to going over the Chilkoot summit and thought about "The Crack" at Killarney Provincial Park.

It is only 6 km but has a 1200 ft change in elevation. So..on Saturday, we headed to the Park

The first bit was fairly easy. We loaded our packs full so we could get a sense of the weight we were going to be carrying.

Nice lakes along the way. White mountains in the background

The first significant climb....

Steeper still.....

  Looking up at the Crack

 Lots of splintered rocks

 ...now it was getting steep....

....and through the last uphill and the crack

 ...Great view!

 Lessons learned....put more weight in Linda's pack.....

Protect the Peel Watershed

The following is an open letter to the Premier of the Yukon. The Yukon Government announced last week that they intend to open the Peel Watershed for mining even though consultation and recommendation for protection has taken place over that past number of years. The Yukon's Peel River Watershed is one of the largest and most beautiful intact natural areas left in North America and located in the north east corner of the Yukon. I paddled the Bonnet Plume in the early '80s with Cath Constable, Robin Trudel and Mike MacMillian.


Make a difference at www.protectpeel.ca

Open letter to Yukon Premier Darrell Pasloski:

I feel compelled to write today after reading news of your government’s position with respect to the Peel watershed. I have followed this issue from afar for some time now.

“From afar” being small town Ontario. I am not a Yukoner anymore but spent a number of years living in Whitehorse and Carcross. I also had the opportunity to paddle the Bonnet Plume in the early ‘80s. We flew into Bonnet Plume Lake, still covered with breaking ice and spent 16 days paddling the swollen river to Fort McPherson. We saw lots of wildlife, stunning peaks and absorbed the beauty of that flowing river. We also saw a whole lot of abandoned 45-gallon drums from previous mining exploration. I know firsthand the beauty of this land, the tranquil and the violent flow of that river and the peace and sense of accomplishment in doing a river trip like this.

I understand your responsibilities as the premier with respect to growing the economy, providing jobs for Yukoners and increasing the level of quality of life for all the people of the Yukon. But at what cost? I understand the mining activity in the Yukon at present is doing fairly well. I am not opposed to mining. In fact, I worked in mining exploration for most of the time I was in the Yukon. You may refer to me as an Outsider, someone from the South, and that not being a Yukoner, I should not have any say in how this land is developed.

My answer to that is that I am a Canadian. I am certain there are lots of Canadians and former Yukoners who recognize the value in protecting land for future generations.

There is a park just south of where I live called Queen Elizabeth II Wildlands Provincial Park. It is less than two hours from Toronto and, as there are no road access points into the land, likely receives fewer visitors than the Peel watershed. It is a piece of land protected. It has been set aside so that future generations can enjoy a space of natural beauty as the surrounding lands become more developed. It also contains the headwaters for various water systems. I have never been there. Whether I ever go see this park is really irrelevant Ð it is the fact that spaces like this exist that is comforting. There is something very Canadian about that.

There will come a time when the value of the protected land will exceed the value of what is in the ground.

I ask that you move cautiously on any decisions on the Peel watershed. Think in terms of investment on the long term. Think how your grandchildren would view action taken today. You now have an opportunity to create a legacy for all Yukoners and all Canadians. Please do not take this responsibility lightly.

David Raithby

Muskoka Falls, Ontario

The Peel River Canyon.

Pooley Canyon, Windy Arm

 Windy Arm of Tagish lake has a long mining history.
Dan Kemble and his son Wes talked Rob Macdonald, Dick Eastmure and myself into a hike to the old mine site in Pooley Canyon. Big hike...a couple of thousand feet up...hands and knees stuff...and a steep drop into the Pooley Canyon and the Vaults mine site.
The mine operated for about 10 years...until the price of silver dropped. At the base of the moutain was a small town named after the mining promoter, John Conrad. The town had about 200 inhabitants, stores, churches, hotels, restaurants, baths and laundry, a post office, a mining recorder's office as well as regular steamboat service from Carcross. There was talk at one time of extending the White Pass line to Conrad.

 One steep climb....even for the goats.

Rest spot half way up.

You can see a tiny waterfall center right of photo. To get there we still need to go up a few hundred feet before we can drop into the Pooley Canyon

Center photo...old tramway tower. Cost $80,000 to build in 1905. It was to run 18,697 feet from a small bay on Windy Arm, just north of the mouth of Montana Creek, to the Mountain Hero claim, 3,464 feet above the level of the lower terminal. Crossing over two canyons, the tramway was designed with the longest span between towers in the world, 2,960 feet. The tram had carts to carry the ore as well as single seats for the miners to ride up to the work site....the first ski lift!

 

Looking down into Pooley and the mine site at the waterfall.

The creek that flows down Pooley Canyon starts behind Montana Mtn.

 Looking out the cabin window down the valley.

The view down to Windy Arm. One steep Canyon....easy to see the only way into the canyon is to get above it and drop in.

Still standing....old tram tower.

Fall Falls...High Falls and Little High Falls

Kirk Wipper

Kirk Albert Walter Wipper

Since I heard the news of Kirk’s passing, I have been thinking a lot of Kandalore and the influences that special place had on my character. It has been over 30 years since I was last there but the memories flowed in like a warm tide. Kirk may most be remembered as a U of T professor or for starting the Canadian Canoe Museum or his devotion to camping life but I most remember him as the guy who ran Camp Kanalore.

I was a little homesick camper in 1968 when I first arrived for a months stay. Looking back, I think that Kirk was the first adult I addressed by his first name…he wasn’t Mr Wipper…he was Kirk.

The focus was always tripping. Even at 9 we went on a three day canoe trip. It was a loop up to Shelborne and Little Hawk Lake and the dreaded Saskatchewan portage. In later years it was the Montreal River with Jim Raffin, the Kipawa with Terry Thomas and Dave Fallis, Maple Mountain, a gruelling trip down the Nipissing in Algonquin Park and a survival trip out of Garden Island with Muldoon.

Other thoughts of camp life have been rolling in my mind. Johnny Cake and Yorgan’s Revenge. Indian Council ring. Being a Voyageur! Dressed in our whites walking single file and silently to Chapel Island. Last night fires. The promise of Free Tuck! Changing the flags as a CIT in the tower at the waterfront. The Ghost!

I also remember campers and staff. Geoff and Dave Moon. The Lyon brothers. Frank Fadore, Dave Coffee. Fellow Muskokan George Anderson. Dave Brown and many, many others.

Kandalore was Kirk’s place. It was his agenda and he set the tone. As a young lad, you couldn’t ask for a better role model or a better place to spend your summers.

I have three boys who have all experience summer camp. My youngest is a LIT this coming summer. The value of summer camp is unquestionable. Learning to live in a group, picking up camping skills or just sitting around a fire telling stories are memories that I, and my kids, will carry forever.

I only saw Kirk once in the last thirty years. I do wish I had told him the impact Kandalore had on my life. I will be forever greatful.

March break get a way

Took a couple of days off work and headed to the cottage.

There is no road access in the winter but the ice is still good and thick so it was an easy walk down the lake.

A couple of days of doing nothing…reading, eating and drinking wine.

Went for a nice walk on Friday. The only thing skidoos are good for is building a good base to walk in the woods. The skidoo trial was as wide as a road. I googled earthed it when I got home and it looks like an old logging road that goes way back into the crown land….looks like a spring mtn bike trip to see where it goes.

Even had a very rare March thunderstorm on Thursday night!

On the way home, we dropped in and had dinner with friends in Parry Sound and we to the Stockey Centre to see Joel Plaskett.