Hiking the Chilkoot Trail

Quite the day today! But I’ll begin with the rest of yesterday’s evening first. Shrimp Curry with Rice was dinner, and nothing has ever tasted so good. It was cold at camp though, so I headed to our tent shortly after eating. I listened to – and finished – a gorgeous book called We All Want Impossible Things. It’s light here at this time of year until at least 11:30 PM or midnight, and even after that, it isn’t dark-dark until 2 AM-ish. So nights are strange – nothing to do, nowhere to go, but still bright. Audiobooks are the perfect evening activity for me! Did not, thank goodness, have to visit the outhouse in the night.

Slept in this morning until 8 AM-ish and didn’t want to get out of the coziness. I had tossed and turned last night, so I was tired. Breakfast was muesli and a mocha (instant coffee, milk powder, and hot chocolate powder with boiling water). So much more delicious than yesterday morning’s instant eggs on crappy bread and plain instant coffee! Packing up the tent and bags went much more smoothly today than yesterday – we’re learning the ropes.

The morning portion of the hike was mostly single-file through forest, along the rocky top of a rushing river canyon, over hills, and past small lakes. Saw the rusted-out ribs of an ancient small boat on the side of one lake right above some rapids – wild that folks used to go over them in tiny vessels like that. I wonder how many died on this trek.

Arrived at Deep Lake Camp for lunch after about 4.5 km. More delicious chicken instant noodles and an apple, and more getting chilled from sweat after we’d been stopped for a half hour or so. The sky looked a little dark as we headed off again and the wind was chilly – took me a good 10-15 minutes to warm back up and I almost regretted not wearing a jacket as we got going again.

Hiked across a metal bridge over the lake and then up, up, up. Past Long Lake which was a stunning, deep blue-green, rimmed by steep striated rock. The landscape shifted as we climbed higher, leaving the dense Boreal forests behind. Loved the alpine meadow feel of the early afternoon: purple wildflowers, grasses, chunks of flat stone bound by moss making up a trail so lovely it almost seemed paved. Tiny ponds, rock cairns, and the saddest little curvy windswept pines were everywhere (a sight right out of a Dr. Seuss book). On a hard lookout for wild mountain sheep and bears, but the closest I came to seeing anything wild was a few grouse (look just like they do on the whiskey bottle! Ha) and a dark cave that was distinctly bear-shaped. Gave me a start, as the dark hole of the cave against the light rock definitely had me fooled for a moment.

The last few kilometres, mostly downhill, turned rocky and then the trail was pure shale. At first it was “not my favourite terrain” then shortly after that, my absolute kryptonite. I had already fallen once, earlier, when my foot got caught in a narrow crevice between two rocks, and thus stayed put when I took my next step (all good except a skinned palm). I’d also had to gather all my courage to cross a deep stream, picking across widely-spaced rocks, some of which were slanted, slippery, tippy, or all three. But the most difficult part was right before camp when we had to pick our way along a tiny goat track traversing the side of a slope made of tippy shale plates. A misstep would have seen me in the river below.

So much time, spent concentrating SO hard on my balance, got the best of me and I broke down a few minutes before Happy Camp came into view. It was both physically and mentally intense. I’m usually a-okay with my health but every so often, the limitation of my abilities due to my bad balance (thanks to my NF2 tumours) gets frustrating.

All that being said and done… finally got to Happy Camp in one piece, less a few tears. Camp is gorgeous; wooden tent platforms perched on a sunny (today, at least) slope of trees, mosses, grasses, wild blueberry bushes, blooming wildflowers, and streams. Backdrop of towering mountains straight out of an oil painting. All hovering over a calm, shallow part of the wide river. Lightest, palest clear blue water tumbling over white and beige river stones. Gorgeous.

Tent set-up was smooth, and we have our camp arrival priorities down pat now: boots off and camp sandals (pink and purple, to match our tin cups!) on, change into dry clothes, make a clothesline to hang up damp ones, take food and toiletries (“anything smelly!”) to the bear caches, and set up air mattresses and sleeping bags in the tent. This camp has a thick canvas wall tent as a communal shelter, instead of a wood cabin, which is nice because it seems more open and creates more of a community feeling than the dark closed cabins of Bennett and Lindeman.

We enjoyed a well-deserved cup of tea, and some of our group played Yahtzee, while others swam (dunked!) in the river or just hung out. I rolled my sore feet and hip with the ball we brought… painful in a good/necessary way.

Some of our group saw a mama grizzly and her two cubs above camp, but they scampered when Kellie yelled to alert the rest of us. I missed them, unfortunately. It is currently sunny and gorgeous and calm, but I’m feeling a bit quiet still from my emotions of earlier. Looking forward to dinner, and then an early night in the cozy tent.

Tomorrow we summit!