Hiking the Chilkoot Trail – Day 2

Day 2 August 3 – My 60th birthday

What a birthday present, day 2 was the hardest day of the hike. It was only 12 kms to Happy Camp but it was no joke. They kept telling us that it will take 8 – 12 hours to hike from Sheep Camp to Happy Camp. That seemed like a long time for only 12 kms. At home I can cover 12 kms in about 2.5 hours. It is about 5.5 kms to the summit from Sheep Camp. The first 4 kms to The Scales are not that bad although you do climb about 460 meters. It took up about 2.5 hours just to get to the scales. This area is called the scales because everything was weighed at this point to make sure they had the proper amount of gear. Also some of the local native were employed with hauling the gear up the pass so they wanted to make sure of the weight. They got paid $1.00/lb which was a huge amount in 1989.

From the scales to the summit was only about 1.5 kms but you gain about 230 meters in elevation and this was the was the most difficult part for me. You put your trekking poles in your pack, put on your gloves, and scramble up a wall of rocks. This is called The Golden Staircase. There are 3 false summits. What that means is when you get to what you think is the top it is not the top there is more to go. That happens 3 times. Thankfully we were aware of this so it didn’t discourage us to much. It took up 2 hours to climb that 1.5 kms to the summit. To say I was tired would be a gross understatement. I was exhausted. I had spent many hours out on the trails at home preparing for this trip but it was not nearly enough. Joseph was having a much better time of it and kept encouraging me along the way.

Since we camp and climb with a lot of the same people on the trail you start to build a bit of a relationship with the other hikers. This was actually kind of fun. I thought having many people on the trail would be weird but it was fun because you started to get to know people not by their names but where they are from. We met people from Ukraine, France, Quebec, St Albert, Whitehorse, Skagway, and may other places I can’t remember. Joseph made sure they all knew it was my birthday so everyone on the trail kept wishing me a happy birthday as they passed us. We got passed a lot. At the warming hut at the summit someone said “I hope I can hike this when I am 60” so that made me feel a bit better. Most of the hikers were younger I only met 2 others my age one was 63 and the other 66. They both looked like I felt.

Once we reached the summit we still had about 7 kms to go to get to Happy Camp. It was a lot easier from here on in however since I was already spent it was still a difficult 7 kms. Lots of up and down and rocks and riverbeds and the scenery along the way was spectacular. We did finally make it to Happy Camp and it was very good to be there. It took us 10 hours to hike the 12 kms from Sheep Camp to Happy camp.