{"id":7956,"date":"2019-02-06T19:26:24","date_gmt":"2019-02-06T19:26:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/?p=7956"},"modified":"2022-10-22T23:45:32","modified_gmt":"2022-10-22T23:45:32","slug":"remembering-the-chilkoot-trail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/?p=7956","title":{"rendered":"Remembering the “Chilkoot &^%$# Trail!”"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

The “Chilkoot Trail<\/a>” isn’t really a trail, it’s just “one big pile of &%#@ rocks after another!!!<\/strong>“<\/em><\/p>\n

* \u00a0 * \u00a0 * \u00a0 *<\/p>\n

Back in 2016, my brother, nephew and I hiked the\u00a0Chilkoot Trail<\/a>.\u00a0 People call it “the meanest 33 miles in history<\/a>,” and I found out why – the hard way.\u00a0 After that adventure, my nephew – just out of the Army – headed back east to start the fall term at Penn State<\/a>.\u00a0 My brother and I went on to take two canoes “up” the Yukon River – paddling 440 miles in 12 days.<\/p>\n

Once back home I posted\u00a0\u201cNaked lady on the Yukon<\/a>,\u201d on August 28, 2016.\u00a0 (The events of that trip were still fresh in my mind, for one reason or another.)\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>I later posted\u00a0Chilkoot &^%$# Trail! \u2013 Part 1<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Chilkoot &^%$# Trail! \u2013 Part 2<\/a>,\u00a0on September 7, 2016.<\/p>\n

I guess I’ll have to revisit\u00a0\u201cNaked lady<\/a>\u201d in more\u00a0depth later on.\u00a0(Deep sigh.)\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>But for now it’s enough\u00a0 to say:<\/p>\n

I just got back from two weeks canoeing the Yukon River…\u00a0 And the \u201cmighty Yukon\u201d is the last place on earth I would expect to see a [naked] lady\u00a0sun bathing<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0But one moment, out of nowhere, there she was\u2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

You can see the full story in the\u00a08\/28\/16<\/a>\u00a0post.\u00a0 But for the\u00a0metaphorical<\/a>\u00a0lead picture above left, you’ll have to imagine no sand.\u00a0\u00a0“(And no ‘Bikini Bottom<\/a>,’ for that matter.)”<\/em><\/p>\n

Which brings us back to the “Chilkoot &^%$# Trail!”<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

* \u00a0 * \u00a0 * \u00a0 *<\/p>\n

The “Chilkoot” starts in\u00a0Dyea, Alaska<\/a>.\u00a0 And\u00a0Dyea<\/a>\u00a0is pronounced \u201cDIe-eeee,\u201d maybe\u00a0prophetically<\/a>. \u00a0(Like, \u201cthat\u2019s what you feel like doing once you get on the<\/em>\u00a0&$%# Trail!\u201d)\u00a0 <\/em>It ends\u00a0in\u00a0Bennett, British Columbia<\/a>.\u00a0 That’s where you end up waiting, a long afternoon, with other hikers who’ve shared your ordeal.\u00a0(Of four days or more.)\u00a0<\/em> There’s only one train, at 3:15 in the afternoon, so all the footsore hikers get a chance to sit on something besides rocks, and pitch their tents to dry out.<\/p>\n

Which brings up the fact that the number of hikers is strictly limited; you have to get a special permit to even start<\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0 And they keep track of who gets where and when.<\/p>\n

Like on the second afternoon – on the way to “Happy Camp,” seen in part at right.\u00a0 That late afternoon I was “dragging tail” and the light started fading, so a nice lady ranger came out to help me, along with a nice husky young gent who carried my pack the rest of the way.*<\/p>\n

That’s when I\u00a0experienced the\u00a0phantom pack<\/a>\u00a0phenomenon.\u00a0 It’s not unlike the “phantom limb” sensation, but leaves you weaving and rolling like a\u00a0drunken sailor.<\/p>\n

That was one time I got to \u201cif I could have cried I would.\u201d \u00a0(Hey, I\u2019m\u00a0secure in my masculinity<\/a>.) \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Another thing:\u00a0 The nice lady ranger felt so bad for me she let us three stay in her private facility – the one above right – which meant we didn’t have to pitch our tents in the dark.\u00a0 (She also gave us juice boxes, like “heaven on earth.”\u00a0 I could have sworn they were raisin juice, but my older brother later said raisins are just dried-up grapes. It may have been the delirium, or the relief…)<\/em><\/p>\n

Another excuse?\u00a0 “Hiking the Chilkoot Trail is sheer torture for someone \u2013 like me \u2013 with only one good eye and and thus no\u00a0depth perception<\/a>.”\u00a0 (For more detail see the February 2017 post,\u00a0On that nail in my right eye<\/a>.)\u00a0 <\/em>So my word of advice:\u00a0 If you have only one good eye and no depth perception, take it slow and easy, and be ready to let the other hikers pass you by.<\/p>\n

More good advice:\u00a0 Anyone hiking the trail is advised that if they have to get airlifted out – like for a twisted ankle or such – the cost will be a cool $28,000.00. \u00a0Which brings up another point rangers make in the process of getting your permit to hike the trail: \u00a0Watch out for the bears!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

A historical note:\u00a0 The Chilkoot’s claim to fame started with the\u00a0Klondike Gold Rush<\/a>\u00a0of\u00a01896\u201399.\u00a0 That \u201ctransformed the Chilkoot Trail into a mainstream transportation route to Canada\u2019s interior.\u201d\u00a0 Also,\u00a0the only other\u00a0route to the gold fields was through\u00a0White Pass<\/a>. \u00a0(Up to 1899, when a railroad was built from Skagway to the Yukon.)<\/em>\u00a0 \u00a0So which route was better?\u00a0 Pioneer Mont Hawthorne<\/a>\u00a0said there wasn’t much difference: \u00a0\u201cOne\u2019s hell. \u00a0The other\u2019s damnation<\/em><\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"13Another side note: \u00a0White Pass was also called\u00a0\u201cDead Horse Trail<\/a>,\u201d apparently renamed by\u00a0Jack London<\/a>: \u00a0\u201cNearly 3,000 pack animals died. \u00a0Drivers rushing over the pass had little concern for beasts. \u00a0Exhausted horses starved, were hurt on rough ground, became mired in mud and fell over cliffs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Which\u00a0also<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0gives you\u00a0a feel for \u201chiking the Chilkoot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Which in turn brings up the question:\u00a0 Why the hell would you do<\/span> such a thing?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

One answer can be seen in a post from my companion blog,\u00a0On St. James, Steinbeck, and sluts<\/a>.\u00a0 It spoke in part of the “value of such\u00a0pilgrimages<\/a>\u00a0in general.”\u00a0 For example:<\/p>\n

We were speaking of pilgrimages. \u00a0More to the point, of why an otherwise-relatively-sane 65-year-old [at the time] would\u00a0either<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0hike the Chilkoot Trail\u00a0or<\/em>\u00a0<\/strong>spend 12 days canoeing 440 miles on the Yukon River. \u00a0That of course brings up\u00a0St. James the Greater<\/a>…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And James is the\u00a0Patron Saint of Pilgrims<\/a>.\u00a0 On that note, the post cited the book\u00a0Passages of the Soul: Ritual Today<\/a>. (James Roose-Evans<\/a>.)<\/em>\u00a0 It said a pilgrimage \u2013 like a 12-day canoe trip on the Yukon or a \u201chike\u201d on the\u00a0Chilkoot &$%# Trail<\/em>\u00a0<\/strong>\u2013\u00a0\u201cmay be described as a ritual on the move.\u201d<\/p>\n

Further, the book said that through \u201cthe raw experience of hunger, cold, lack of sleep,\u201d we can often find a sense of our fragility as mere human beings.\u00a0 (And that’s especially true when the \u201cmajesty and permanence\u201d of God\u2019s creation included “all those\u00a0&$%# rocks!”<\/strong><\/em>)<\/p>\n

Finally, the book noted that such a pilgrimage – such\u00a0ritual on the move<\/em> – can be \u201cone of the most chastening, but also one of the most liberating\u201d of personal experiences.<\/p>\n

I certainly felt \u201cchastened\u201d after we got back to Skagway from the Chilkoot Trail.\u00a0\u00a0(Although the 10-of-12 beers that my nephew and I shared \u2013 of the two six-packs I bought \u2013 helped a lot too…)\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>But as I said in\u00a0I pity the fool<\/a>, \u201cI pity the fool who doesn\u2019t do pilgrimages and otherwise\u00a0push the envelope<\/a>, even at the advance stage of his life.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Besides, my Chilkoot Trail experience made the Happy Camp “raisin juice” taste great!!!<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

* \u00a0 * \u00a0 * \u00a0 *<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

To repeat, the Chilkoot Trail<\/a>\u00a0is just \u201cone big pile of &%#@ rocks after another!!!<\/strong>\u201c<\/em><\/p>\n

(And this is one of the smooth<\/strong> parts…)<\/em><\/p>\n

* \u00a0 * \u00a0 * \u00a0 *<\/p>\n

The upper image is courtesy of\u00a0Chilkoot Trail\u00a0– Image Results<\/a>.\u00a0 From a post, “<\/em>What the Chilkoot Trail Taught Me about Leadership \u2013 Pt. 6,” posted on\u00a0mgauthier<\/a>.”\u00a0 A highlight:<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

We endured miserable weather throughout the day \u2013 cold, rainy and very windy…\u00a0 At times, especially hiking up to and down from the summit I was quite frightened as I was afraid we would either be blown off the mountain or slip careening down the mountain.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I knew the feeling…\u00a0 Also, this review-post borrowed liberally from\u00a0On the Chilkoot &^%$# Trail! \u2013 Part 1<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Chilkoot &^%$# Trail! \u2013 Part 2<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Re:\u00a0 “Up\u201d the Yukon River.\u00a0 Like the Nile River, the Yukon flows north, which makes it unusual.<\/em><\/p>\n

Re:\u00a0 “Husky young gent who carried my pack the rest of the way.”\u00a0 My brother and just-out-of-the-Army nephew also took turns carrying my pack part of the way to “Happy Camp.”\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Re:\u00a0 “But as I said in\u00a0I pity the fool<\/a>…”\u00a0 There followed a loose translation of\u00a0Ralph Waldo Emerson<\/a>\u2018s saying,\u00a0\u201cWhoso would be a man, must be a nonconformist.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Re:\u00a0 The book\u00a0Passages of the Soul: Ritual Today<\/a>.\u00a0 The book also noted that a healthy sense of ritual \u201cshould<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0pervade a healthy society, and that a big problem now is that we\u2019ve abandoned many rituals that used to help us deal with big change and major trauma.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Re:\u00a0 The negative tone of this post.\u00a0 My brother thought my post\u00a0\u201cHola! Buen Camino!\u201d \u2013 Revisited<\/a>\u00a0was also too negative; too “complaining” in general.\u00a0 So I posted\u00a0\u201cBuen Camino!\u201d \u2013 The Good Parts<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Some people reading \u201cHola! Buen Camino<\/a>\u201d\u00a0might think I had a lousy time in my five weeks hiking the\u00a0Camino de Santiago<\/a>\u00a0in Spain.\u00a0 For example, there was my comment on the first 10 days \u2013 after starting in\u00a0Pamplona<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 being \u201cpretty miserable<\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0 My left foot constantly throbbed, until it blistered up and got tough…”\u00a0\u00a0But there were lots of\u00a0good<\/strong>\u00a0<\/em>things that happened during those 30 days on the Camino\u2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But “fun stuff doesn’t make for good drama.”\u00a0 See\u00a0What Elements Make for [Good Drama<\/a>]?<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

If your drama doesn\u2019t have a juicy, complex, emotional, heart-wrenching,<\/strong> personal, intelligent, connectable role for an actor – it\u2019s dead in the water.\u00a0\u00a0And as a side note, don\u2019t be afraid to inject some comedy into your dramatic scenes.\u00a0 Except for Schindler’s List, every single drama listed above has more than one moment of levity.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>However, there is one thing that every good drama needs no matter what the story is.\u00a0 It\u2019s more than a trend \u2013 it\u2019s the mandatory ingredient \u2013 CONFLICT.<\/strong>\u00a0 Drama is based on conflict.\u00a0 And not just any conflict, but one that is powerful, relatable, and complex enough to propel a story forward…\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

And BTW:\u00a0 That hike on the Camino de Santiago in Spain took place in the fall of 2017.<\/em><\/p>\n

The lower image is courtesy of Chilkoot Trail –\u00a0Image\u00a0Results<\/a>. See also Chilkoot Trail National Historic Site – Parks Canada<\/a>: “The Chilkoot Trail is a 53 kilometre \/ 33 mile trip through history and one of North America’s most fabled treks.” The trail crosses the international boundary between the U.S. and Canada and is “co-operatively managed by Parks Canada and the US National Park Service.”<\/em><\/p>\n

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The “Chilkoot Trail” isn’t really a trail, it’s just “one big pile of &%#@ rocks after another!!!“ * \u00a0 * \u00a0 * \u00a0 * Back in 2016, my brother, nephew and I hiked the\u00a0Chilkoot Trail.\u00a0 People call it “the meanest 33 miles in history,” and I found out why – the hard way.\u00a0 After that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8,9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7956"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7956"}],"version-history":[{"count":52,"href":"https:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7956\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13618,"href":"https:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7956\/revisions\/13618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}