Team Kooter and The Chilkoot Madness... A Retrospective.

Introduction

In 1897, the steamship Portland steamed into Seattle carrying a ton of gold from the Klondike. This sparked the Yukon gold rush. Over the next 3 years 100,000 gold seekers would make there way from Dyea in southeast Alaska into the Yukon Territory via one of two mountain passes. Of those, only 1000 would ever make any money... only 200 would strike it rich. Ironically, those 200 who struck it rich had already done so upon the arrival of the Portland's news in Seattle in 1897. Perhaps even more surprising, people today are STILL making the 33 mile journey on foot over the Chilkoot Pass... and for what? A certificate of completion? Idiots.

Chapter 1 - Training

So for the most part, every weekend in May and June, the "Chill Kooters**"(thank you Kristin) were preparing with training hikes. Some of the hikes involved most members of the team, some involved as few as 2. I hiked 3-4 times, I can't remember. Either way, it was essentially worthless, except it FELT like we were training and that was helpful, I guess. Also, we established a team name (as mentioned above) and pseudonyms as well.

left to right:

Jennie - Master Kooter
Amy - Amy Kooter
Tara - Baby Kooter (late addition)
Kristin - Top Kooter
Zoltan - Colonel Kooter
Myself - The Big Kooter, a.k.a. TBK (taking picture)



** Yes, we are all well aware that kooter is a slang term for, well, how can I put this lightly... vagina.

Chapter 2 - Team Planning Meeting

I gotta be honest, I was at this meeting, but I wasn't paying attention. This is a likely reason that my pack weighed 20+ pounds more than anyone else's.

Chapter 3 - Arrival

We left Seattle on Thursday and arrived fairly late in Juneau... an uneventful trip. Early afternoon on Friday we arrived at the airport for our flight to Skagway. As we were boarding the plane I was thinking "this is a small plane..." I was the last one on and I was chatting up the pilot:

Me: Oh man, who's your copilot today.
Ray (pilot): Looks like its you.
Me: Haha, awesome.
Ray: Let me get in first and I'll put the seat back.
Me: Wait, What!? You're serious?
Ray: Yeah, hold on.
Me: YES! THIS RULES SO HARD!



I felt like I had just won the lottery. I mean, had that plane gone down, I would have been high-fiving the pilot the whole way... it was THAT awesome.



Team Kooter spent the evening in the bustling metropolis of Skagway sampling various local saloons and entertainment. The night ended late, but it felt early. It never really got dark. We were a week this side of solstice at 59.5 latitude.



Chapter 4 - Day One, 12, no wait... 13 miles? DAMNIT!

The day started out lovely enough, breakfast burrito and a Dyea Dave greeting. Dyea Dave is this guy who shuttled us to the trail head. I liked his style, 2(flannel shirt) + tophat + handlebar mustache = first class, and I knew we'd be treated as nothing but. Dyea is the name of the town that once stood at the foot of the Chilkoot trail, one valley to the west, but the railroad went to Skagway and so did everyone in Dyea.





Holy crap folks... we're hiking. It was hard to believe that we were actually on the trail, starting the trip that had been in the plans for so long. The hike up through the river valley was a gentle grade and we made pretty good time. We had about 12 miles to hike, but we had plenty of time so we rested often and stopped for a nice long lunch. FFWD>> mile 12.25. Our feet are killing us. Thank God. A sign that says Sheep Camp. Finally, we've arrived at our destination. Wait, what the hell is that? Another sign that says: Camp, 3/4 mile. UGH!! WHYYYYYYYY? Needless to say, very demoralizing.



We rolled into camp at about 7pm, just in time for the ranger to give his talk about the pass. As soon as that was through we inhaled our dinners and hit the sack. We would need to be over the pass by 1pm tomorrow, so we were going to be heading out of camp at 6am. Lame.

Chapter 5 - Day 2, Perfection.

This morning started without our planned breakfast and, of course, it took me longer to pack my stuff and tear down the tent than I had anticipated. I was hell bent on getting out of camp by 6am, the ranger preferred time, so I was a little frantic. In a little role reversal, Jennie was trying to calm me down. Her attempts were fairly effective. We were outta camp by 7am. The only reason I wasn't stressed is because we were not the LAST ones out of camp.

About 10 minutes down the trail Zoltan remembered that he had left a shirt in the warming hut at camp. We stopped, Zoltan ran, we cursed him and applied deet heavily. Something like only 10 minutes later, we were on our way again.

The weather was pretty nice... cold and overcast, but no rain, and the going was significantly tougher than the previous day. We were scrambling through more boulder fields and the elevation was increasing at a quicker rate. We encountered snow about 1 mile from the summit and it was a nice break. We made our way to an area called The Scales which is just before the big climb to the summit. During the gold rush, anyone going over the pass would have to stop here and weigh their gear to make sure that they had the requisite 1-year supply of 1000 pounds (they obviously made several trips). We were carrying less. We took a little break as we eyed the pass.



The pass was awesome. It was steep and scary at times, but it was great in that we were so preoccupied with the possibility of plummeting to our death, that we were at the top before we realized it. Triumph. And into Canada we went... the weather cleared up and we had the most amazing hiking ahead.





After clearing a mile long avalanche zone just on the Canadian side of the pass, we stopped for lunch. Its hard to imagine a better place to have had lunch. We found an outcropping of rocks with a thick pad of moss and some shelter from the wind. Food was good and we were able to take a short little nap in the sun. Totally awesome.



Happy Camp was waiting for us just a few miles down trail. We got to camp and secured a few tent platforms and cracked open a couple of bottles of wine we'd lugged over the pass (small boxes... not glass bottles). We had plans to stay up late and sleep in. Unfortunately, it doesn't get dark, which I've already been over (refer to Chapter 4).



Chapter 6 - Day 3, Bear Bare Loon Lake

Lazy morning, lazy trek, lazy lunch, more trekking... etc. About 5 miles out of camp we came upon our next scheduled spot to camp, Lindeman City. But the night before, we'd talked with some folks from Whitehorse who had said that we HAD to make it to Bare Loon Lake... it was SO much nicer and just a few miles down the trail, making what would've been our shortest day a bit longer. The problem was availability of camp sites. We were unsure if a group ahead of us had hiked all the way out to Bennett like they said they might. If they did, we could push on, if they didn't it might be questionable. We arrived in Lindeman City and chatted with Renee, a French Canadian ranger who lived there. He said that there would be a ranger boating into the Bare Loon Lake camp in about an hour and that she would be able to tell us if there we're available spots to camp. We rested for about an hour waiting for word from the ranger. In true French Canadian fashion (I have no idea what that means), Renee found us one hour later but informed us that Christine, the ranger by boat, was not going to Bare Loon but instead was coming directly to Lindeman City and wanted to talk to us... WHAT!?



When Christine arrived, she told us that the reason she didn't stop at Bare Loon Lake was because there was a black bear hanging out at the dock where she wanted to tie up. So, instead she just came to meet us. She wasn't able to tell us if there was room at camp but gave us a couple of options. We could camp at Lindeman like our itinerary stated... or we could go ahead to Bare Loon. If we chose the latter, we would be tasked with a mission. Warn the campers at Bare Loon Lake of the bear near by and inform them of a bear that was seen in camp the night before. Easy choice. ACCEPT THE MISSION.

Damn, we had a mission. It was great. Never had I hiked with such purpose. Plus, there was the added excitement of the possibility of running into a bear on the trail. How would I kill it? Would I be forced to ram my trekking pole down its neck? Would I punch it in the face as it lunged for my throat? One thing was for sure... WE HAD TO WARN CAMP!!



The sun was setting and it was starting to get a little dark in the dense forest. We huddled together as we hiked. Would this be our last hike, I thought? A couple of miles passed and we were still trudging on. Just around the corner was our camp and we knew we could be closing in on an encounter. As we crested a bluff and turned the corner into camp... THERE HE WAS... HOLY CRAP... its Renee. And Christine. What the hell are they doing here? They had made their way back down from Lindeman by boat, beating us there and welcoming us into camp with Canadian flags and pins (it was Canada Day) Crap. What about our mission? Whatever, this sucks. Mission ruined. At least the other group made it out to Bennett so there was room in camp...

Chapter 6 - Day 4, Triumph at Bennett

Well, no bear encounters... and now we were on to our shortest day of hiking and the last day of our trip. We would be in Bennett by noon and on the train by 1pm. The last mile or so was through sand... not desert really, but just thick sand. I'm not really sure where it came from but I have 2 guesses. It is either glacial silt deposited there hundreds of thousands of years ago... or moved there by the people building the railroad for more solid ground to work on.



Anyway, Bennett was a pretty great site. I originally thought that I'd like to get there early so we could spend some time checking out what Bennett had to offer. I quickly realized that Bennett had a train to offer and that was it. The town, basically abandoned in 1900 after the last gold seekers built boats and paddled north on Lake Bennett, consisted of a train depot and an old church. We just got on the train and ate lunch.



The train ride was pretty amazing. Its a narrow gauge railway that links Carcross in the Yukon Territory to Skagway, A 67.5 mile railway (original was about 110 miles)... climbs 3000 feet in only 20 miles. Bennett is somewhere in between. It gets to Skagway via the White Pass, a longer but lower grade than the Chilkoot Pass. It was completed in just 26 months, which was a considerable feat of engineering in those days.



Wow, back in Skagway... Most of Team Kooter went off to Juneau the same way they came in, via Cessna Caravan... a bittersweet departure. Jennie and I stayed in Skagway another night and caught the ferry to Juneau in the morning...

Chapter 7 - A Story of the Malaspina and a Couple of VIPs

We caught the ferry at about 7am. The purser was checking our IDs as we entered the ferry and she saw Jennie's passport and said, "Oh... come see me a few minutes after we are underway, the captain would like to give you a state room." SWEEEEEEET!



So, Jennie's dad was a Captain for the Alaska Marine Highway System. Although he piloted all the ferries in the fleet, I believe he had the longest tenure on the Malaspina. Jennie claimed to know the ship like the back of her hand but we were continually getting lost. Anyhow, her father had let the captain know that we would be on board and the Captain arranged for a room for us and invited us up to the bridge. We spent about an hour on the bridge talking with Captain Actor and the 1st Mate. The ride is about 5 and a half hours, so we left the bridge but made plans to return when we were nearing Juneau. See, Jennie's folks have a house on the beach on Favorite Channel, a channel that the ferry passes through to get to Juneau. We returned to the bridge after sunning ourselves in the solarium...

Captain [steering off course toward beach]: So which house is yours?
Jennie: The one with the blue roof.
Captain: You may want to cover your ears.

That fog horn is effing LOUD. He blew it for a long time. It was great. Captain Karl Schoeppe was sitting in his captain's chair with a front row seat, JoAnn and cousin Lucas waving from the front porch.



Later, as recounted by one of the ships crew members on the bridge:

Crew Member: Whoa, we're steering off course... this doesn't look right. Where are we going!!??
Passenger: You don't know where we are going!!??

OOPS.

and then the party was over... well, the Chilkoot party that is... of course it gave way to the next one. We tore Juneau APART.