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No single image better conjures the human drama of the 1898 gold rush than the lines of prospectors struggling over the Chilkoot Trail , a 53-kilometre path over the Coast Mountains between Dyea , north of Skagway in Alaska, and Bennett Lake on the British Columbian border south of Whitehorse. Before the rush, Dyea was a small village of Chilkat Tlingit, who made annual trade runs over the trail to barter fish oil, clamshells and dried fish with the Tutchone, Tagish and other interior Dene peoples in exchange for animal hides, skin clothing and copper. The Chilkat jealously guarded access to the Chilkoot Pass (1122m), the key to the trail and one of only three glacier-free routes through the Coast Mountains west of Juneau. Sheer numbers and a show of force from a US gunboat, however, opened the trail to stampeders, who used it as a link between the ferries at the Pacific Coast ports and the Yukon River, which they then rode to the gold fields at Dawson City. For much of 1897 the pass and border were disputed by the US and Canada until the Canadian NWMP (Northwest Mounted Police) established a storm-battered shack at the summit and enforced the fateful "ton of goods" entry requirement. Introduced because of chronic shortages in the gold fields, this obliged every man entering the Yukon to carry a ton of provisions - and, though it probably saved many lives in the long run, the rule laid enormous hardship on the back of the stampeders. Weather conditions and the trail's fifty-degree slopes proved too severe even for horses or mules, so that men had to carry supplies on their backs over as many as fifty journeys to move their "ton of goods". Many died in avalanches or lost everything during a winter when temperatures dropped to -51°C and 25m of snow fell. Even so, the lure of gold was enough to drag some 22,000 prospectors over the pass. These days most people off the ferries from Prince Rupert and the Alaska Panhandle make the fantastic journey across the mountains by car or Gray Line bus on Hwy 2 from Skagway to Whitehorse . This route parallels that taken by the restored White Pass & Yukon Route railway (WP&YR; mid-May to mid-Sept 1 daily; Skagway-White Pass by train then connecting bus to Whitehorse; $95; tel 983-2217 or 1-800/343-7373, www.whitepassrailroad.com ), originally built to supersede the Chilkoot Trail. Increasing numbers, however, are walking the old trail, which has been laid out and preserved by the Canadian Parks Service as a long-distance hikers route . Its great appeal lies not only in the scenery and natural habitats - which embrace coastal rainforest, tundra and subalpine boreal woodland - but also in the numerous artefacts like old huts, rotting boots, mugs and broken bottles still scattered where they were left by the prospectors. The trail is well marked, regularly patrolled and generally fit to walk between about June and September, though throughout June you can expect snow on the trail. Most people hike the trail in three or four days and if you're moderately fit it shouldn't be a problem, but there are dangers from bears, avalanches, drastic changes of weather and exhaustion - there's one twelve-kilometre stretch, for example, for which you're advised to allow twelve hours. Almost everyone hikes from south to north. Although there are three warming huts on the trail, these aren't designed for sleeping in, and you'll be making use of the nine approved campsites spaced at intervals along the trail: no rough camping is allowed.
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