Thursday August 26, 2010

Up at 6:00 packed luggage and moved to B&B storage area. Had breakfast. Shuttled to the trail head by Carl, the owner. Talk on the way included some local history of Dyea, a town that no longer exists. There is a large tidal flat that faced Dyea and steamboats would pull in as far as they could and drop off the passengers gear and kits. The passengers then had 6 to 8 hours to transport their goods the distance to the town. I imagine that many failed in this endeavor and much was soaked and damaged. City fathers has great hopes for the future of the town and Chilkoot trail as the main route to the Klondike and started to build a wharf 1 – 3 miles long that the steamboats could tie up to and unload their passengers and cargo. Unfortunately, the railroad up White Pass, or Dead Horse Pass, was finished by 1889 and and Dyea, a town that had thousands, died a quick death and within days was abandoned.

I arrived at the trail head a little after 9:00 A.M. And before I could even unload my gear, I was alerted to the fact that there was a grizzly bear at the bridge, I grabbed my camera and quickly proceeded to the bridge and started taking pictures of the bear. The bear was aware of us and occasionally looked us over as he ambled up river. The bear passed under the bridge and looked at us probably wondering what the big deal was. At times this bear was within 30 yards of me. Magnificent and immense, this bear appeared to be taking his time, but he covered distance quite quickly with muscles and fat rippling like a work of art, reminiscent of a race horse when watched in slow motion, exuding nothing but brute power. Cool, I thought, I got the bear sighting out of the way.

I started up the trail, on my big adventure and felt good about it. I was relaxed, and constantly scanning my surroundings looking for bear and other wildlife; this type of awareness really opens the eyes to the natural beauty that surrounds you as you walk through the forest. Shortly after entering the trail, I came to a hill, actually it seems to be more of a cliff, with steps carved out of the hillside. About ½ a mile into the hike encounter three women out for a day hike, and they offer to take my picture. I continue on down the trail to mile 1.6 where there is a right turn to go to Finigin's point, where I plan on having lunch. A couple hundred yards past the junction, I come upon fresh bear scat and I look closely to see if it is black or Grizzly scat; I see no bear bells and determine that it is fairly fresh black bear scat – it is not steaming, but it hasn't dried out and there were very few insects crawling over it – so I figure it is fresh, but the bear has had time to travel on. I confidently move forward scanning the area around me, forward, left, right and even behind, to my shock, up the trail about 50 yards are two black bears. I stop and wonder, “oh, darn – what am suppose to do now?” I would like to say that I wasn't scared, but I can say that I didn't have to change my underwear. I took about 3 steps back and then remembered my training, do not walk away unless you know the bear hasn't seen you, as that can cause an aggressive reaction from the bear. In my mind I had a short conversation about turning around and returning to Skagway, especially if I was going to keep encountering bears.

The conversation quickly ended when I said I had spent too much money to turn tail and run at this time. Part 2 of training kicked in and I remembered I was suppose to make sure the bear had seen me and that I wasn't dangerous. I made some noise and one of the bears turned and looked at me and the two bears turned to the right and went up the hill.

I waited a bit in order to give them time to move on and then proceeded on down the trail, talking to the bear, thanking them for letting me walk peacefully through their home. I had a tin mint can and I took it out and started shaking it to make a rattle noise. There is something else that I wanted to do “Someday” and that is loudly sing, “The Sound of Music” in the forest. That is now accomplished.
The weather started out cloudy with a light mist, and even a light shower or two; however,I got wetter from my own exertions than from the elements. The sun came out about 1:00 and has been out since then, a beautiful day.

A National Park ranger passed me on the trail, she was heading in to Skagway, her multi-day at Sheep Camp was finished and she had some time off. I showed her my bear pictures and she was impressed, she said she hadn't seen any for months. We continued on our separate ways and awhile later I heard a voice call out from behind me, alerting me to her presence. This was the relief ranger heading to Sheep Camp. She kept up a fast pace and soon left me behind. (This will become a common theme in the coming days.)

Part of the hike is over a boardwalk that seems to stretch on forever, across a swampy area. The pair of 10'x1'x3 or 4” planks are laid end to end and when you are walking on the center of the plank many of them bow and slap the water. Some worse than others and they make you feel as if you may end up in the somewhat stagnant water. One of the planks was broken and it made me wonder if someone had fallen in.

Lunch consisted of a Cliff Builders bar.

The rest of the days hike was uneventful, except for the occasional crash in the woods; that is if you think walking through lush rain forest across babbling brooks and raging rivers are uneventful.

I was first to arrive at Canyon City campground and had my choice of sites. Shortly after I arrived I heard voices and the two women I had briefly met yesterday had arrived.

Awhile later a Canadian family of 5 arrived, two adults and 3 children, the youngest being 5.

A group of 4 from Fairbanks arrived and then around 11:00, Jim from Bonnie Lake, WA arrived.