I didn’t sleep much last night. I am going over my pack in my mind. Do I have this, should I have that, what should I leave behind and what am I forgetting. I am just about ready and I can already feel the adrenaline. I hope that will carry me through the first few days.

I thought I should talk a little about the Chilkoot trail. It is a 53 km trail that leads from Dyea Alaska to Bennett BC (so it isn’t in the Yukon at all, I didn’t realize that).The summit is 3525 feet and I will be summitting on Sunday.

The trail was used to get from the coast to the gold fields of the Yukon through the 1890’s and was largely made obsolete by the introduction of a train which followed an alternate White Pass route.

Thinking about the prospectors who were forced by the Canadian Government to bring a ton of supplies over the trail so that they could survive their first year in the wilderness, I am feeling pretty cocky about my ‘just under’40 lb pack.