These photos are a collection from five days of hiking the Chilkoot Trail in Alaska and British Columbia.
We had great weather save for a drizzly, foggy portion over the pass (which I think added context and significance to the place we were in).
The hot, bustling tourist avenues of Skagway, Alaska contrasted with the cool, serene rainforest which marked the trailhead only a few kilometres away. The trail ascends gradually through coastal forest on the American side, then takes a skyward tilt at the Golden Stairs into the alpine. At Chilkoot Pass, you hike across the international boundary into B.C.. From there, you are on higher, drier terrain as you descend gradually through the northern boreal forest and eventually, finish in a sandy, pine-clad forest on the shores of Bennett Lake.
I could go on at length about what I learned of the history and significance of the Chilkoot Trail, but photos of the interpretive signs will do just as well (slideshow mode will show the text big enough to read). And, if you want to know more, then
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chilkoot_Trail will get you there. Essentially, almost 100,000 men (in just a couple of years) seeking gold attempted to travel from Alaskan shores to the Yukon. An estimated 35,000 made it. Very few actually got rich, and many died. Each shuttling a required (by the RCMP) ton of survival gear on dozens of trips back and forth over the wilderness...using methods such as cruising handmade boats down the spring break-up of large rivers churning with ice and rapids. By modern standards, pure lunacy really.
Today, many rusted artifacts can be found along this trail, testimony to the degree of activity that was present here 115 years ago.