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Hajian Family Chilkoot Guide

Food

You need to have enough food; and you should have some extra.... but don't over do it!  After a while, that extra food becomes a burden.  You should always plan to be self sufficient on the trail, but if you did run into an emergency; there are other people around too - so don't pack enough for 5 days of emergency.

Breakfast: In previous hikes, our breakfast consisted of instant oatmeal. We threw in some of the raisins from our trail mix to make it go down a bit easier, since we didn’t buy the sugary instant oatmeal.  In our 2012 hike we brought organic Quick Oats. I have to say, the Quick Oats (took about 5 minutes to cook) tasted a whole lot better than the instant oatmeal. We cut up some dehydrated fruit into the oats as they were cooking.  Extremely delicious!

Our lunch was fairly consistent. One piece of pita bread, a thick chunk of cheese and a foot long dry pepperoni stick.  The “dry” pepperoni doesn’t need to be refrigerated.  In our 2012 hike, instead of taking chunks of cheese, we brought a small package of cream cheese.  We enjoyed the cream cheese and Pita better.  We also brought pepperoni sticks again.  Extra pepperoni sticks could be cut up and tossed into your dinner.  It is not really recommended to have a lunch that you have to cook – takes too much time and on the “summit” day, there really is no good place to cook anything.

Our dinner was either pasta or instant rice.  For pasta, in the past we used macaroni and cheese, but we prefer "sidekicks".  If you are hungry, you can eat a whole package of sidekicks by yourself.  On a couple meals, we put some tuna in with the pasta.  I used small (85g) cans of flavored tuna (Tomato Basil) with our pasta dish.   As for the rice, there is always something you can throw into the rice to make it tastier.  It was all very good!

Snacks: Heather packaged a large zip lock bag for each of us.  In it was a smaller zip lock bag of home made trail mix (various nuts, raisins, dry cranberries, mini chocolate chips, etc), two chocolate bars, about a half dozen granola bars, a few fruit leather snacks, and some chewy fruit candy type thing.  It was perfect.

As you can tell, we did not have gourmet food on the trail... but I'll tell you, after hiking all day (sometimes in less than favorable conditions) the basic (and hot) meal was absolutely marvelous.

Tent
Do not use a two-person tent for two people.  You will need room inside so that you are not pressed up against the tent.​  If your sleeping bag is against the side of the tent and rain comes down... your sleeping bag will be wet. As much as you want to keep the weight down, scrimping on a tent is not a good idea. If you do use a two person tent for two people, make sure the rain fly is the type that goes all the way down to the ground. 

Another good idea is to use silicone spray tent sealant a couple days before you go hiking.  This will restore the water-resistance of your tent.  But nothing beats a good "all the way down to the ground" fly.  Either way, you must stay dry inside or you will be miserable at night.  Trust me on this.  Been there.

Food we packed for a 5 day hike for 2 people

Snacks (total 2.15 kg)
  • 650g (per person) dry fruit & nuts
  • 350g (per person) granola bars, power bars
  • 150g coffee & tea packages

Breakfast (total .45 kg)
  • 460g   2 X 2cups Oatmeal – total 8 servings (could have brought just a little more).

Dinner (total 1740g)
  • 450g  Sidekicks type pasta (3 packages Parmesan Pesto)
  • 400g  Sidekicks type pasta (3 packages Chicken Noodles & Sauce)
  • 330g Minute Rice (3 X 1cup)
  • 460g Small cans of Tuna (4 X 85g)  Note: You can also get tuna in a foil pouch (Clover Leaf Tuna Pieces).  85g Tuna, 90g total weight.  Used these with the pasta above.

Lunch (2.1 kg)
  • 900g Pita Bread (one large package with 18 pieces)
  • 685g Cream Cheese, Peanut Butter, Honey
  • 515g Pepperoni (could also throw it in with the noodles or rice in evening)

Specialty Hiking Food (most of these you just add boiling water and let it sit in the pouch it comes in).  Ratings out of 5.  These reviews are from other hikers we med (Corinne and Amanda).

Backpackers Pantry
  • Risotto with Turkey: 5 "Great"
  • Chicken Cashew Turkey: 4
  • Huevos Rancheros: n/a Requires skillet - returned to store.
  • Thai Satay with Beef: 4 "Very Good"
  • Chicken Vindaloo: 3.5.  "Spicey and Good - don't add too much water".
  • Chicken Cashew Currey: 2.5 "OK, but not really good"
  • Yakisoba Noodles: n/a Requires skillet - returned to store.
  • Baked Lasagna: 3.5 "Good!"

Natural High
  • Granola with Raspberries and Milk: 5
  • Spinach Cheese Omellete: 1 "Have to fry in skillet. OK taste but horrible texture. Hard not to burn."
  • Himalyan Lentils and Rice: 2.5  "OK but somewhat bland"
  • Teriyaki Chicken: 3 "Pretty Good"

Clothing

Do not, I repeat, “do not” bring jeans or anything that resembles them.  You will regret it.  Do not bring cotton shirts either.  You want to bring nylon or polyester – something that will dry quickly.

No matter what you wear, whether it rains or not, your clothes will be wet at the end of the day – so be prepared for that.  You will either get rained on or you will sweat in your clothes.  There’s no avoiding it.  The trick is to have extra dry clothes.  Make sure you keep a set of clothes dry to sleep in at night – even if it means putting on wet clothes in the morning.  You must have dry clothes at night.  Do not compromise by letting your "dry night clothes" get wet during the day.

For socks go buy yourself several new pairs of socks – ones that are fairly thick and preferably with as little cotton as possible.  If you wear worn down, thread bare socks, you will regret it.  New thick socks are great.  Bring one pair of socks for each day you will be hiking.  If you get rained on, you will also appreciate dry underwear.  Don't short change yourself on these items as they are very light to start with.

To go with those socks, you will need a good pair of hiking boots.  But don’t bring new hiking boots – make sure they are well worn in.  If you don’t have hiking boots, then a good pair of running shoes will do as well.  But they have to be comfortable.  I have to admit that on my 10th hike, I wore good quality hiking boots and they made a world of difference.  My feet were not sore at all.  No blisters.  No sore spots.  On other trips, I came home barely able to stand on my feet.

Also bring some sandals.  These can be helpful if you have to walk into the water (which usually happens, but on my last two trips, I didn't have to wade through watert).  Sandals are also great at the end of the day when you are at camp.  If you don't have sandals, another alternative (which might be even better) are crocs.  These things are super light and very comfortable.  I picked up a pair at Canadian Tire for $8 for my 10th hike and they worked great.

What to Bring (Necessities)
  • Camp Stove: we used a single burner propane stove with one small cylinder propane tank.  That one cylinder was enough for us to cook our breakfast and dinner for each day (but not much left over).  Others bring light weight single burner white gas stoves.  That's great too.
  • Sleeping Bag: several of us bought these backpacker small sleeping bags. They are rated to +7 degrees, which is barely adequate for the hike, but these sleeping bags fit in a really small bag so they were well worth it.  They cost $22 each at Walmart.  Good quality long underwear and a sweater go a long way in keeping you warm in a cheap (and small) sleeping bag.
  • Tent: The most important thing about a tent is the fly.  Make sure the fly covers the entire tent.  If it does not, and if it rains (which it will) you and your precious belongings will get wet.  However, there are ways to minimize this.  First, make sure nothing in the tent is up against the walls of the tent.  In other words, don’t let the foot of your sleeping bag touch the wall of the tent.  If it rains, that will draw the rain right though the tent and onto your sleeping bag.  A second thing you can do to help prevent rain penetration is to spray your tent (ahead of time) with a silicone spray treatment.  One can of spray (about $7 at Walmart) does a 3 or 4 person tent.  Just make sure to do this well ahead of time, on a sunny day, with time for the silicone to dry before packing up your tent.
  • Rope: while most camps have food lockers, if you stay at one of the smaller camps you may still need to hang your food up a bear pole at night.  Usually we would put all the food in one backpack and put it up the pole with a rope.
  • Dry Bags: You need to keep your clothes (and sleeping bag) dry while you are hiking.  You don't need anything fancy; but there are dry bags you can get a Canadian Tire or Walmart or any outdoors type store.  The ones we have are green and the top folds and then connects into a circle to close it up.

How to Hike:
  • Take plenty of rest breaks… and when you do, take your hiking boots off, let them air out (or dry out) while you take a break.  During this time, wear sandals that you brought along.
  • If it gets extremely hot during the afternoon (it is possible), consider stopping early, make dinner, relax, take a cat nap, and then hike some more the last 3 hours or so before your next camp.  Then, if you expect it to be hot again the next day, start super early and take a long break all afternoon (maybe even a nap) and do a bit more hiking in the evening.  On the second to last day of our most recent hike, it was super hot.  We finally stopped at 3:15 (we should have stopped earlier) and relaxed, then made supper, then continues around 6 pm.  The next morning, we started hiking at 6:15 and we got out at 9:30 – and were we ever glad we did that.  Couldn’t imagine hiking until 3 pm in that heat.  Of course, this is rare. Usually you are fighting cold and rain, not heat stoke - but it can happen!

Making Reservations
  • Making reservations with Parks Canada will ensure that you have a spot on the trail.  Parks Canada limits the number of people on the trail each day so if you have very firm hiking dates (you are not flexible) you should reserve your hike well ahead of time, especially during the peak of summer.
  • There will be some days that are less full than others - that's because the train does not go out from Bennett every single day of the week.  Most hikers plan their trip so that they get to Bennett on a day when the train goes out.  If you plan on getting to Bennett on a day when the train does not go out from Bennett, it is less likely that the daily quota will have been met for that day.
  • It used to be that you can hike what was known as the "cut-off trail" shortly after Bare Loon Lake, and take the railroad tracks back to Log Cabin.  Parks Canada has effectively closed that small section of trail and it is no longer available.  Your only option now is to hike to Bennett and take the train out (or I suppose you can charter a float plane or boat out of Bennett, but I'm not sure about that).

Planning Your Trip.
The Chilkoot will generally take 3 to 5 days.  Here is a link to Chilkoot Trail Campgrounds.   There are three sections.
  • The first section is to Sheep Camp.  If you start off early in the day, and if you don't take long breaks, it is not too difficult to get to Sheep Camp in a day (see hiking times below).  If you are hiking the trail in three days, you will need to do this.  If you have more time, you can get to Sheep Camp in two very easy day.
  • The second section is from Sheep Camp, over the summit, and on to your next camp.  The first camp after the summit is Happy Camp.  There are times when we went from Sheep Camp to Happy Camp, and that filled the day.  On other occasions, we arrived at Happy Camp by early or mid afternoon and had plenty of time (and energy) to carry on to the next camp.
  • The third section is from wherever you camped after the summit, to Bennett.  if you camped at Happy Camp, you will probably want to take two days to get to Bennett.  It can be done in one day, but it would be a long day and you would NOT get to Bennett in time to catch the train out.  It's better to spend a night at Lindeman or Bare Loon Lake and then get to Bennett by noon the next day.
  • Sample 3 Day Hike:
                        1) Dyea to Sheep Camp, 2) Sheep Camp to at least Happy Camp, 3) Out to Bennett.
  • Sample 5 Day Hike:
                        1) Dyea to Canyon City, 2) Canyon City to Sheep Camp, 3) Sheep Camp to Happy Camp, 4) Happy Camp to Bare Loon, 5) Out to Bennett.

Hiking Times
These will vary greatly, depending on your physical ability, the weather conditions, and who else is hiking with you.  I would consider the times below an "average" for the "not specially trained but reasonably capable" hiker.

Dyea to Sheep Camp: 7.5 hours (9 hours with breaks)
  • Dyea - Finnegan's Point: 2 hours
  • Finnegan's Point - Canyon City: 2.5 hours
  • Canyon City - Pleasant Camp: 2 hours
  • Pleasant Camp - Sheep Camp: 1 hour

Sheep Camp to Happy Camp: 7 - 9 hours (approx. 8 - 10 hours with break at the summit)
  • Sheep Camp to Summit: 4 - 6 hours
  • Summit to Happy Camp: 3 hours

Happy Camp to Bennett: 7 1/4 hours (upto 10 hours with breaks)
  • Happy Camp to Deep Lake: 1 3/4 hours
  • Deep Lake to Lindeman: 1 1/2 hours
  • Lindeman to Bare Loon Lake: 1 1/2 hours
  • Bare Loon to Bennett: 2 1/2 hours

Other Hints:
  • Most camp grounds will have camping platforms to set your tent on (Canyon City, near the start, did not have platforms).  These are great, as it keeps your tent off the mud if it's been raining!
  • There is a Ranger talk at Sheep Camp most nights.  The Ranger will talk about the history of the place, show photographs, and answer questions.  It is held at 7 pm, Alaska time.
  • Pretty much everyone stays overnight at Sheep Camp.  That is because Parks Canada like you to leave Sheep Camp early in the morning in order to get up and over the summit before the snow packs start melting.  This is especially true in the early part of the summer when there is a higher risk of avalanche.
  • You would do well to check with Parks Canada regarding the trail condition, a week or more ahead of your hike.  Some years, by mid July the trail is comfortable (little snow), while other years, you might hike on packed snow for several miles.  Packed snow might sound easier than walking on rocks, but seldom is the packed snow on flat ground - which makes it very difficult to walk.
  • The warm up shelter at the summit is very small.  It is intended only for warming up and taking a break at the summit before carrying on to Happy Camp.
  • There are lots of artifacts to see at Lindeman.  You should plan on spending some leisure time there (if you are not going to be staying overnight).
  • If you are leaving a vehicle at Log Cabin, put some food and water in the trunk.  You will be very glad for it when you get back to Log Cabin.  There is NO good drinking water along the railroad tracks, so once the water you are carrying runs out, you are out of water.  And if it is very hot, you will be out of water quickly.  Having water when you get back to Log Cabin will be a very welcome sight.
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