Things Go Awry

I’m up at 6:20 to prep for the Chilkoot hike. I didn’t get a full eight hours, but I want time for my morning exercise routine, breakfast, a last check through my pack.

Hannah has found the only place in Skagway that’s open for breakfast, so we backpack the 18 blocks there.

E Line, Denny Stop

“He forgot his hat!”

A black knit hat with a white snowflake intarsia lays on the floor of the E…

Dawson City

There’s an avalanche scar seated high above the city. It’s a huge white talus slope that dominates the mountainside. You see it over the trees before you take the last bend of the Yukon into Dawson City.

Island Camp

Everything is silent. I crouch at the river’s edge, dip my hands in the silty water, bring them to my face. In the still morning, a breeze dries the moisture from my cheeks, eyes, frozen hands.

The river’s current is swift, steady, unruffled silver. Clouds hang low.