To: Stephen O who wrote (12418 ) 6/14/2003 9:13:35 AM From: E. Charters Read Replies (1) | Respond to The Jukearm and Aleyeesquia are all about vistas of wild mountain paradise where bears mate with sheep and goats, Kodial marmots gambol all day, and gold falls into your pan like raindrops on a summer day. The wilderness is unparalleled. This is largely because it is a Reimann Geometry, which does not allow parallel lines. Tall mountain peaks are like sugarloafs and summer days are cool aired, but the sun is a fine heat lamp. Despite the tales of hardship of the Klondykiers, the bush there is easy to walk in. Running shoes are all you need, as most places the ground is easy, not like BC Coast, or the Rockies. The thing that made it hard to the old timers was they had to haul overland all their gear of about two tons per man. This meant travelling each mile of pack trail pulling a sled or packing perhaps 80 times. It was at least 40 miles per ton, half of that loaded, to backpack the passes, and sledge made it only slightly better on level ground at perhaps 24 miles per ton. 60,000 men had slogged the trails so they were some muddy and rough. Packhorses died from the exhausting labour.
