Alaska's finest multi-day hike follows the Chilkoot Trail, a 33-mile route from the lowland forests around the gold-rush town of Skagway over the snow-bound coastal mountains to Lake Bennett, one of the sources of the Yukon River over the border in Canadian British Columbia.

This was the route used by thousands of Klondike-bound argonauts during the winter of 1897-98. With the promise of untold riches (which very few of them ever found) the hopeful arrived in Skagway to discover that the Mounties insisted everyone entering Canada had a ton of goods. Many spent months ferrying their goods over the pass, while the enterprising set up steam-driven ropeways and charged the stampeders exorbitant sums to haul their goods for them. Once spring arrived and the Yukon thawed, everyone left.

Hiking the route is now like walking though an outdoor museum for three days. When you can tear your eyes from the stunning mountain scenery and rushing rivers you'll find rusty old boilers, piles of century-old beer bottles, twisted bits of metal and even a hoard of canvas boats which one ambitious gent hoped to use to float down the Yukon to the golfdfields.