{"id":7440,"date":"2021-02-01T10:10:25","date_gmt":"2021-02-01T15:10:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=7440"},"modified":"2021-02-01T10:19:16","modified_gmt":"2021-02-01T15:19:16","slug":"episode-240-yukon-dairy-doing-the-yukon-in-revers-dead-horse-pass-chilcoot-trail-to-skagway-in-1962","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=7440","title":{"rendered":"EPISODE 240 YUKON DAIRY DOING THE YUKON IN REVERS… DEAD HORSE PASS, CHILCOOT TRAIL TO SKAGWAY IN 1962"},"content":{"rendered":"
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EPISODE  240    YUKON DIARY    DEAD HORSE PASS, CHILCOOT TRAIL TO SKAGWAY IN 1962<\/div>\n

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TITLE:   DOING THE YUKON IN REVERSE<\/div>\n

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<\/div>\n
alan skeoch<\/div>\n
Jan.2021<\/div>\n

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Have you ever got so immersed in a dream that you want to live<\/div>\n
that dream in real life?   No joke.  I dream a lot.  Good dreams for<\/div>\n
the most part .  Dreams that I would like to live out in  my real life.<\/div>\n
That\u2019s the way I felt about the Yukon.  Stop.  Change the tense from<\/div>\n
past to present.  That\u2019s the way I feel  about the Yukon to this day.<\/div>\n
I relive it.  All that revelry in the Mayo barroom was a replication of<\/div>\n
the Yukon gold rush days \u2026 right down to the drunkenness\u2026the  story<\/div>\n
telling\u2026the  indescribable  brutal work that was a necessary base to brining<\/div>\n
the Yukon tensions and  glories of discovery back to life.Vomit, staggering,<\/div>\n
laughing, agonizing, fear, joy, triumphs, tragedies.   Almost every feeling a  human<\/div>\n
being  can share  is there\u2026\u2019Is\u2019 not \u2018was\u2019\u2026present not past.<\/div>\n

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No Yukon replication  is complete  without the mystique of Skagway.<\/div>\n
The brutality of Skagway.  So I planned this  lonely trek as an integral<\/div>\n
part of living out the dream.   To not do so would mean the whole Yukon <\/div>\n
experience  would  be truncated.  A tree without roots.  A dream without <\/div>\n
meaning.<\/div>\n

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Wednesday , Sept. 12, 1962<\/div>\n

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Arose  early today.  Nervous that I would miss a connection.  I have no watch.<\/div>\n
Never have had one.  My body usually serves  me well if I mentally set my<\/div>\n
brain correctly.  \u201cAlan, get up early, you must board the White Pass Railway<\/div>\n
on its downhill trip to Skagway.\u201d   And  click\u2026brain lock\u2026woke in  time to<\/div>\n
get my ticket,  $19.00, for the down hill rumble to Skagway\u2026down mountain says it better.<\/div>\n

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We  are descending from theYukon plateau to a tiny village hanging on the hostile glacier clad<\/div>\n
shores of the Pacific Ocean.   Descending.  Imagining how the gold crazed men and s<\/div>\n
few women made the trek upwards when there  was  no railway.  Only the impossible near <\/div>\n
vertical climb up the Chilcoot Pass.  Could I have made that climb?  Did  I have the guts<\/div>\n
and determination those men and women shared.  Did I have a thirst for great wealth<\/div>\n
the would  free me from labour for the rest of my life?   Not sure.  But I  think I could<\/div>\n
do it.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
Hindu philosophy says \u201cYou can have whatever you want in life.\u201d Which forces the<\/div>\n
big secondary question. \u201cWhat do I really want?\u201d  Great wealth? Fame?  No, I want <\/div>\n
to live my life to the fullest.  I want to share my life with others.  I want to marry<\/div>\n
Marjorie as a starter.  And  one small goal… I want to complete  my experience of the Yukon.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
And there before me on this day were two passes through the coastal mountains.  White Pass, also  called  the Dead Horse  Pass<\/div>\n
and the Chilcoot Pass.  Men \u2026 100,000 of them had  answered the Hindu question.  They wanted Wealth and  were prepared  to<\/div>\n
die to get it.  Gold. Gold  Gold.<\/div>\n

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I  stared at those rocky slopes  from my railway car.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
FLASH: I thought of those back breaking loads three of us carried on the Groundhog River<\/div>\n
job way back in 1959.  Loads so heavy that the metal packframes twisted into scrap and<\/div>\n
our backs screamed.   i thought I could do it.  Why would  I want to?  Fair question.  I  suppose<\/div>\n
the answer makes no real sense.  I wanted to prove something to myself.  I could take it.<\/div>\n
Not pride of strength.  But force of will.  There comes a time in everyone\u2019s life when there is<\/div>\n
challenge where failure  and success are both present at the same time.  On the Groundhog River<\/div>\n
job three of us  lived  cut off from normal life for nearly three months.  I hated and loved that<\/div>\n
job  in equal measure  I  failed sometimes and succeeded  in other times.  I met that wall.<\/div>\n
On that job Floyd  Faulkner, our crew chief, named  me Fucking Al.  A compliment. I think<\/div>\n
and still do.  He did not call me a crybaby\u2026a quitter…<\/div>\n
Funny how that all came back to me as our near empty train made its slow descent.<\/div>\n

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AND NOW I AM DOING THE YUKON IN REVERSE ORDER<\/div>\n

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Dead horse pass   <\/div>\n

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STORY COMING IN EPISODE 241<\/div>\n

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CONTINUED IN EISODE 241<\/div>\n

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EPISODE  240    YUKON DIARY    DEAD HORSE PASS, CHILCOOT TRAIL TO SKAGWAY IN 1962 TITLE:   DOING THE YUKON IN REVERSE alan skeoch Jan.2021 Have you ever got so immersed in a dream that you want to live that dream in real life?   No joke.  I dream a lot.  Good dreams for the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7440\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}