The allure of the deep

Canadians commonly refer to the Yukon as Canada’s best-kept secret, and even growing up in British Colombia the Yukon was a secret to me until a friend convinced me to explore the great white north.

The plan was to travel first to Juneau by ferry, return to Whitehorse, take a quick look around and then get back to Vancouver for work, all in about 10 days. Having a place to stay helped a lot and I took full advantage of it, wasting no time in seeing as much as I could in such a short time frame. People were friendly, the weather was great, and all the things I left at home seemed further away and more meaningless as I began to discover things I'd read about in history class.

Driving along one day, thinking of the sites I'd already seen and explored, I happened to notice a sign that said something about a mine and a road leading to it. Looking for adventure, I turned onto the gravel road just to see where it would lead. It hadn't been used much so I followed it up as far as I could in my truck and then began on foot.

The old road ran between two fairly large mountains with side trails leading in all directions. I decided to follow the first one, as I thought it might take me up high for a better view, little suspecting that this would change my life.

At one point I sat down and watched. The sun beamed down, fresh air surrounded me, gophers chattered and played in the grass, and wild flowers and mountains with rolling grassy hills stretched as far as I could see. I was in heaven.

Then, out of the corner of my eye, an object caught my attention. Time was getting short, but I hiked closer. It was time to return to friends for dinner and then pack to drive home the next day. My excitement grew - there was something big over there! As I scrambled up the bank, there it was - an old steam engine just sitting, watching over the hillside. Now the who, what, when, where and why's were running through my mind, and in my excitement I lost track of time.

Much later, over dinner, I started to reflect on having met so many people, and having seen so much. As we ate, I decided to take just a couple of more days and look for a job.

Before I knew what was happening I was driving back to Vancouver and packing up to head north!

I was gone about 13 days and on the way acquired 10 mountain bikes and a Dodge van. I was in business! But, my mind was always on those grassy hills and that old steam engine.

With each trip up the mountain I found more and more. I asked around about the site, but didn't learn much other than things that were easy to find on the main road. There were more, there had to be more, treasures of the past. All my time was spent exploring.

One day, driving past my usual turn-off and continuing along the highway, I noticed a tower up high. With plenty of summer daylight left, I was off again bush whacking my way when an old trail crossed my path. It was heavily grown over in a lot of places but things started popping up: inch-thick cables still hanging with ore buckets dangling from them; an old cabin with a coffee pot fallen through a rotted-out wood stove; a pair of leather boots sticking out of the moss where the door once kept the cold out.

I felt nature was on the return with the cabin and tent frames melting back into the forest. Green moss and trees were growing out from once-wooden floors where men rested from a hard day’s work. As I came out of the trees, the alpine opened up and there stood old tramway towers overlooking Tagish Lake’s Windyarm.

Standing in awe of such a find and such a view, I followed the cables upward, taking time to rest a while as the sun set over granite-faced mountains with emerald colored lakes far below.

The trail continued. A faint object appeared on the peak ahead. Once there, I couldn't believe the wonders of those first miners. The tramway led to a mountain mine with stone houses over- looking a creek. There was a huge old blackened air compressor bigger than the little truck I had left behind. Old rusty oilcans lay in a pile - last used to keep the compressor lubricated while others ran the air drills below in the dark mine shafts. I looked down the tramway I had just hiked up, at the beautiful green alpine grassland with rolling hills capped with jagged rock and the sound of nature stirring. I thought of the days when this place was booming and alive with workers, thinking of the day they would return to their families with their pockets full of riches from the Yukon.

These days I travel the trail at least three times a week, knowing a bit more about the men who built this portion of history.

In brief, the trail was built by Sam MaGee and his crew on contract from Conrad Mine Co. in the summer of 1905. At the same time, crews were building the tramway that would carry 80 ore buckets, and be able to carry passengers and supplies, but it would prove to be short-lived as it was costly to run. Stone houses, some with 16x100 foot walls, would run 24 hrs a day. Mining was carrying on all the while with large equipment being moved up the mountain by mules and men to boost production.

Brute force was the way of the times. The compressor I first found took Billy Weisdeppe’s team of 40 mules and 23 men over six weeks to drag into place. This 16 km area includes 17 mines, four mining camps, three tramways, two hand-built trails wide enough for a mule train to pull skids loaded with supplies going up and ore coming back down, to the terminal in a small bay on Windyarm.

Now it all stands still, watching time and the seasons pass by. The snow pack is receding, the gophers are out of their winter dens. It is time once again for hikers to walk the trails and think of the tranquility and the solidarity of the life of men like Sam MaGee who built and worked the mines of the Windyarm Stampede!

(Wayne Roberts runs Fireweed Hikes and Bikes in Whitehorse. He can be reached at Tel: (867-668-7313 or yukonhikes@hotmail.com)

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