The public was flooded with advice and maps - many providing questionable or wrong data as the publishers tried to cash in on the rush. For most of the so-called "Stampeders", deciding to leave for the Klondike was easier than choosing a route. Besides Vancouver (CA - British Columbia) and Tacoma (US - Washington), Seattle (US - Washington) was the most successful town at promoting itself as the best departure point for the Klondike. Within days the city was full of fortune hunters and all ships northbound to Alaska were over-booked. Every little old boat, capable of transporting passengers was used to carry Stampeders through the Inland-Passage to Dyea, Alaska.
Dyea's harbor was not as deep as Skagway's, therefore most of the ships landed their cargo in Skagway and Stampeders were often left to make their own way over to Dyea and the Chilkoot Pass trail. At the beginning of the Gold Rush there didn't exist the Yukon Railroad over the White Pass which connects Canada's Yukon region with the sea, so the miners only chance to cross the border to Canada was to walk. Leading 32 miles from Dyea to the shores of Lake Lindemann the Chilkoot Pass trail was the fastest way to get to the Klondike. Along the trail there were several camps, mainly consisting of tends and some log buildings offering food and accommodation. While most of the trail was not too difficult for walking, the section to the summit of the Chilkoot pass was very demanding - the famous "Golden Stairs". Stampeders moved up the 1500 steps carved out of the ice, carrying their goods on their back following each other in a single line. A single trip up the Golden Stairs could take as long as six hours! Many were ill prepared for their journey and died of exposure or starvation. In order to prevent a high number of deaths, the North West Mounted Police (better known as "Mounties") insisted that every single man who wants to enter Canada has to carry one ton of supplies - enough for a year in the Yukon Territory. This decision meant an early ending for many of the Stampeders because they simply could not afford to buy that much supply. The ones who did afford had to walk the trail several times, risking that somebody steels their stuff in the meantime. On April 3, 1898, a series of avalanches struck along the Chilkoot Pass trail killing dozens of Stampeders. As a consequence the alternative route leading over the White Pass that was at least a bit saver got more popular.
In contrast to the Chilkoot Pass, which earned the nickname "the meanest 32 miles in the world", the White Pass trail seemed to be much easier. That was true for the first few miles where it was possible to use wagons but later on the path narrowed to just a little more than half a meter. The trail had originally been advertised as an all-wagon trail and Stampeders came with horses which had great difficulties when the path got narrow. Their owners beat and drove them along the thin trail until they were exhausted to death. The famous novelist Jack London who also chose to walk over the White Pass trail in 1897 wrote: "Men shot them, worked them to death and when they were gone, went back to the beach and bought more.Their hearts turned to stone - those which did not break - and they became beasts, the men on the Dead Horse Trail."
Both, the White Pass trail and the Chilkoot Pass trail end up at Lake Bennet which is the beginning of the Yukon River. During the winter of 1897-1898 Stampeders had to stay in rapidly growing tend camps, waiting for the ice to break. Most Stampeders needed to build their own boats and this resulted in deforesting the surrounding area. The effect of thousands of campers living for months along the lake is still clearly visible a century later. By the end of May, the river had broken up enough for traffic to begin. Hundreds of boats began leaving the lakes each day and the overall mood of the Stampeders was one of excitement and adventure but those who thought that they could now just sail smoothly down the Yukon into Dawson were wrong.
In the first days of the rush down the Yukon River over 100 boats were torn to pieces in the White Horse Rapids with the Stampeders loosing either all their equipment or even their lives. Finally the Mounted Police refused to allow any more boats down the Rapids, unless there was an experienced pilot aboard. The boats lined up above the rapids waiting for an available pilot, one of them was the young adventurer Jack London. For the "Klondikers", as they were calling themselves, the most difficult section on the Yukon River was Miles Canyon. In its center a twirling, wild whirlpool was waiting for the Stampeders on their self-made boats. The Mounties also asked women and children to get out of the boats and walk along the banks of the Yukon to the end of the rapids but some of them like Emma Kelly insisted on riding the rapids. She was one of three female correspondents who had been sent to cover the gold rush and she enjoyed the trip so much she decided to ride the rapids twice: \"I do not know when I ever enjoyed anything so much in my life... Wild waves rocked and rolled our boat and occasionally broke over us. The spray rose so thick and high we could not see the shore, the very air seeming a sea of misty spray. It was simply glorious. All too soon we rowed into comparatively smooth yet rapid water. A few more strokes of the oars sent us to the shore and the ride was over, leaving a sensation never to be forgotten.\" (published 1901, Lippincott's Monthly Magazine) Many others were not as brave as Emma Kelly and a clever businessman built a wooden rail tramway that allowed the Klondikers to bypass the rapids with all their gear for 25 Dollars. Further down the Yukon the boaters had a smooth ride over Lake Laberge leading into the section known as Thirtymile. The river's last challenge were the famous Five Finger Rapids but from then on Stampeders only had to avoid the many side channels of the Yukon and soon found themselves at Dawson City, where the Yukon and the Klondike Rivers met. From here, the gold fields were only a few miles away.
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