We did it! My first overnight backpacking trip! Jeff, Hank, and I split over 50 lbs of gear and water! We walked about 28.25 km (17.5 mi) in just over 24 hours.

The Ridge Road Trail is a historical road built in 1899. It was the first wagon road ever built by the Yukon government, and it served the goldfields. It was abandoned a couple years later, when people preferred to use the roads along the creeks instead of tackling all the steep grades of this road. The road has been favoured in years since, to drive tracked equipment out of the mines at the end of the season.

In 1996, 33 km of the original 56 km road has been reopened as a multi-purpose trail, and part of the Trans Canada Trail. And we’ve had our eye on hiking it for years!

The trail goes between the Callison Industrial subdivision south of town, out to the Upper Trailhead area out on Upper Bonanza. Logistically, we had a hurdle to overcome. Do we start in town and walk outbound? But then how do we get back? Or do we stage a vehicle at either end and just hope we don’t get back to our remotely parked vehicle with 4 windows shot out (summer shenanigans happen in the land of the midnight sun).

But we found a solution! Our friends Tim and Liz offered to drive us out to the far end of the trail on Saturday morning, and Jeff left his truck in Callison parked nearby the Jackson Gulch lower trailhead where we hoped to end our hike on Sunday.

We’ve been collecting our gear for a year or two now. We watch so many hiking videos on YouTube that we have soaked up so much hiker knowledge. But without actually doing an overnight hike, I felt like a backpacking imposter!

The trouble we knew we would have is that there are no guaranteed water sources on this hike. The trail has two campsites, at the sites of old roadhouses from the early days of the road, and one of them was known to have the old water pump and well still in place. But could we count on it? And it wasn’t just us we needed to think about, but we needed to have enough water for Hank to drink too! Maybe there would be puddles for him? But how do you know?

So we each packed 3 litres of water in our backpack water bladders, and another ~2 litres in various Nalgene water bottles. Let me tell ya. Water isn’t light.

We also had our new tent, our sleeping bags, sleeping pads, blow-up pillows, food (stored in a bear proof food barrel), a first aid kit, In Reach satellite communicator, poop trowel, bug spray, bear spray, a bear banger pistol, a big blanket for Hank to sleep on inside the tent, a Jetboil stove system, a lighter, and a pocket knife. I debated long and hard and decided my pack was already heavy enough, why not clip my Crocs on too, because they’d be nicer to slip on in camp at night, and for getting up at night for late night pees. And I tied on a handkerchief for wiping my nose so I wouldn’t need to carry and dispose Kleenex.

I also went back and forth on my hiking poles. It’s just an old road – would I need them? I decided to strap them on too, thinking if I was super tired and worn out, I may wish I had them.

Tim got us out to the Upper trailhead by 9:45am. Here’s the last picture he took of us, so he could show the necessary cadaver retrieval teams what clothes we we last wearing before the bears ate us:

The first 0.1 km I was really worried. It was so windy, kinda cold (I didn’t even bring a jacket or sweatshirt!), and my 26lb + backpack was weighing so heavy on my knees and feet. How were we going to do this?

The start: (hood on for cold wind!)

And that’s when I started using my hiking poles. It feels like they are doing nothing, yet they do everything. They balance you, and pretty much just give you motivation. I would not have been able to do this trail without them. Not with 26 lbs on my hips anyway!

I have a lot to say about all the gear we used, and knowing this blog post will be long enough, I’ll post our gear reviews in a separate post.

About 30 minutes into the trail, you’ll find the old Soda Station box car. It was used as a freight depot back in the early days of this freight road.

We decided to keep Hank leashed for this hike. No one else would do this, but the idea of pulling porcupine quills out of his face was not a reality we wanted to face. Nor was him meeting a wolf or bringing a bear back to us. Jeff attached the long flexi leash to his pack’s waist clip so Hank had a ton of long line and could trot along as he liked. He chased a couple grouse and pulled Jeff a few times, but overall it worked okay.

The views.. oh the views! Mountains in both directions!

By 10:30am, my hat was backwards (I’ve never worn a hat like this, but the peak was blocking too much of my view!), my hood was off, and I was having a ball!

Jeff’s pace is faster than mine, so he was always up ahead. We both were feeling good so decided to not stop until we got to the first campground for lunch, since it was advertised as having the only picnic table on the route. We knew it was going to be around km 11.

We got to the first of the two campsites, called Mile 15 campsite, around 1pm. It was about 10.7 km into the hike.

There was a picnic table as advertised! Yay!

Jeff had sliced up some meat and packed cheese sticks for our lunch. Neither of us was very hungry, but we forced some calories in. I had brought a couple packets of Celcius energy drink flavour sachets. I mixed one up and drank about a litre of water.

I had a blister starting on the arch of my foot already. I was worried about these shoes. My absolute favourite, best hikers, were worn out so I had to choose between two other pairs, and neither was perfect. I probably chose the wrong pair. I packed blister tape strips though! So I slapped one on it and put my Crocs on while we had lunch and rested a bit.

We knew there was a well here, so we had planned to filter water and get our containers all topped off to last the rest of the hike.

But… oh no… how was this going to work? Isn’t there a pipe missing?

Well, this was a bit concerning. Would we have enough water? Hank had found some puddles. Would we need to filter puddle water?

We were so sweaty we sat for a bit and just chilled. We were already close to a 1/3 of the way done the hike!

There was once a roadhouse here and stables. I didn’t see anything remaining except for the usual old fuel cans and an old wash basin, but who knows what was behind the trees.

Back to the trail! Something I should mention about this trail. It is not as nice as hiking on a hiking trail. It is not flat, has ruts, and everything is angled the wrong way for easy, nice walking. Your feet are constantly twisting

Coming out of that first campsite, we started to climb.

And we kept climbing up.

For 5 or 6 kilometres!

In a way, it was nicer than my feet taking a beating from going downhill (the toe box is just too narrow in these Hoka shoes), but it was the hottest part of the day. Every time I thought we had crested the hill, we turned a bit and another hill was revealed.

Jeff and Hank pulled away from me. The hills slowed me down. Every time my heart rate got over 180 beats per minute, I had to slow it down or stop for a few breaths (so every 20 steps).

It was hot and the road was dusty, but the wild roses were blooming and the arctic lupines, so at times everything smelled so fragrant!

There was piles of bear poop all over the trail, and wolf scat. Not too many human tracks though (the last hiker to sign the trail registry, at the start of the hike, was last October).

At 3:15 I found Jeff taking a break, and joined him.

Hank wasn’t so sure he needed a rest, but eventually, he rested.

This was the first place we saw another person! Another Dawsonite came by on his ATV. I thought he was going to run my legs over! He waved and carried on.

Jeff and Hank tried to nap. I was feeling pretty good! And having a great time! We’re actually doing this!!

We probably relaxed here about 30 minutes before carrying on. It seemed we had finally crested all the hills!

Somewhere in this stretch, I heard whistling. Why was Jeff whistling? “Hi there!” WHOA what the heck! Two guys on fat tire bikes came whizzing by us from behind. That’s who was whistling!

We reached the second campsite, Mile 11 campsite, a little bit after 5pm. I was dead! That was an 18km day!

We had expected nothing at this campsite, but there was an outhouse, a picnic table, AND ANOTHER WELL!! Maybe there was no puddle water in our future after all!

Right away, we had the typical hiker gear explosion. Everything pulled out of our packs, figuring out what we needed out (everything), and I was eager to get my sweaty underwear and bra off (yes, I hung my bra in a tree to dry for day 2, but I did pack a fresh pair of underwear!)

This well was working! The water was very yellow, but that is the usual colour of groundwater after it filters through our moss and boreal forest ground cover. And it was cold!

However, our Sawyer water filter just wasn’t cooperating. It was flowing at drip speed only, even when we (I mean Jeff. My arms were deceased.) squeezed the water bag firmly. This was not ideal. But when filtered, it tasted fine!

Neither one of us was hungry, but we knew we should get a protein-rich meal in us to help us recover somewhat overnight. Jeff got another bit of water squeezed for my dehydrated meal and then tried doing more unfiltered at a 10 minute rolling boil for his. Not easy in a Jetboil! It just kept boiling over!

We found the flattest part of the campsite right behind the picnic table and set up the tent. Since it was so warm, we decided not to put the fly on, and just keep the mesh between us and the mosquitos.

Then we heard a quad coming up the trail. It was Tim!! He came to check on us, and he brought 4 litres of cold water just in case we needed it!! What a savour!! We were able to top off every water container. No puddle water for us! He was impressed with how far we made it! What a great friend to come and see if we were dead yet!

After Tim left, we packed up our backpacks and left them on the picnic table, and put all the garage and the food in the bear canister and sat it aways away on top of the well.

We were so tired and broken. I thought we’d be out immediately.

However…. it is the longest days of the year right now! No darkness!

Hank napped first, but then sat and pestered us.

It turns out, this meant – let me outside, I need to have a loud explosive poop, and I need to have it right now. And a pee too.

After that he was more settled. Jeff nodded off next.

I was up for hours….

I was thinking about all the bears that were going to eat us. Was that a footstep? What was that?

I had gas pain high in my stomach. Was that from sucking water out of that bladder straw all day? What side are you supposed to sleep on to help gas pass?

I got up twice to pee.

One of those times I fetched the bear pistol and bear bangers we had forgotten in Jeff’s pack (what good are they out there!)

I watched the mosquitos sit on the tent mesh, sticking their stabber through the mesh. I listened to the birds sing. A yellow rumped warbler sang for awhile. Then that high pitched electronic whistling bird that had 4 vastly different pitches. I forget what it is! I was going to pull out my phone and use the Merlin app but thought that would be counterproductive for sleep.

Every time Jeff rolled over and opened his eyes in a squint, I waved.

I tried covering my eyes with a sock to keep out the sun. I tried a pillow between my knees.

And then by 2am I knew I had to drug myself. I was so sore. I couldn’t sleep. I was long past caring if a bear was going to eat us. I am allergic to NSAIDS but I brought the Blexten allergic pills I need to take with one, and dug a Tylenol out of Jeff’s bag. It took an hour, but I was asleep by 3!

And up by 5 something! All together my watch says I slept 3.75 hours. Jeff wanted to keep snoozing but I just couldn’t lie there anymore. Let’s go! Let’s go!

We had expected to be absolutely wrecked when we got up. But we were both surprised to discover we weren’t feeling bad! Definitely better than the night before!

Jeff got water boiling for our oatmeal and he had an instant coffee. I mixed another bottle with the Celcius energy power and drank it down. Hank had half a serving of his breakfast kibble. We took down the tent and packed our packs back up. It wasn’t too dewy without the tent fly. It was a bit damp and nicely chilly. Under 10°C likely, but not that cold.

We were back on the trail by 7am.

We had expected this campsite to be at km 22, but it was only 18km in, according to our Apple watch hike tracking anyway. So we weren’t sure if we were going to have 11 km left, or more. We expected a bit of a climb and then a slow, long descent to town.

The first two kilometres out of camp were uphill.

Right away the ground seemed nicer. Less rutted maybe, softer. Less rocks for a bit. The forest was thicker. More mosquitos.

I was having a blast!! I wanted to mentally record if I’d ever do this again.

I would!

But after those 2 km uphill, the next 8 km were downhill. After about 6 km downhill, my feet felt like ground meat. Jeff said I should put my Crocs on instead. I did, and it was a smart choice! It slowed my pace, for sure, but likely saved my feet from more damage.

We know people who have done this entire hike without camping overnight. In a way that would be easier, you’d have far less to carry, but you would still need to carry a crazy amount of water! Not really ideal for your first backpacking trip, but it worked out!

I didn’t see too many relics on this hike, but I bet there would be many more visible when the leaves are off the trees. There were old cans and lots of old trapper boxes tied to the trees. Even this bath tub!

There were also so many broken reflectors and mirror pieces from years of quads and side-by-sides and snowmobiles ripping up this road. I even found an old pocket knife/multitool in the mud! Score!

And we were done! Just over 10km was all it took today to reach the trailhead near where Jeff had left his truck the day before.

We did it! 28 kilometres (17.5 miles). WE DID IT!

Was it easy? No. But it wasn’t that hard either. All the walking, hiking, and strength training I’ve done in the last year certainly paid off.

We are so stiff though for the first minute or two after getting up though, now that we are home! I have a couple blisters and maybe a new callus on my little toe. I’m never hiking in those shoes again. More about our gear choices in my next post!

Oh, and here’s more about the trail: https://yukon.ca/sites/yukon.ca/files/tc/tc-ridge-road-heritage-trail.pdf