Skiing over these Yukon and White Pass Rail tracks is easy since they are covered with several feet of snow. It’s cold here at the interior end of the Chilkoot Trail, plus 5 F, but isn’t uncomfortable until the wind blows up the line.  When the sun breaks through a thin cloud layer the greens, whites and grays of the forest wake up.

A quiet place most of the winter (recent wild things tracks confirm) it must brace itself for tomorrow’s cross country ski race. Even now volunteers construct an aid station, Inuit style, from snow blocks but shaped like a pirate ship—skull shaped prow, beetle killed lodge pine masts and booms, Jolly Roger flags festooning the rigging.  What must the coyote think-the one that left such purposeful tracks in this now sparkling snow?