Most stampeders headed north from Seattle, San Francisco, Vancouver, and Victoria, as well as other west coast ports, without any idea of what they would be facing once they arrived at Dyea or Skagway. There they soon discovered the brutal facts of the Klondike Trail.
After moving the required ton of supplies across the pass to Lake Bennett they were faced with the task of constructing a boat capable of transporting 2 or 3 men and up to 3 tons of supplies down north to Dawson City and the Klondike.
These boats were constructed by largely inexperienced stampeders out of timber which had been whipsawed into lumber and caulked with hot tar. Thousands of them sailed down north past Whitehorse in 1898.
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