Chilkoot Trail washout

Tales from the Backyard…  One summer at Klondike we had this hellascious storm that had dumped 6” of rain over 2 days.  The Chilkoot trail was a mess.  The rangers had reported that almost every bridge had been washed out, there were over 100.  I amassed the entire trail crew, along with my preservation crew and hired several of the locals to head to the back country and begin the arduous task to make the repairs.  The crews were split in half, one to work the length of the trail, making repairs as necessary as they went and the other to work on our largest bridge, which was 110 feet long, it being totally washed out, the river actually had been diverted.  The crews stocked up and off they went.  I kept in touch via radio.  Early the next week, the rangers had scheduled a helicopter to resupply the Ranger station so I asked if I could be dropped off at mile 13, the big bridge.  When I arrived, the crew of 13 just stood and watched as I landed and got out.  They were tired, dejected and suffering from lack of sleep from the 18 hour days, but worst of all they were demoralized and had lost sight of the task at hand.  No one was in control.  The amount of work they had already accomplished was phenomenal, having built all the new log and stone filled cairns in the river and had cut all the trees for the walkway and supports (the design is kind of Burmese style).  I assembled them and complimented them on what they had done so far and then assigned the various tasks left to be done and sent them out.  By the end of the day they had completed the bridge just as the helicopter came to pick me up.  As I lifted off I looked down and they all were just staring up at me leaving and from the looks on their pride filled faces,  I thought as I flew away  of them thinking, “Who was that man?”, and later learned that that is exactly what they were thinking.  My thanks to you all for a job well done.