Comments on: The Klondike’s Golden Staircase

By: Rich F

Rich F — Fri, 03 Feb 2017 16:52:27 +0000

Apparently, there’s another “Rich” posting on this thread. So from now on, I’ll use “Rich F”

By: huxley

huxley — Fri, 03 Feb 2017 01:06:46 +0000

I admit I was hoping to get a shout-out from a Townes’ fan or two about “Snowin’ on Raton.”

No matter. He was a great sixties-seventies county singer with manic depression who didn’t end well — like Phil Ochs.

I had heard of him, but I didn’t pay particular attention until the Cowboy Junkies “Black Eyed Man” album, which included the lyric:

Ain’t this fool ever heard of Raton?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7a58lXH14YU

Which was about Raton Pass and Townes’s magnificent song, “Snowin’ on Raton.”

I don’t buy the rhetoric Townes was on par with Bob Dylan, but Townes was something else for those at all inclined to his sound.

By: Rachelle

Rachelle — Thu, 02 Feb 2017 20:50:35 +0000

There were two passes. This one and the White Pass. The trail for the White Pass is still visible along the side of the pass.

They said that whichever pass you chose, somewhere along the way you wish you had taken the other one.

Both passes had to be climbed several times to carry provisions to the top. Nobody was allowed to cross into Canada unless he had enough supplies. A ton of material comes to mind but whatever it was, it was a lot and couldn’t be hauled up in a single climb.

By: OM

OM — Thu, 02 Feb 2017 19:22:50 +0000

Neo:

Photography can fool the eye.

And for the tropical version of a grim horrible experience there is the Kokoda Track in New Guinea WWII.

By: neo-neocon

neo-neocon — Thu, 02 Feb 2017 19:16:11 +0000

Rich:

I’ve driven through many passes. The ones I’ve been through do NOT go straight up a mountain like that!

They certainly are not at sea level; they are very high. But they usually run somewhat between mountains although at a high high elevation. At least, that’s been my experience. I’ve never seen a pass that goes straight up either a mountain or a foothill at that kind of steep angle.

By: huxley

huxley — Thu, 02 Feb 2017 17:30:47 +0000

At Christmas my sisters and I used to drive from Santa Fe to a small town above Colorado Springs. On the way we would have to drive through Raton Pass. If it had been snowing heavily — as happens around the holidays at 7800 feet — it was a white-knuckle horror to drive through.

One year was particularly bad. We saw at least a dozen cars which had spun out on the road and were stranded on the shoulders.

A certain amount of Raton, NM’s tourist business is based on drivers stuck in Raton because the pass is closed.

Anyway here’s the late, great Townes van Zandt singing “Snowin’ on Raton”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NgjYhzrTgE

By: Rich

Rich — Thu, 02 Feb 2017 16:46:52 +0000

A pass IS a mountain; it’s just lower than the other mountains around it. It’s the lowest point in the local range but the highest point of the road.

By: huxley

huxley — Thu, 02 Feb 2017 16:22:51 +0000

I read Jack London’s “To Build a Fire” and “A Hundred Dozen Eggs” in high school about the hardships suffered in the Yukon during the Gold Rush.

I was scarred for life!

By: Surellin

Surellin — Thu, 02 Feb 2017 15:20:50 +0000

It’s a pass because it’s a relatively lower saddle between higher peaks. Saw it once, never fool enough to climb it.

By: groundhog

groundhog — Thu, 02 Feb 2017 07:36:14 +0000

When I went to the source I page I really noticed the people carrying a wooden chest on their backs.

One has to start having second thoughts half way up, I would think.