In Skagway, we board the White Pass-Yukon Railroad, along the Chilcoat Trail, where thousands of prospectors hauled tons of supplies to the gold fields. We pass “dead horse trail,” the valley where their mules and horses perished from overwork and starvation.

Adell, our leader reads from the diary of a brave, young woman drawn from San Francisco to the wild, unsettled Skagway, at the top of the inside passage. She is dressed in a white blouse and long black skirt of the time as she reads from her original manuscript, holding us spellbound.