Stampede Trail

Hikers take a break at Bus 142 on the Stampede Trail.

The Stampede Trail in Alaska was a mining trail blazed in the 1930s by Alaska miner Earl Pilgrim to access his antimony claims on Stampede Creek, above the Clearwater Fork of the Toklat River. Located in Denali Borough; what is now known as Stampede Road begins two miles north of Healy at Mile 251.1 of the George Parks Highway (Alaska Route 3), the main highway connecting Anchorage and Fairbanks.

In 1961, Yutan Construction won a contract from the new state of Alaska to upgrade the trail as part of Alaska's Pioneer Road Program, building a road on which trucks could haul ore from the mines year-round to the railroad. The project was halted in 1963 after some fifty miles of roads were built, but no bridges were ever constructed over the several rivers it crossed, and the route was shortly rendered impassable by thawing permafrost and floods.

Bus 142 was one of the buses used to transport the construction crew from Fairbanks to the work site. Its engine was removed, and it was instead towed by D8 Cats. Eventually its axle broke, and so the crew decided to leave it behind for hunters and hikers to use as a shelter.

The trail has since been used by backcountry travelers on foot, bicycle, snowmachine, and motorcycle. The trail's main obstacle is the crossing of the Teklanika River. The river's fluctuating depth can hinder attempts to ford it. In August 2010, flooding resulted in the drowning death of Claire Ackermann, a hiker from Switzerland.

Into the Wild

The trail gained notoriety in 1992 when Outside magazine published an article written by Jon Krakauer titled "Death of an Innocent" describing the death of Christopher McCandless, who had lived in a bus parked on an overgrown section of the trail near Denali National Park. The old bus had been left behind by the Yutan Construction Company during the road building to serve as a backcountry shelter for hunters, trappers and ranger patrols. The bus can be seen on Google Earth (63°52′06.23″N 149°46′09.49″W) and Google Maps.

In recent years, the trail has seen a pilgrimage of visitors seeking where McCandless perished. The September 2007 release of the film version of Jon Krakauer's 1996 book about McCandless, Into the Wild, has revived interest in the trail.

References

• The Road Chose Me - Hiking The Stampede Trail to reach The Magic Bus, July 2009.
• Hiking The Stampede Trail - Resources and Information about Hiking the Stampede Trail to Bus 142 in Alaska