The 85-mile stretch of gravel highway that connects Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk at the Arctic edge of Canada’s northwest territories opened in 2017, connecting people with what is largely considered Canada’s last Arctic village. For adventure partners Clarissa Black and Leigh Swansborough, it brought an opportunity to achieve some historic firsts.
In mid-October, the pair hiked the 600-mile trek from Skagway, Alaska, across the Canadian border via the 33-mile Chilkoot, through the Yukon territory, and packrafted nearly 600 miles to Dawson City. They also became the first women to hike from Dawson City to Tuk—a 500-mile-plus feat—that brings their total to over 1,000 miles on a trek that took four-and-a-half months to complete.
“I’ve always been a hiker, adventurer, explorer—but this was really about increasing female visibility in the outdoors,” said Black, who returned home to Long Beach on Thursday; Swansborough went home to Alaska. “I want girls and women alike to be empowered by seeing other women achieve things that society tells them they either can’t or it’s something they shouldn’t be interested in.”
The pair’s endeavor to garner visibility not only matches national campaigns—REI’s Force of Nature marketing-gone-activism campaign earmarked one million dollars for nonprofits that help girls and women get outdoors—but was continually noticed on the face-to-face level. At numerous points along the hike, men would stop Black and Swansborough to learn their story, encourage them to keep going and, perhaps most significantly,, take pictures with their daughters. Some sent handwritten cards telling the pair how their trek both inspired and gave hope to their children.
Black’s journey outdoors goes beyond empowerment; for her, it is a form of therapy. “Ecotherapy,” as she calls it, has helped her decrease her own PTSD but understand it on a deeper level, and this extends to her work in Long Beach, where her nonprofit, Pets for Vets, which helps connect veterans suffering from PTSD with shelter dogs selected to match their personality and specially trained to work with them.
“I have always felt a profound sense of peace, belonging, and grounding when it’s just me with a camera capturing the awesomeness of Mother Nature,” Black said. “Each breath I take when surrounded by pristine scenery feels like a piece of the weight I carry being lifted away. Each trail or adventure completed empowers me. When I need to recharge my batteries, so that I can continue helping others, I seek out remote travel adventure.”
This spiritual and mental health aspect of Black’s journey is inherently connected to her body: she says she specifically didn’t train heavily for the hike so every aspect of the journey would become more ingrained within her.
“I think there is something to be said about the fact that you don’t have to be an extreme athlete to achieve something like this,” Black said. “The journey itself can be the training and the result is everything you feel in your body.”
This isn’t to say the entire trip has been simple. The trek required massive amounts of logistics, from partnering with the Northwest Territories Visitor Centre to coordinating food drop-offs to lighten their load to packing rafts in which they had limited confidence could make it across Bennett Lake. When custom-made carts designed to carry more than 100-pounds of supplies didn’t arrive, they were forced to construct and use makeshift devices made from old baby strollers and golf carts. And when, at the midpoint of their adventure, thieves snatched three packs worth of supplies and gear, residents of Whitehorse stepped up to help replenish their supplies.
Black, a decidedly glass-half-full type of adventurer, even took the robbery as a “blessing that was ingrained into the trip,” noting that because of it the pair met more Yukoners, stretched their supplies more efficiently, and garnered the affection of an entire town of strangers.
Black is returned home to Long Beach today.
Brian Addison is a columnist and editor for the Long Beach Post. Reach him at [email protected] or on social media at Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
Editor’s note: This article originally stated that the pair were the first modern women to hike the Klondike Highway; this was incorrect and has been altered.