After a month of travel to reach the Klondike Gold Strike in Yukon territory,

21-year-old Jack London had crossed 1,500 miles of ocean by steamship, 100 miles of river by canoe,

and 33 miles by foot over terrain for which the word rugged didn't even come close to describing.

And the 33 miles of distance was deceptive. That was 33 miles on a map.

Jack and many of the other men who rushed to the gold

strike were responsible for carrying hundreds of pounds of supplies with them. At Jack's peak,

he could carry a load of between 100 and 150 pounds. For the sake of easy math, if he were responsible

for a total of 1,000 pounds of supplies,

and he could carry a load of 100 pounds, one mile up the trail.

Then he had to drop that load and walk one mile back to his stockpile of supplies,

grab another load of 100 pounds, strap it to his back, and walk a mile forward to drop it with the

first load. That meant to carry the total of 1,000 pounds of supplies just one mile up the trail,

Jack actually walked 20 miles. And that meant to cover the 33 miles of the Chilcote Trail

from the starting point at Dai'e, Alaska,

to the end of the overland portion of the journey at Lake Lindemann, Canada.

Jack walked 600 to 700 miles, while carrying a pack of supplies on his back every inch of the way.

And it would be one thing to try that kind of challenge after doing months

of training, and while wearing modern athletic gear, and in the perfectly sunny conditions of a place

like San Diego. But Jack did it in August of 1897, while wearing old woolen clothes and boots

that would seem barbaric by today's standards.

And while slogging up a muddy trail and being battered by wind and drenched by rain and sometimes pelted with snow and sleeping in a tent on muddy ground every night and surviving

on nothing but beans, bacon, and bread. After about 25 days of the journey, Jack and his four traveling companions were

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