![]() ![]() By my thousandth (or so) uphill footstep, the forest around me had thinned and the past felt ever present. And as I hiked, I imagined encountering one of the Ulkatcho families he wrote of, who were heading "to the great river to fish" or maybe a group of young Dene men on a trade journey.Ĭlimbing upward, I left the valley's monumental cedars behind and entered a forest of stunted trees and bright green moss. This "great road" as Mackenzie called the trail in his journal, "was very good and well traced". ![]() In 1793, this was the last section of the route that carried the first European, Alexander Mackenzie, from Montreal across what's now known as Canada to the Pacific Ocean – constituting the first known transcontinental crossing of the Americas north of Mexico. Taking my first steps on the ancient pathway in the Bella Coola Valley, I half expected to feel something transcendent echoes of the past perhaps. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |