Tetachuck Falls.

about two hundred and fifty pounds of
camping gear.

We called it the Lily.

In the overloaded Lily we rode the
placid waters of Tetachuck Lake, then
portaged up the river to Eutsuck Lake.
This portage is not necessary for power
vehicles but we could not buck the cur-
rent. During the afternoon when we
were portaging, a strong west wind came
up, and we waited all the next day for
it to die down.

When, on the second morning our im-
patience -seemed stronger than the wind,
we ventured out on the lake and as soon
as we got away from the shelter of a
protruding point we found ourselves in
a heavy sea with a rising wind and an
overloaded boat. We did manage to get
ashore, but our equipment was _half-
soaked.

For two days we chewed fingernails
again while tom-toms of the lake beat
on the shore.

Looking across the Bella Coola Valley at Virgin Peaks.
Mount Noosatsum.

—Photo: Copyright, Clifford R. Kopas, Bella Coola, B.C.

Page Eight

Photo:

Courtesy

King’s Printer, Victoria, B.C.

When we did get a chance to moy
Harold rowed forty miles in a day a
we portaged the same evening over -
Whitesail Lake.

The next morning we rowed glad’
over the glassy surface of Chickam;
Bay, on the Whitesail Lake end of ¢f
partage. Outside the bay, the wind spo
ting us from the mountain tops swoope
down on us with a roar and we we
ashore, also with a roar, but not one ¢
triumph.

We were thorough converts to the yi;
tues of beach-hugging, of letting natur
take its course. |

When the wind released us the ney
morning we drifted down the Whitesa
River and contacted a party includin
Clifford and Orald Harrison. They ha
been doing river clearing for the Domir

Trail riders looking from Cariboo Mountain to the high peaks of the Canadian Coast Range.

—Photo: Copyright, Clifford R. Kopas, Bella Coola, B.C.

The high prong on the right is

ion Government and were now gettin
ready to go home.

They hailed us when they saw us.

“Well, by Geesiz,” one of them sai
“we have seen plenty of people headin
into the wilderness with a floating incl
from-immersion nightmare like you'’y
got, but you're the first such outfit th
we've seen come through from the othe
end.”

We accepted the compliment and a
invitation to come and have dinner. (
had been cook of our outfit and foo
had been considered one of the mai
hardships if not menaces of the trip.
We also accepted an invitation to ric
out to their home on their air-drive
vessel, the Lady Tweedsmuir.

The Lily was dismantled and stowe
aboard the Lady Tzeedsmuir and \
sailed down the river and out onto tl
broad bosom of Ootsa Lake.

We found that we had been precij
itated into a land of outboard motor
When Orald Harrison and his wit

THE SHOULDER STRA