From the Prairies to Pacific

Ocean with Pack Horses

Dedicated to the Memory of Ruth Kopas, Whose Courage and Loyalty and
Steadfastness of Purpose Proved Greater Than Any Obstacle.

IT WAS our ambition to make a con-
tinuous pack-train journey from the
prairies of Alberta to the Pacific Ocean,
to pierce the mountains in much the same
fashion as the explorers of a century or
more ago. In pursuit of this ambition we
studied volumes of maps and eventually
established a route that we hoped to fol-
low. The route we picked was well north-
ward, taking us much of the time above
the 53rd parallel of North Latitude, which
is considered the marking line of the
north from the south. Reasons for the
big loop northward were two: the first
being our hope to reach the sea at Bella
Coola, where Mackenzie had reached it a

The junction of the Howse and North Saskatchewan Rivers,

EIGHTEENTH EDITION

hundred and forty years before; the sec-
ond being our desire to escape the neces-
sity of travelling through more or less
extensive settled areas as found in the
lower portion of British Columbia.

This route also evaded the bigger rivers
which course through the southern part
of the sunset province.

Had we known the many times that
tragedy would hover near in the form of
mutilated bodies or death by mountain
torrent or starvation; and had we known
that death would claim one of us before
the return journey was accomplished, we
might have changed our minds. We
might have. For it is not given to human

By
CLIFFORD R. KOPAS
*

beings to foresee how they will react
under given circumstances. Sufficient it
is to say that on that smiling day in June
when Ruth Hall and I became man and
wife we were ready for an adventure
that was to carry us through roaring
summer-time blizzards and raging moun-
tain torrents: we were ready for a trip
that would mean mere subsistence rations,
where our very existence depended upon
the well-being of our horses.

It was a strange trousseau my bride
brought with her as we drove from Cal-
gary, Alberta, into the foothills of the
Rockies. Instead of the flimsy lace and
party dresses and picture hats it was utili-

: 5 kes —Photo Clifford R. Kopas
as seen from where the Mistaya River joins them.

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