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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