|
For a taste of what is possibly a more remarkable landscape than you see on the Cassiar, it's worth driving the potentially treacherous 113-kilometre side road from Dease Lake to TELEGRAPH CREEK (allow 2hr in good conditions). It's a delightful river-bank town whose look and feel can scarcely have changed since the beginning of the twentieth century, when it was a major telegraph station and trading post for the gold-rush towns to the north. The road from the Cassiar navigates some incredible gradients and bends, twisting past canyons, old lava beds and touching on several aboriginal villages , notably at Tahltan River, where salmon are caught and cured in traditional smokehouses and sold to passing tourists. If you're lucky you might see a Tahltan bear dog, a species now virtually extinct. Only ankle high, and weighing less than fifteen pounds, these tiny animals were able to keep a bear cornered by barking and darting around until a hunter came to finish it off. Telegraph Creek itself is an object lesson in how latter-day pioneers live on the north's last frontiers: it's home to a friendly mixture of city exiles, hunters, trappers and ranchers, but also a cloistered bunch of religious fundamentalists who have eschewed the decadent mainstream for wilderness purity. Such groups are growing in outback British Columbia, an as-yet undocumented phenomenon that's creating friction with the easy-going types who first settled the backwoods. Gold has recently been discovered locally, attracting mining companies, so ways of life may be about to change here for all concerned. Much of the village and village life revolves around the General Delivery - a combined cafe (the Riversong ), grocery and garage - and small adjoining motel , the Stikine River Song Lodge (tel 235-3196, www.stikineriversong.com ; $60-80), whose rooms include kitchenettes. No one here, except perhaps the Bible brigade, minds if you pitch a tent - but ask around first. Also enquire at the cafe for details of rafting and other local trips into the backcountry.
Your Tip for Telegraph Creek
Help other backpackers! Write your own guides and backpacking tips to Telegraph Creek - they will appear instantly on this page - Please only write a tip/guide to Telegraph Creek - visit the main Telegraph Creek forum to ask a question!
Please do not post links to your site here (they won't work) - please use the Telegraph Creek webguide section below! Thanks.
|
