The Selkirk Mountains/Chapter 5
CHAPTER V.
THE DOGTOOTH MOUNTAINS.
From a sketch by A. O. Wheeler.
The geography of the Dogtooth Mountains is doubtful. As yet they do not appear to have been definitely assigned to any of the established mountain systems, but seem to be an outlying group by themselves. On his Reconnaissance Map of "a portion of the Rocky Mountains" published in 1888, Dr. Dawson embodies them in the Selkirk Range. But the latest Dominion Government maps do not use the word. "range" in connection with the Selkirks. According to such maps the Selkirk Mountains occupy the entire country enclosed by the great loops of the Columbia and Kootenay Rivers; while the Dogtooth Mountains, Spillimachen Mountains, and Shuswap Mountains are minor groups of the same system.
The north-eastern boundary of the Selkirk Mountains is the deep and wide Columbia-Kootenay trough or "Great Rocky Mountain Trench" within which the Columbia flows north-westerly, and the Kootenay south-easterly. The greatest elevation of the trench above sea-level is at Canal Flats at the head of Columbia Lake—2,740 feet. Almost through the centre of the Selkirk Mountains a similar trench has been cut, consisting of the long, narrow valleys of Flat Bow or Kootenay Lake, Howser River and Lake, the Duncan River flowing southward and the Beaver River flowing northward. The highest part of this trench is at the divide between the two streams last named—4,600 feet above sea-level. This less deeply cut and narrower trough joins the great Columbia trough close to Beavermouth Station on the Canadian Pacific Railway. In an article on the subject published in the Geographical Journal (Vol. 27, p. 600), Dr. Reginald Daly has named it the Purcell Trench and would thereby seem to indicate that all enclosed by it and the Columbia-Kootenay Trench is part of the Purcell Range. On Palliser's map of "Explorations in the Rockies from 1857-1860" the Purcell Range is shown occupying but an insignificant part of this area. On the same map the Selkirk Mountains are shown to occupy only the upper half of the area enclosed by the Columbia and Kootenay Rivers.
Now, there are no maps earlier than Palliser's until you get back to Thompson's (1812), and Dawson appears to have followed his (Palliser's) nomenclature. Little change had been made since Dawson's map of 1886 until Dr. Daly introduced the appellation. Purcell Trench, which naturally extended the area of the Purcell Range. It seems to fill a want and to dispose of a somewhat complicated geography.
Their geological structure distinctly separates the Selkirks from the Rockies, so that it is reasonable to define the Selkirk Mountains as bounded by the loops of the Columbia and Kootenay Rivers, and the Purcell Range as a subdivision, bounded by the ColumbiaKootenay and Purcell Trenches. This places the Dogtooth, Spillimacheen and Shuswap Moimtains as minor groups of the Purcell Range, the first-named being situated at its northern extremity. Defined by limits, the Dogtooth Mountains are bounded on the north and east by the Columbia River, on the south and west by the north branch of the Spillimacheen River, Grizzly Creek (west branch), and Beaver River. They embrace the serrated line of peaks seen up and down the Columbia from Golden, and the so-called Prairie Hills along the Beaver River. Directly to the south lie the Spillimacheen Mountains whose outlying northern spur is Bald Mountain.
Looking from the railway train, the Dogtooth Mountains present a series of pointed summits isolated by hazy blue valleys reaching far back into the shadows. And the appellation exactly suits these sharp fangs whose ragged tops are white with snow. In the valleybottom north of Golden, the river flows lazily in great loops broken into channels by little islands and bars; south, are lagoons of many shapes and sizes set in the broad, low marshes through which the river winds serpentwise, either margin fringed with the deciduous cottonwood and willows, its course showing from above like a tortuous canal. From the river-bottom the valley rises in a series of benches thickly timbered with fir. spruce, cedar and hemlock of giant size—a deep, dark forest sweeping backward and up the mountains to the trees' limit, broken only by the emerald-green strips of alder, willow and devil's club, those speedy growths with which Nature covers the ravages of the avalanche.
The valleys of three principal streams intersect the Dogtooth group. Near the centre. Canyon Creek flowing to the Columbia some six miles above Golden, cuts diagonally across its axis, the valley being connected by a low pass with that of Grizzly Creek flowing nearly due west to the Beaver River, three miles south-east of Bear Creek Station on the Railway. The northern face of the group is cleft by (Quartz Creek Valley which gives access by an easy pass to Grizzly Creek. Quartz Creek joins the Columbia at Beaver Mouth. The main line of travel across this range is by way of Canyon Creek, so called from the deeply cut rift through which it flows for several miles where it debouches from the hills. Unfortunately there is no bridge at Golden, and access to the Canyon Creek trail is only possible by swimming horses opposite the mill, a mile from the town. From this point a miner's trail cuts across the spur of the mountain and joins Canyon Creek Valley at the head of the gorge, whence it follows the creek to its source. In the upper portions of the valley it needs clearing and remaking.
All through these mountains are found trails made by prospectors and miners. They lead up the valleys of the larger streams and zig-zag up almost impossible slopes to the "prospects," where may be found a hole in the mountain and a pile of ore on a "dump" outside. In some places the work has been more extensive and a log cabin with stove and bunks is found on a nearby crag, commanding a wide circle of alpine scenery "worth a king's ransom," doubtless unheeded and possibly unseen by the man of the ore-pile. And yet in some dumb-fashion he may have felt the majesty of high mountains. These trails give access to the upper valleys where the real attractions are. They are grandly alpine; open grass-lands with great shapely unbrageous spruce trees, brilliant flowers and lakelets, silver streams meandering everywhere, the green slopes rising gently to bold bare cliffs and steep slopes of scree, crowned by snowy heights, glacier-hung and showing long connecting arêtes such as the explorer loves. In spring and early summer the valleys are ablaze with the yellow adder's tongue (Erythronium), the globe flower (Trollius), the Indian paint-brush and painted-cups (Castilleias), the Harebell (Campanula), the Anemone and myriads of wild flowers that delight the eye of the traveller and warm the heart of the botanist.
At the heads of many of the valleys (and this is notable) are emerald and blue lakes like those that are a distinctive feature of the Rockies. As everywhere else in the Selkirks, the whistler (Arctomys Columbianus), and the Parry marmot abound. The Rocky Mountain goat (Haplocerns Mountanus), caribou and smaller deer are found in the valleys, and bear may be seen almost any time on the "slides," those avalanche tracks down the mountain sides where grows the succulent vegetation so toothsome to Bruin.
The Canyon Creek trail could readily be extended to Grizzly Creek and so connect with the trail up the Beaver Valley from Bear Creek Station. A similar trail can be taken over the pass to the head of Quartz Creek and down its valley to Beavermouth Station on the C. P. Railway. A trail now branches from the maine one up Canyon Creek which it crosses and leads up the south-east branch to the head of its valley. Here a pass is found which makes access easy to the trail leading up the north branch of the Spillimacheen Valley, but it needs a continuation of the trail through this pass and down the western slopes beyond it. The Spillimacheen trail leads to Bald Mountain and to the head of the west branch of Grizzly Creek, up which there is a prospector's trail, now sadly out of repair. From Bald Mountain may be had splendidly spectacular views of the Selkirk eastern escarpment and its long array of ice-cascades that break from every hollow and through every cleft.
Again south of Canyon Creek, Twelve-Mile Creek enters the Columbia above Golden. A trail leads up this stream to a "prospect" that at one time gave much promise. It is in a splendid amphitheatre or rather series of amphitheatres, a place of bright sun shine and crisp air for health-seekers and nature-lovers. From the heights of the Dogtooth Mountains, one may obtain a comprehensive view of the wonderful flat trough of the Columbia River a distinctive feature of the Canadian Rocky Mountains:
"River, lake, lagoon, pond, marsh, forest-tract, railway, village, are all laid out between the hills as on a map; now bright in the sunshine, the streams glistening like silver, and anon hidden by swirling clouds with only a glimpse here and there shining through a rift, giving the whole an eerie 'unco' look as from another world, a world of snowy heights above the clouds; where trees are dwarfed and distorted where rocks are queer shapes, and birds are snowy white. I have often sat and watched these cloud-blankets swirl and roll silently below, disclosing glimpses of what seemed to be a nether region."
As yet the peaks of the Dogtooth Mountains have not been named and consequently, it is not possible to refer to them individually. At the heads of many of the deep indentations running into the group from the Columbia and Spillimacheen Valleys, are charming little lakes of beautiful blues and greens, and some very picturesque waterfalls; nearly all the major valleys have trails leading into them, which will be fit for travel when the fallen timber is cleared away.
THE SPILLIMACHEEN MOUNTAINS.
Location: South in the lower Selkirks, between the great Columbia Trough and the parallel trough made by the Beaver and Dimcan Rivers.
Except to prospectors, the Spillimacheen Range is an unknown country awaiting exploration by the mountaineer. In September, 1910, Mr. Wheeler and Dr. T. G. Longstaff made an expedition into these mountains by way of reconnaissance; and though the season was late and the weather variably bad, somewhat was accomplished in a photographic survey of the route followed. (See later History of the Selkirks). This was the first exploratory expedition under the auspices of the Alpine Club of Canada.
Thus the Spillimacheen Mountains are unmapped, unmeasured and unnamed, save for an occasional local name by prospectors whose country it has hitherto been. These have tales to tell of alpine sights there worth seeing. Mr. Wheeler has heard old prospectors describe a cataract falling 2,000 feet down a precipice into a valley rimmed by high cliffs, the exit of the stream being through an impassable canyon—ingress or egress for man and beast being only over the high rock-rims. Thus, here in the Occident has been discovered the literal counterpart of that fabulous valley of the Orient which Rasselas found so nearly impossible of egress. Prospectors tell of other waterfalls, notably one falling 800 feet in a series of striking cascaues. Of course when actual measurements are obtained of mountains and waterfalls alike, the poetic arithmetic is always reduced by relentless science. Mr. Wheeler himself, saw a wide snowfield from whose centre a group of snow-clad peaks in pyramids, cones, towers, pinnacles, "rise superbly." He saw deep valleys leading up to beautiful park-like alplands in the heart of the range—all virgin ground for climber, scrambler, botanist, photographer. From the heights of the Dogtooth Range this new mountaineering ground can be seen to advantage.
Route: The South Fork of Canyon Creek offers a pass opening to the Spillimacheen, and a trail now leads almost to the pass. A connecting trail is needed from the summit of this pass down the slopes of the Spillimacheen. (For route to this pass, see "'Unknown Trails Between Golden and Glacier.")
SOME UNKNOWN TRAILS BETWEEN GOLDEN AND GLACIER.
(Followed by Mr. Wheeler.)
A journey by trail through the Dogtooth Mountains can even now be made by intrepid persons indifferent to difficulties. With a bridge across the Columbia at Golden, the miners' old trails repaired, and a few new ones blazed, it would be a comfortable and delightful excursion. At present the camp-outfit must be ferried over the River while the horses swim. The trail leads back from the River through a burnt tract, then through green woods and up the mountain sides over a ridge to Canyon Creek, the important little river flowing from the heart of the Dogtooth Range. It has two tributaries leading to abandoned mines; that is, to primitive shafts and a few log shacks on mountain-sides. These three valleys of Canyon Creek have meadows and alplands the habitat of mountain flowers and studded with wide-branching spruce sufficient for shelter through a whole week of rain—first-rate camping grounds. The South Fork of Canyon Creek offers a route to the Spillimacheen trail, requiring only a trail from the summit of the pass at its head down the opposite slopes. Mr. Wheeler twice took a pack-train over this pass as it is.
The head of Canyon Creek itself is surrounded by glacier-bearing mountains whose hanging valleys, holding turf and tarns and streamlets and little parks, are a beaiitiful feature. From the peaks on one side there is a good view of the Columbia Valley showing the railway; from those on the other, the Spillimacheen Mountains show in all their splendours and fascinations of terra incognita, and across the deep Beaver Valley, the more familiar snow-clad giants of the Selkirks appear as if close at hand.
This pass is low and easy, albeit some distance above timberline, and leads to the North Branch of Grizzly Creek which has no trail, though a trail along the bottom of the valley to its junction with the East Branch would be a simple matter. Crossing the stream at this point it would zigzag up the hillside to joint the trail from Bear Creek Station, an easy journey from this on. From Bear Creek Station to Glacier House the Railway is followed. A trail might be made along the bottom of Bear Creek Valley to Rogers Pass Station, although it would involve annual repairs, owing to the avalanches from Mts. Macdonald and Tupper. The objection to the railway route is the long line of snow-sheds and the possibility of being caught by trains.
From the point where the proposed trail would join the trail to Bear Creek Station, the traveller has choice of a route to the head of the North Fork of the spillimacheen and so into the Spillimacheen Mountains. At the junction of the Valley of Grizzly Creek with the Valley of the Beaver River, a trail leads for twenty miles beneath the eastern escarpment of the Summit Range of the Selkirks to the head ot the Beaver Valley across the Beaver-Duncan Pass into the Duncan Valley as far as Trout Lake, This is the interesting divide where are the two glaciers, sources of the two rivers, and where on days of heavy melting, waters from the Beaver Glacier may run over into the Duncan River.
On Canyon Creek Trail
An Annual Meeting, A. C. C.