Notes kept by Stanley to document his journey down the river.
Cloudy in the west, we may have rain although it is still warm. Sitting in the middle of the road keeping the two children company while they dig in the dust.
I was thinking yesterday, while paddling down the river, of the fur traders of the 19th century. At that time the banks of the river were heavily timbered and only seldom would the travellers have had glimpses of the mountains. Surrounded by trees and water they would have had quite a different sense of their surrounding environment than what a traveller on the river would today. They must have had almost the same feeling as when travelling on the eastern rivers.
It would be quite different on other rivers in BC - the lower Kootenay, the Columbia the Fraser, etc. - on these rivers the mountains are and would have been then, in view at all times.
Another thought that occurred to me stemmed from a statement made by one of the forestry surveyors working on the clearing for the dam. He asked or suggested, rather, that I was looking for virgin territory. It occurred to me on the river that it was hardly virgin even before the raping of the valley for electric power. The lumbermen raped her sixty years ago and stripped her bare. The ranchers and farmers reformed her, made her respectable, and made a harmonious marriage until she was torn from their arms and raped a second and final time.
It is turning very hot - may not rain yet. Moved to Roosvill today to camp on Bill Ostreich's land. He has moved there because his legs are bad. He does his harness work in the basement.