The Beginning

September 4, 2010

Canal Flats, B.C.

A brief post from Fairmont Hot Springs coffee shop after our all morning introduction to the headwaters of the Columbia River. Briefly and excitedly: it begins at the north end of Columbia Lake where the land gives way (the words big and easy come to mind) and water from the lake seeps, surfaces, meanders, and finally finds its focus in a single stream about 5 feet across. It is so quiet we heard the flapping wings of the Canadian (must be - because that‘s where we are) geese in the shallows. Serene, green, deep blue, curves, slow organic maze, unhurried, primitive, and humbling………sentences not forming just now

There is no formal park or sign or anything to let you know so we got directions from a fisherman who was trying to catch rainbow trout further down the river. Away we went on a rutted, narrow gravel road that brought us both near enough to get in the water and high enough to get an overview until we had to turn around at a fence and a “NO TRESPASSING” sign. There is a soft, but definite place at the edge of the lake that will never show up well in a photograph, but we both could see it and said, “That’s the place.”

This is Geology 101 in action!

Photos soon!