New Trails Follow Old
The hill above Exeter, BC, where the brigade trail ran.
New trails follow old, and nowhere shows that better than in this place. This is the hill that stands behind Exeter Station, near 100 Mile House, British Columbia. On the other side of this hill is Watson Lake and Salmon Creek, and Lily Pad Lake, and the Brigade trail ran past both these places on its way north to the east end of Lac La Hache.
Or did it?
I’ve been mulling that point for some time, ever since we went up to Williams Lake in August. I was going to answer that question at last yesterday, but I got my flu shot Friday: and boy! did it hit me hard! I spent the day at home and sometimes in bed, and it was lovely.
So, here we go today, with our little puzzle about Exeter Lake and the hill or ridge behind the lake. Just for your information, there is no way we (or at least, me) are going to solve this mystery. New trails do follow old, but they also often bury them. The ground is more than a little disturbed here (for good reason), and it is unlikely anyone will find remains of a Brigade trail. Nor will there be any signs on the north side of this hill: that is, in what I call the Watson Creek Valley, which might also be labeled, by some, as the Lac La Hache valley. Nevertheless, according to A.C. Anderson’s 1867 Map of British Columbia, this is where the Brigade Trail always ran! If you are a descendant of an HBC fur trader (and perhaps even of the Nor’Wester), your ancestor rode over this piece of trail.
So, why am I saying that New trails follow Old? The railway runs through here — the old PGE (which my dad called the Please-Go-Easy). Its real name was the Pacific Great Eastern Railway. It was a passenger railway, and I rode on it (with my family) when I was in my teens. It started its run in Vancouver, BC, from the train station (as far as I can remember), and made its way up Burrard Inlet as far as Squamish. Then it made its way across country to — guess where! Anderson and Seton Lakes — the route of A.C. Anderson’s 1846 expedition to Fort Langley.
We rode the train as far as Clinton, BC, but it goes on from that place, although not following the Brigade Trail, particularly. But once it hits the Flying U Ranch, on the north shore of Green Lake, it is back on the Brigade Trail — that is, the 1843 trail. The rails do a big swing north and then west and goes through Lone Butte, then heads west to Exeter Lake, which is technically part of the town of 100 Mile House, but separate from it. After its stop at Exeter Station, it swept north to reach the Lac La Hache valley. And then, when it reaches Lac La Hache itself, it follows along its southern shoreline to Williams Lake.
So there are times when the PGE follows the brigade trail fairly closely, and other times when it makes its own trail. I think the brigade horses are able to make sharper turns than the railway, which has to make wide turns to get where it wants to go.
However, while the train still runs, apparently, it is no longer a passenger train — what a shame! I wonder if I can inveigle a ride on that freight train???? What fun would that be?
I did a little exploring on Google Earth, to figure some of what I am writing about today. For now, I wanted to know the height above sea level that some of these places are: is the Watson Creek Valley higher than Exeter Lake? How high is the hill that lies between Exeter Lake and the Watson Creek (or Lac La Hache) valley? How much of a climb was it for the horses? Where did the actual train run? How difficult was the trail at this point? I do know that no one complained about the climb over the hill to the Watson Creek Valley, so it can’t have been a hard climb. But when you look at the hill that separates Exeter Lake from the Watson Creek Valley, it looks like a bit of a climb!
Looking south to Exeter Lake, with the hill at the photographer’s back.
But is it?
As you can see from the image at the top of the page, the hill is quite definitely a hill, a long sloping ridge that varies in height from about 1000 meters above sea level at its base, to 1186 meters at the height of land. As you can see, it has no heavy growth of trees, so it would be easy for the horses to mount the hill, even if it were a steep hill that caused them to exert themselves. 1000 meters (at the base of the hill) is about 3280 feet above sea level, and 1186 meters (at the height of land) is 3891 feet. But that doesn’t matter, of course, until you know how far above sea level the rest of the Brigade Trail is.
So, let’s figure it out, starting at Horse Lake to the east of 100 Mile House. The surface of the lake is 879 meters above sea level, or 2,883 feet. Bridge Creek flows into its west end, and both the waters of that wide creek, and those of Horse Lake, flow eastward, into “Lac Traverse” (today’s Bridge Lake) and Lac des Roches: you will see the point of that statement in a little while.
So, modern day Horse Lake Road is 879 meters, or 2,883 feet above sea level. Exeter Lake (the second image on this page) is 918 meters above sea level, or 3,011 feet. Interestingly, there is a small marsh near 100 Mile House that would probably have been on the route of the Brigade Trail, but as it caused them no problems at all it was never mentioned in the brigade journals. When I first did these figures, Exeter Lake was 3012 feet above sea level, while Horse Lake was 3251 feet: I wondered how the water flowed from Exeter Lake to Horse Lake. I am happy to see that, yes, it did. Exeter Lake is 129 feet above the waters of Horse Lake.
So, Exeter Lake is 918 meters above sea level, or 3,012 feet. Exeter Lake Road, on which the railway station sits, is close to 1000 meters above sea level, so 90 meters or so above Exeter Lake itself. The hill looms some 82 meters above Exeter Station, or 269 feet.
So, I’ve told you there is a railway station here, and a railway — the PGE. The train does not crest the hill, however, but follows it around its base to the east, just below the 1000 foot level! It takes the easy path: the practical path. Mulling this over (for a month or two), I thought: so, too, did the brigades. The HBC men never climbed over that hill: they rode around it! The railway tracks follow the old trail: the Brigade Trail. New trails follow old!
Of course they did! The NWC men might have used this path, having been shown it by the First Nations of the time. Certainly the HBC men used this old road, too. And the railway followed the old trail, making a new trail for themselves!
To continue on with the Watson Lake Valley: On the north side of that hill or ridge is Watson Lake (on Tatton Station Road). Its height above sea level is 882 meters, or 2894 feet. So if Exeter Lake is 918 meters above sea level, or 3,012 feet, than it is higher in elevation than Watson Lake: I didn’t expect that! And Lily Pad Lake, the long narrow lake north west of Watson Lake, and west and slightly south of 108 Mile Lake, is 3045 feet above sea level — considerably above the level of Watson Lake, and a little above the level of Exeter Lake. I know that the HBC Brigades appeared to pass between Lily Pad Lake and Watson Lake: they must have rounded the the hill on which Lily Pad Lake sat, some distance from Watson Lake! And yes, it appears on topographical maps that the railway followed the edge of a hill northward, toward Lac La Hache.
So is it downhill from Watson Lake to Lac La Hache? Lac La Hache is 1995 feet above sea level, and so, it was a not-so-gentle down hill slope from Watson Lake to the shores of Lac La Hache. Wiliams Lake is also 1995 feet above sea level, and so it was only when the HBC men came to the highlands that separated Williams Lake from Fort Alexandria that they ran into any hills that gave them trouble. This was the easy part of the trail.
But I mentioned that the water in Horse Lake ran east into Lac Traverse and beyond. The water from Watson Lake flowed northward, into Lac Lac Hache, and Lac La Hache’s water flowed west into Williams Lake. We are talking about two entirely separate streams of water here, and that hill that has caused me so much anxiety was the dividing line between two watersheds — one that flowed to the west and the Fraser River, and one that flowed east, to the North Thompson.
But the best way to see this country, and to finally figure it out, is by taking the train. The old PGE runs from Vancouver, BC, past Anderson and Seton Lakes, to Lillooet, and then across country to Green Lake and the Flying U Ranch — which was built right on the Brigade Trail. Then Lone Butte, which the HBC Brigades must have passed close to: Horse Lake (the south shore this time); Brigade Creek; Little Bridge Creek; Exeter Lake; Watson Lake; and Lac la Hache (south shore). It would be quite an adventure, if not a comfortable one! I might consider it, if its possible.
Copyright, Nancy Marguerite Anderson, 2024. All rights reserved.
Another Very Interesting Read as Always Thanks Very Much !!!