Mollie Adams Diary of her Journey in the Canadian Rockies, August 15, 1908

Dominion River Camp.

Saturday, Aug. 15.

               An. 3750 ft.  Partly cloudy and very slight showers early in A. M.  Off at 8.30.  4½ hrs.  The Lister camp at breakfast as we passed.  Mr. L gave M. a piece of graphite, but it does not look like any I ever saw before.  We reached the summit of Yellowhead Pass about 10.15.  It is only 3723 ft., and covered with tall, thick spruce timber.  The Miette does not head from the pass, but from a valley to the north; neither does the Fraser, it comes from a valley s.w. of Yellowhead Lake and heads somewhere up behind Mt. Geikie.  Yellowhead Lake, or the creek which flows from into it, does come nearly from the pass.  The lake, 4 miles long, lies at the base of Yellowhead Mt., 9000 ft. high.  It is rather pleasing, but nothing to write home about.  The timber is already much larger, only a few miles over the divide, Douglas spruces, 2 to 3 ft. thick, being common.  We camped near the lower end of the lake, about 12.45, in a place which seemed at first very free from flies, but they sailed in later.  I got an enormous bite, sand fly, on my forehead which swelled up an inch across, and another similar one on my lip, so I looked like a prize fighter.  M. and W. got the bannock basin almost full of red raspberries, very large fine ones.  Prairie chicken for supper – if we had all we have seen in the last two week we should be living high, but it is hard to get them, for the 22 won’t kill them unless they are hit in the head.  Muggins goes almost frantic when he raises a bunch of five or six.  As we were sitting down to supper W. thought he heard our horses on the back trail and went out to see, and then we heard him talking to someone.  Our camp being right on the trail at the edge of the lake, the passing stranger had to almost step on our supper table to get past.  This outfit was two Indians or half breeds with two pack horses.  They were nice looking and well dressed for Indians, wore red woollen sashes , like the one M has to wear with her Cree coat, and the one riding at the back took off his hat as he passed us. They camped just below us around a corner of the lake. W. and U. went over to visit them and glean what information they could after supper. U. came back presently to get our maps, said the younger one spoke good English, and knew a lot about the country around, had McEvoy’s map himself, but had lost it. We went to bed at 8:45 and were asleep before they came home. Coyotes gibbering and yelling around the lake.

Muggins, Moore Family fonds,
Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies (V439 / PS - 38)