A River That Time Forgot

A visit to the Pitt: Vancouver's lost river valley

I am standing at the spot where the clear cobalt mouth of Blue Creek bleeds into the glacial flow of British Columbia's all-but-forgotten Pitt River. It's the summer of 2005 and the Pitt is turbid from the current heat wave, and although I spot a few tantalizing swirls here at the confluence, my bead-eye Black Bunny Leech drifts through several swings unmolested. I've already been hiking by myself for eight hours, and I continue to trundle upstream along a sandy shoreline that is a virtual barnyard of bear, deer, elk and even cougar tracks. Read more – offline – from the current issue; subscribe to FRR.