Crossing this Portage, with our Outfit, was done in a leisurely way. Only 18 miles and all day to do it, so we let the dogs take their time. On nearing Fort Smith, we saw a concrete pillar with ALBERTA written on one side of it – NORTH WEST TERRITORIES on the other.
At last I was really down north.
One always speaks, in that Country, of “down” north, because all rivers running north naturally run down hill and, in giving directions, where the main routes of travel follow rivers, one says so many miles or so many days travel upstream or downstream. Then came Fort Smith. We had done 600 miles without any mis-hap, and I must say, I felt, not without cause, quite proud of myself. Rounding a bend in the trail, the first glimpse of
