| The Chilcotin is a place where streams and
rivers score the land, slashing out amphitheatres filled with
fantastic rock formations. Here Mt. Waddington rises 4016 meters.
The jagged mountain peaks of the Chilcotin are covered in vast
ice fields and wide alpine meadows, gradually softening into
large valleys, gently rolling foothills, pine covered forests,
lakes and rivers and the grasslands of the Chilcotin Plateau.
What do the passionate angler and avid wrangler have in common?
How about a love for the Chilcotin area. For this is essentially
backcountry at its best complete with some of the best fishing
lakes and rivers to be found in North America. The expansive
Chilcotin lies between the Fraser River and Coast Mountains,
a 5,000 square kilometer plateau of rangeland, where thousands
of cattle roam unfenced land. Here cowboys ride the range to
tend their cattle, roping and branding the young in the spring,
keeping them from straying in summer, and rounding them up
in the fall.
Cattle will not be the only thing you meet in the Chilcotin.
You will also meet interesting characters en route that will
be friendly, helpful and full of stories. Locals also exude a
certain independence of spirit -- witness the history of the
Chilcotin-Freedom Highway. Wanting a connection between coastal
and interior communities, the citizens themselves decided to
build a highway to civilization. After a lot of doubt by others,
great effort and personal risk, the locals completed what is
now the "Freedom Highway" (Highway 20). It is this
spirit that opened this rugged landscape, and it is in this spirit
that you must take your journey into the Chilcotin. So get ready
for adventure and welcome to the Chilcotin... |