Page:The Selkirk mountains (1912).djvu/150

132 Here at Pinehurst the road branches, ascending the tributary valley to Paradise Mine 8,000 feet above sea. In letters though perhaps not in science, you might call it a hanging valley of lavish living forests and flowers. A lonely glen high in the depression of high hills, the road, wide enough for motors to pass, climbs for 10 miles with changing views of distant mountains at its every sharp curve or round corner. There is no dust: and it leads to the edge of a turfy meadow where the brave larches grow—the most lovable of all beautiful trees growing in high altitudes—and where lie snowbanks that are the fountain-head of Spring Creek. A ridge, perhaps 1,000 feet above the meadows, commands an outlook far-reaching—a confusion of glaciers and rock-summits, every grey peak in strong sunlight transmuted to faint sapphire among the white, white snows. It is quite true that the secret and most potent charm of mountaineering lies in the sights to be seen as one climbs from height to height. Knowing ones can from this ridge discern Mts. Assiniboine, Temple, Lefroy, Goodsir and many a separate peak in the Rockies; and, in the nearer Selkirks, Mts. Dawson, Sir Donald and others of the well-climbed districts. Immediately opposite the ridge stands Mt. Hammond first climbed by Mr. C. D. Ellis in 1910. This is no doubt the high mountain which Thompson named Nelson, the outstanding summit in its vicinity.

Little North Fork: Six miles beyond Pinehurst at the 18-mile post, Toby Creek receives this creek six miles long, which has a good driving road. A bridle-trail leads up its tributary, Delphine Creek, to its source in Tilbury Glacier over 9,000 feet above sea. Tilbury is the only glacier named among seven flowing from mountains which form a fine cirque at the head of Little North Fork Valley. There are altogether eight conspicuous peaks in the range which is shaped like a horseshoe. The appellation to suit is obvious, a nail for each peak. In this valley are the "Elysian Soda Springs" which prophesy a flourishing Hydropathic when the fame of the country spreads abroad.

Wilmer is a village back on the park-land, by road 2 miles from the steam-boat landing. It is north of Lake Windermere, the first of the three villages to be reached on the voyage up the River; and is the headquarters of the Columbia Irrigation Company. Its population is about 100 persons. Wilmer was founded by Mr. R. R. Bruce as a base for supplies for Paradise Mine on the mountain at the head of Spring Creek, 22 miles away by an excellent road. It is a centre for excursions The site of the North-West Fur Company's Fort built by David Thompson in 1807 near the mouth of Toby Creek, is about 1¼ miles from Wilmer. The excursions to the head of Toby Creek Canyon, to Paradise Mine near the base of Mt. Hammond, to Ptarmigan Mine opposite Mt. Farnham. to the Fish Lakes in Number 3 Creek, and to Mountain Valley Ranch up Horse Thief Creek are among the excursions best made from Wilmer. A shallow lake about 1½ miles long contiguous to the village will provide boating in summer, and skating, hockey and curling in winter.

About 4 miles from Wilmer on the Toby Creek road are two pretty green lakes set in tenuous forest of darker green, with thickly wooded hills behind rolling upward to mountains culminating in a high grey cone with white patches near the summit. The peak