On the Labour Day long weekend Monday, my wife Vicki and I drove out to the Blackwater River. I had decided awhile ago that I would like to create a little memorial to Andy Motherwell out where he had done some of his historical “research” – namely, marking the Alexander MacKenzie Trail and the Telegraph Line.
I made up a large card and purchased some flowers and tucked it into a bush at the site that marks the beginning of the trail, just north of the Blackwater River. The trail and the Telegraph line kind of cross paths in that area, so I thought it was an appropriate spot.
It was a beautiful day and it drew to mind a memory of another day, somewhere in the distant past when we had driven out that way and had run into Andy putting up signs to mark the trail. This is all very noteworthy because of the historic value of his notations of these places.
Having paid our respects, we left the Blackwater to return to the Batnuni Road that leads west, on the south side of the river, with the idea of doing the Nazko loop (my wife’s idea).
Driving along, I couldn’t remember the terrain, but it must have been the old Titetown Road we had previously driven out here on. Vicki couldn’t remember it either. I guess it was about 45 years ago, so you can see how many memories this trip evoked. Vicki was looking for landmarks that didn’t seem to show up. She said it seemed to her that one used to see signs of the Mackenzie grease trail, but we didn’t see any of that. Maybe we needed to go past the Nazko Road turnoff and on to the lakes.
Anyway, we turned onto the Nazko Road, after having crossed the Blackwater River on a bridge that did not resemble the one that we had crossed before and almost immediately crossed another bridge across the Eucheniko River at Gillies Crossing – again, a different bridge. I guess the old bridges had collapsed or burned. The “new” bridges were rather boring looking, unlike the old ones which were somewhat more picturesque. I suppose the present ones are more practical.
Vicki was driving, so it was nice being able to just sit back and enjoy the scenery and the sites which seemed new to me. I could have sworn I’d never been this way before, although Vicki claimed she recognized different landmarks. I thought all of these roads were new ones, but, funny as it may seem, they were always here and I had to admit it was my memory that was failing.
One thing we hadn’t seen before was the massive burn that you drive through north of Nazko.
I’m not sure when that took place several years ago, but it still looks pretty grotesque.
We drove, it seemed, forever but we finally reached the village of Nazko and decided to stop at the Nazko Restaurant where
we had hamburgers and met the new Nazko school principal and his wife and daughter.
From there, back into Quesnel. We were definitely driving through familiar territory.
It was a good day and a final farewell to Andy.
– submitted by
Jack Nelson