| Abstract/Description or Keywords |
The Goat River is a tributary of the upper Fraser River in east-central British Columbia, Canada. It is located about 35 km northwest of McBride, BC, and 180 km souteast of Prince George, BC, in the Robson Valley section of the Rocky Mountain Trench. The headwaters of the Goat River form a low elevation pass through the Cariboo Mountains that connect the forested plateau abutting Bowron Lake Provincial Park and the forested lowlands in the Robson Valley. As one of only a few such low elevation passes through the Cariboo Mountains, it forms an important corridor for wildlife movement. The undeveloped area of the Goat River watershed needs full protection to protect its many values. Please join the movement to make it a provincial park. In 1998, the Fraser Headwaters Alliance (F.H.A.) began a major effort to clear what remained of the original trail (several kilometres in the lower Goat had already been lost to logging blocks), as a hiking route in an effort to boost eco-tourism in the region. Over the next 3 years, hundreds of person-days of labour went into clearing and marking the trail between Crescent Spur and Bowron Lake Prov. Park Headquarters-a distance of 95 km. A Forest Service road, built for logging, continued to be pushed up the Goat and in 1997, a steel and concrete bridge was constructed across the Milk River at its confluence with the Goat. This was in preparation logging in the upper Goat, despite opposition from the FHAand several other BC conservation groups. In 2000, the Federation of Mountain Clubs of BC chose the Historic Goat River Trail as a link in the Sentier-National Hiking Trail -a hiking route planned to connect existing trails and wild spaces across Canada. Other trails to be included in the National Trail include the Nuxalk-Carrier Grease Trail (Alexander MacKenzie Route) and the 1861 Gold Rush Pack Trail. |
