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by Ernie R. Hennig
Explore the Kettle River Museum
Explore the Kettle River Museum, before starting on your adventure. Here is a CPR caboose and the original Station of the CPR. Being restored is the bunkhouse which will be a potential Hostel.
The western route
Heading west on the Trans Canada Trail, you will pass through tree nurseries and industrial areas of the Pope & Talbot sawmill. Use caution while traveling through the sawmill, watch for vehicles. The trail has been slightly diverted, but follow the signs. Once back on the Trail, you will pass by beautiful sections of the Kettle River, with ginseng plantations under shade cloth and huge cottonwoods. You will pass through ranches and farms, so please close gates as you pass through them. Some ownership conflicts need to be sorted before this portion of the trail will be passable.
East of Midway
Heading east out of Midway, you pass by the Midway Cemetery, Ponderosa pines, prickly pear cactus and bitterroot. The grade parallels Highway #3 which was once the historic Dewdney Trail. Clinging to the rocky bluffs, you can see old ruins of log cabins and lingering remains of the Dewdney Trail, before it disappears into the valley hanging at Boundary Falls. This was the site of a bustling town with a smelter, one of three in the Boundary Mining District.. Boundary Falls, was a hydro electric dam built and used by the City of Greenwood until 1921. The falls are worth a side trip.
Greenwood state-of-the-art Copper Smelter
Continue on to Greenwood, where a huge black wall of slag and the 35-metre-high smokestack are all that remains of a state of the art (for its time) Copper smelter. Crossing a couple of bridges you enter Greenwood, a small town with its claim of being the smallest city in British Columbia and Canada. Take a side trip into Downtown Greenwood, where you will have Step back In Time. Refresh yourself at the Copper Eagle Cappuccino and Bakery, or quench that thirst at the Greenwood Inn Hotel.
Heading back on the Trail, you pass by an old tunnel that passed under the railway grade, and filled trestle. Now painted with flags from all over the world, to invite people from all over to visit our area.
The last stretch of the eastward trail takes you through more ranch and farm land, spruce trees and eventually to Eholt, which has links to the Phoenix Interpretive Forest Trails, which were the C&W, and Great Northern (VV & E )Railway spurs to Phoenix.
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