Feisty little boom-boats work the log booms

The Fraser is also the skein, which weaves through the lives of the people who live and work along its 1,375 kilometre route from the rugged mountains deep in the heart of British Columbia, to the Delta where it empties into the Gulf of Georgia. It nourishes a unique ecology of plant, fish and bird life, and has been a partner in the Province's history and development over the past two centuries.

As we leave New Westminster, our skipper announces breakfast: chilled orange juice, a buffet of cold cuts and cheese, smoked salmon tips, croissants, bagels, doughnuts and trays of freshly cut fruit. There is a visible brightening among the passengers, many of whom have been up early to catch this trip along British Columbia's most diverse and majestic watercourse

Sumptuous buffet

We move smoothly under the first of several bridges that span the river—Surrey's Skybridge which from this angle looks like a giant harp, with its strings aslant against the sky. Just beyond this is the venerable old Pattullo bridge opened in 1937. Its orange Meccano-construction-like archway, is a familiar sight to commuters who drive its lanes every day as they stream into New Westminster from Surrey. Also along our journey this morning, is the century-old Fraser River Swing Bridge that still carries freight and passenger trains; we edge through it's narrow port-side corridor.

Bridges across the Fraser River

I lean against the railings to watch what was once the B.C. Penitentiary come into view to our left. No longer a grim fortress, this has been transformed into a romantic restaurant—“Dublin Castle” complete with fairy-tale like columns and ramparts; Coquitlam's Mary Hill lies further inland, its deforested slopes and jumble of tightly packed buildings scarring the hillside. The historic Fraser Mills lumberyard and buildings that existed along the river's edge are folded away into the past now, and in its place, I'm told that a residential subdivision may take shape in the next few years.

Dublin Castle restaurant

Past TimberWest's log sort area, the new Port Mann bridge looms against the sky. We glide under its mammoth concrete arches, and just beyond its stanchions, the old bridge is a crumbling mess of concrete and steel rods. Now in the process of demolition, it will soon be the stuff of history, of faded photograph albums and anecdotal tales told by Fraser Valley old timers.

Skytrain crosses the Fraser from Surrey to New Westminster

As the scenery unfolds, so does the history of the Fraser River ... the old gold rush days, (when there were more paddle-wheelers along the Fraser than on the Mississippi) are gone, but the Fraser remains at the heart of B.C's economy, the lumber industry in particular. Logs braided into raft-like booms, lie against the shoreline, and cheeky little boom-boats dance around them, nudging errant sticks into place. Self-important tugs draw barges piled high with wood chips or sawdust—perhaps not as shiny as nuggets or gold-dust, but in today's marketplace, almost as valuable.

Log boom skeins

Our host regales us with anecdotes some funny, others bizarre and a few cooked up on the spur of the moment! He knows his territory, however, and shares snippets of history, river-lore, and Native traditions. We cruise through old railway swing bridges and hear tales about their construction. And pass Fort Langley where British Columbia was born, on November 19, 1858.

Migratory birds on pilings and log booms

The Fraser is also on the Pacific flyway and an estimated five million birds comprising about 300 different species flock through here annually on their migratory route from South America to the Arctic.

The river is a pastiche of impressions. An osprey sits on a piling, its feathers ruffled by the breeze. White flecks from the cottonwoods drift across the water. Nets dry on the decks of fishing boats. Red farmhouses dot rolling pastures. The bell-tower of the Benedictine Monastery of Westminster Abbey in Mission, arches against the sky. And ahead of us, the mountains in varying shades of grey and blue lie folded one against the other.

Just beyond Mission, the Fraser becomes whimsical and tricky to navigate. Our pilot picks his way, delicate as a dancer, through the sand and gravel bars that wind spaghetti-like throughout this section..

Gravel bars are spawning grounds for salmon, and during the salmon run, river traffic is halted along this stretch of the Fraser. This is also the home of the River's oldest and grandest piscine resident. Weighing between 500 and 750 pounds, the mighty sturgeon's evolutionary history dates back 150 million years to the Cretaceous period.

At the mouth of the Harrison River, the water turns emerald-green, and as we cruise onto the Lake, our skipper tells us that the hot springs were discovered accidentally by miners whose boat capsized nearby. They were astonished (and, no doubt, delighted) to find that instead of freezing to death, they were in the midst of a gush of warm water.

Magnificent Harrison Lake

After a sumptuous lunch at the Harrison Hot Springs Hotel, we make our way back to New Westminster by coach. As we round a curve along the road, I catch a bird's eye view of the Fraser. Sinuous, powerful and confident. British Columbia's heritage and its future.

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