make my home in Upper Clearwater, a small widely scattered community of about 150 people strung out along a dead-end two-lane road that begins half an hour south of us, in a town called Clearwater, and that terminates about an hour north of us, on the shores of Clearwater Lake in southern Wells Gray Provincial Park.

Wells Gray Park looms large in Upper Clearwater – partly owing to its vast extent, stretching to the northern skyline and beyond, partly to the tens of thousands of visitors who pay it homage each year, passing us by to and fro, and partly to its two southward extensions west and east, which together loosely bracket our community.

In such a situation, it makes little sense to speak of community or park in isolation; for both contribute equally to this place I call home.

Wells Gray Park as extension of Upper Clearwater or Upper Clearwater as extension of Wells Gray Park – it’s all the same.

Next up: Wells Gray Park