I recently went down a rabbit hole of following the big rivers and tributaries in BC...the topography is definitely not amenable to E-W travel.
My favourite realization was that the Kootenay River comes within 3km of Columbia Lake at Canal Flats, but those waterways take dramatically different courses before actually meeting at Castlegar.
Kootenay:
1. source is within 5-7kms of Temple Mountain, Moraine Lake, and MacArthur Lake (great hike from Lake O'Hara);
2. flows SE to Marble Canyon then and follows most of the Banff-Windermere Highway, but continues SE/S to Canal Flats, whereas the highway turns west to climb/descend to Radium
3. continues south to the border (becoming Lake Koocanusa) to Libby, MT (65km south of the 49th as the crow flies)
4. Turns back NW to Kootenay Lake (Balfour/Crawford Ferry) meeting Duncan River/Duncan Lake from the north
5. Flows west through Nelson to Castlegar
Columbia:
1. From Columbia Lake flows NNW for ~300km (as the crow flies) to Kinbasket Lake (Mica Creek are). For nearly half that distance it flows parallel (though opposite flow) to the Kootenay River which is only 15-30km away.
2. flows back SSE through Revy and Nakusp down to Castlegar
3. then south through Washington and eventually to the Pacific near Portland, OR
It's just crazy to me how close those waterways are before ending up 450+kms apart (crow flies) and then actually end up meeting again...Canal Flats to Castlegar is about 150km as the crow flies.
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