Giscome Portage: Walking the Shortcut Between Two Ocean Watersheds

A small rise with a large meaning

A watershed divide does not have to look like a mountain pass. At Giscome Portage, the idea is larger than the climb: on opposite sides of the divide, waterways lead toward different oceans. The trail offered a land connection between those water routes. In a region where journeys followed rivers and lakes, a relatively short crossing could change the direction of a much longer trip.

BC Parks describes a trail of approximately 8.5 kilometres one way between the Pacific and Arctic watersheds. The distance on foot is modest beside the water journeys it joined. It is a place to bring a map that reaches well beyond the trailhead.

Sources: 1

The shortcut before the surname

Huble Homestead’s account identifies the trail as Lhdesti, the Lheidli T’enneh shortcut. It explains the route in the context of travel between communities, trade and the gathering of food. Giscome Portage was not created when an outsider put a name to it. The path was already known and used.

In 1863, John Robert Giscome and Henry McDame travelled across with an Indigenous guide after high water blocked another intended route. Giscome was from Jamaica and McDame from the Bahamas. The BC Black History Awareness Society places Giscome’s northern travels within the wider history of Black migration and prospecting in British Columbia.

Giscome’s wider journey had already crossed countries. The BC Black History Awareness Society traces his travels through Panama and California before his arrival in British Columbia. He later retired to Victoria, where he invested in property. A familiar northern trail name belongs to a life that reached far beyond northern trails.

Sources: 2, 3

When a footpath became a freight route

The Omineca gold rush increased traffic through the area, and a wagon road followed in 1871. The portage became one section in a linked journey, with travellers and goods moving between land and water. Later, the business at what is now Huble Homestead served that traffic.

The route’s importance changed again when transport moved toward railways and roads. BC Parks dates the eventual bypassing of the portage to the new road connection between Prince George and Summit Lake around 1920. That shift helps explain why a route once important to northern travel can now feel like a quieter piece of forest.

Sources: 1, 2

From riverside to forest

The southern end near Huble Homestead connects the forest route to the Fraser. Visit the riverside first and the purpose of the inland walk is easier to picture: this was the place to leave one kind of travel and begin another. The homestead’s trading business came later, when travellers passing between the watersheds needed supplies and freight services.

You can walk a shorter section and turn back, or plan a complete crossing toward Barney Creek Road. The full portage is a point-to-point outing, so returning to one vehicle on foot doubles the one-way distance. Check the current trail report before setting out; wet ground, deadfall and seasonal maintenance can affect the day.

Sources: 2

Carry the connection with you

The most rewarding question here is simple: why this path? Look at a map that shows the rivers beyond the immediate trail and the answer becomes clearer. The portage makes sense as part of a network. Walking it gives a modest forest route a much larger horizon, reaching toward two oceans without ever needing a summit view.