No Path But My Own

Allen Soroka is assistant law librarian at the University of British
Columbia Law Library.

Cliff Kopas is remembered in British Columbia as one of the province’s
pioneers. As a child growing up in Depression-era Alberta, he was
stricken with polio. He had real difficulties walking and longed to hike
and ride the western high country. No Path But My Own—which languished
in manuscript for nearly 60 years until Leslie Kopas followed his
father’s trails and turned the adventures into this book—recounts
four of Cliff’s pack trips in the Rockies and the Chilcotin during the
1930s. Thanks to Leslie’s research efforts, many of the trappers,
Native people, and guides in Cliff’s accompanying photographs have
been identified by living descendants.

These stories of life on horseback along the wilderness trails are an
entertaining and informative record of B.C. local history. Kopas, an
observant and uncomplaining man, was also a sensitive traveler who
recorded impressions others might have passed over. His reminiscences
and photographs, brought to life by his son, make for a good read.