I don't buy into giving up.
I would agree that walking home is pretty much your last option and makes trailer with jet-boat look like a sensible item of preparation for a road trip :-)


But consider that someone, several someones likely, in the past explored their way along that route. They didn't have the benefit of road/railways or man-made clearings down near the river. You might have to bushwhack when the road/RR is on the other side of the water but the initial explorers had to thrash the entire way. If the river is crossed frequently by bridges you wouldn't have to walk the whole way without a road even if all the bridges are down.

(that might be an interesting research question- just how DID that routed get explored?)

To me the biggest single issue would be food supply for the distance. Surely the explorers packed supplies on a mule or horse train. And they supplemented with hunting/fishing. While we might have modern clothing, footwear and stoves, we generally don't have 200 miles worth of even lightweight food stashed in our backpacks. Nor do we usually have pack animals to carry it for us.

Late additional thought- it might be a worthy experiment to pick a section and just try it and see what you'd learn. Often there are game trails that only appear after you've spent some time adjusting your vision to those details.

The area was first explored by canoe and a lot of people lost their lives when they tried to navigate the river through the canyon. Later during the Cariboo Gold Rush, 1000's of people died on the same river and in the canyon before a primitive road was punched through. Even today, the highway is often closed due to rockslides, snow, avalanches etc. There is no other road through the canyon and the alternative detours are what I mentioned in the original post.

As for bushwhacking, the steep rugged mountains in this region are covered in thick, nearly impenetrable PNW rain forest growth that makes bushwacking for miles and days a non-starter. Even if you could find an alternative route high above and away from the canyon, year round snow on many mountains poses a whole a whole new set of problems. There are number of old and new logging roads, however my maps and Google Earth seraching of the area do not show any that are interconnected along the whole canyon length.

The more I think about it, the better alternative would be to stay put in one of the villages or head back north into less hostile and more open country where there is a much larger population base with better infrastructure and eventual assistance.

Oh yes, the PNW rainforest changes things.

From the pictures I couldn't get a sense of that density.
I've taken a few hikes in the wet side of Washington and been astonished at the density.

(Posted pictures look about like Colorado which is quite passable under the trees.)

In addition to survival supplies, trade goods might be the thing to have as you'll probably be staying awhile (Unless you decide to buy and bring that jet boat I keep mentioning :-)

Really for that situation, the thing to bring is a well stocked cabin/retreat/bug-out destination further up the river.