from its source the bell-irving river flows generally south through mostly mountainous terrain. it is joined by craven creek, then rochester creek. the yukon telegraph trail follows rochester creek and part of the bell-irving river. the yukon telegraph line, also called the dominion telegraph, grew out of part of the earlier, failed russian–american telegraph, and connected ashcroft, bc, to dawson city, yukon. the telegraph trail was built during the klondike gold rush and promoted as an all-canadian route to the yukon gold fields.