The Methye Portage or Portage La Loche in northwestern Saskatchewan was one of the most important portages in the old fur trade route across Canada. The 19 km (12 mi) portage connected the Mackenzie River basin to rivers that ran east to the Atlantic. Peter Pond reached it in 1778. It was abandoned in 1883 when the Canadian Pacific Railway was completed across the prairies and steamboats began running on the Athabasca River. It ranks with Grand Portage as one of the two most important and difficult portages used during the fur trade era.