Capturing the Art of Nature
Silver-Skagit Valley
The Silver-Skagit area is a very scenic location with a large number of mountain peaks to enjoy. This time of year the added snow cover really accentuates the striking beauty of the peaks.
Category
Serendipitous Discoveries
2012
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January is usually a tough time to explore the hills with a 4x4, the snow line is low and one can’t get in far enough to enjoy the back country. For this reason I was looking for an area with a long valley road that didn’t gain a lot of elevation. After considering various places we have been to, we settled on the Silver Skagit area. This road is quite long, has many side branches, amazing mountain and water scenery and gains elevation slowly. Since I hadn’t been there in well over a year, I felt it was time for a return.
Ethan got to the house around 8:30 and helped me reload the truck. We had previously completely emptied it due to the broken tonneau cover which was now replaced. The new one works nicely. Once loaded we set off to gather a few food supplies and a full load of fuel. We were a bit disappointed that the weather report had changed and moved the start of rain to the morning, so that was not at all encouraging but we set off with hopes the rain would clear enough for some decent photography.
Upon reaching the start of the FSR we were still in a light drizzle but it didn’t seem enough to stop us from going on. Not far into the valley there is a lovely view of a waterfall across the river. Here we stopped so I could gather a few slow shutter photos of the falls. There is an upper section that I would like to try to get at some later date. Done with the waterfall, we continued in and took the fork leading to the west–side of Silver Lake and the start of the Sowerby FSR. We climbed that road and soon were into snow and there before us was a very rough, water washed section of road. The bare rocks made for several meters of serious bumps but we got through it and continued up the snow covered road, by now the rain had turned to snow and we enjoyed a moderate snowfall. Ethan spotted a nice opening to the creek below us and I was able to gather some shots of it. We continued on up the road but not much further we started slipping and sliding and unable to climb further up the road. I didn’t want to put on chains here as I didn’t feel we would get much further even with them. So we turned around and made our way back over the very rough area and all the way to the main Silver-Skagit road.
Back on the mainline we continued in past Silver Lake and on down the valley. There were very few people out here today so we had the place to ourselves. By now the snow had let up a bit so we were able to see the peaks around us fairly well and we marveled at the beauty of the place even in the dead of winter. Driving the main road seemed to offer much to see so we opted to just continue down the road and stop for lunch near the bridge over the Skagit River. It was a fair ways down but the road seemed fine and so we kept going. We did come by another truck heading out at one point; they seemed to be stopping to photograph things like us.
Around a kilometer before the bridge the snow had gotten deep enough to bottom out our truck and even with chains on we were no longer moving. So we decided to not push on for the final distance but now we had to get ourselves moving again. It was here when we discovered a major problem with our reloading of the truck. It happened that we had forgotten to load in a shovel! So here we were, in desperate need of digging out a bit of snow and no shovel to do it with! After reviewing the situation we did a bit of work by hand and after throwing a chain we were finally able to get moving again. It was a challenge as we kept digging down with the chains which then bottomed us out again. After around a half hour we had inched our way back up the road a hundred feet and were now able to back our way up the road to where we could turn around. Soon after turning around, Ethan stepped on the brake and noticed it was a bit soft. This we attributed to the icy road and so we didn’t pay too much attention to the brake. We still hadn’t had lunch and were now irritable enough to not care about the brake. After driving a few kilometers we came to a shaded area under some trees where we could set up the burner and cook some food.
Once the water was on and we had settled down I took a look at the hoses on the front wheels thinking that the 4x4 hose had pulled loose. It was fine however I saw that the right front brake line was severed and dripping brake fluid! Not a good scene at all. There was no way to reconnect the two halves of the hose so I needed to find a way to close off the source end and see if we still had any braking ability. Finding a way to seal the end proved a bit of a challenge. It really made me think about our need to properly inventory our support equipment so that we would be able to deal with minor issues. After scrounging through all our cases and cutting open one of my fingers, Ethan finally found a screw, which was part of my radio antenna, that we could screw into the hose. It seemed a good fit and soon we were past the point of hand tightening. Now we had to use a flat head screwdriver but where was it? Searching for it yielded no driver. I remembered that there was a flat head attachment to the socket set we had packed but it had opened up and spilled its contents all over the bottom of one of our cases. We did finally find the needed pieces and secured the screw.
Driving worked reasonably well if one remembered the strong pull to the left when braking. After checking that the screw was holding we continued on out at a leisurely pace stopping to take photos of the various mountain scenes as we came by them. By now the snow had stopped and we had decent views of the hills around us. So the day worked out quite well despite the few problems we encountered. This coming week I will need to send in the truck to be repaired once again but then it seems to visit the shop at least every month.