Capturing the Art of Nature
Silver – Skagit Valley
It always feels great to be in the hills, but today’s trip almost seemed like a drive along the back farm roads, the road was so smooth
Category
Serendipitous Discoveries
2014
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I wanted an easier drive in the hills today and as we hadn’t been up the Silver-Skagit for a while, it seemed like a good choice for the day. It would also give us a chance to find the granite quarry we came by a few years back. So we left the house with the newly repaired truck and made for the town of Hope. We arrived at the start of the mainline in good time and started up the initial paved section of the road. We passed a number of places selling firewood. This always seems so strange when there is so much lying all around ready to split and burn!
Once off the pavement we found the gravel freshly graded and it was so smooth it was like driving the asphalt! In fact the mainline was smooth all the way to the start of the Skagit Park where we stopped. It likely continued to Ross Lake! Not at all like it normally was. We made good time along it and with almost no traffic the dust was minimal as well. We commented a number of times at how smooth the road was, it really didn’t feel like the back-country. I am sure that it will be a lot rougher by the end of the summer.
We made our way in not stopping until we reached the upper Klesilkwa. Here we turned in but soon were stopped by over-growth. A new logging road spur set off north along the edge of a slope and so we drove along it to its end where we spotted some lovely log sections that would have made a good replacement for the one in my front yard that finally rotted and was removed. Unfortunately the combined strength of Geoff and me was not enough to move the log into the truck. We grumbled a bit and decided to look for slightly smaller and less interesting choices, we never did find one. This area proved to be not the one with the quarry and so we continued further up the mainline and tried the Maselpanik branch.
The Maselpanik Creek proved to be interesting and we were able to get down to it in a couple of places to capture some lovely small waterfalls as the creek made its way down the steep valley and over fallen trees. Through the road wasn’t overgrown we fairly soon encountered a steep washed out section that was just too rough for our truck to carry on. It was a disappointment as I have wanted to explore this road for some time. Another case where an ATV might have done it for us. We turned back and followed a lower branch north along the edge of the slope this was the road where we came by an excavator on our previous trip with a split open bucket. This ended with no quarry in sight though the terrain was similar to our memories.
We returned to the main line and back tracked to an exit we had passed just prior to the Maselpanik. It was labeled with a hand crafted sign saying ‘Mac’. We turned in here and followed the right fork not far from the mainline. This road wended its way alongside a huge boulder field and made for the river but we encountered a campsite with people and tents setup right in the middle of the road! I don’t understand why people set up their tents blocking a road! We turned back and stopped beside the boulder field where we got out and hiked in to get a close look. One massive one was split with a carefully drilled set of holes. We now knew we were close to the quarry. Geoff and I climbed over a number of the huge rocks and I was able to find a number of interesting views to shoot. After climbing a number of the rocks we returned to the truck and made for the left fork. This one was quite short and led directly into the centre of the quarry with the huge granite slabs placed around the edge. Another older couple was camped at the far side of the clearing so we didn’t stay long. It seemed that the number of huge blocks was significantly lower than what I remembered. Perhaps they were still hauling them out. Well we found the quarry but it wasn’t as interesting as we had hoped. As there the place was occupied we decided to return to the mainline and find another spot for lunch and after all that I forgot to take any photos of the remaining slabs!
We made our way further south and entered into the park but decided it was not where we wanted to explore so we back-tracked and took the first side road on our right that led up the shallow slope. At the end of this spur we stopped for lunch and Geoff did a little target practice. It was from this spot that I got some nice winter shots while driving with Ethan a couple years back. Done with lunch we started the journey back up the mainline. We continued to look for a nice log for my yard and drove a few short spurs looking but we found nothing of interest. When we reached the Upper Silverhope FSR we turned onto it and drove in a ways but it was too narrow for us to continue in.
As we continued our way back we reached the Cantelon Creek FSR. Though the main road is washed out a few kilometers in the side road that leads up the northern slope – the eastern flank of Mt. Hansen - is one I have driven a number of times but never able to reach the end due to snow. I thought it would be worth a try. So we made our way in and up the road. It being mid-season the side growth was heavy and I almost didn’t recognize the place. We reached an area with some open wide spaces but today they were heavily overgrown with small alder and the once amazing views were gone. But we were able to continue further up and eventually we reached the end! At least the drivable end. Here we had some lovely views of the Silver-Skagit Valley and the peaks along the eastern side. Shortly after we reached the top, a pair of small ATV/dune buggies arrived behind us. They stopped a switch-back below us but where they could enjoy the same view.
Well we were now done in our minds for the day. The truck had done well and the tires held out one more trip, they really do need to be replaced before another romp in the hills. The drive out went with no issues and soon we were back on the pavement and the high-speed of the freeway home. It was a pleasant trip to the hills, one where we didn’t push it much but just took the time to relax and enjoy the scenery.