Capturing the Art of Nature
Silverhope River and Kilby
A snowy day in the hills which did a good job of keeping us out
Category
Serendipitous Discoveries
2012
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Despite the poor weather forecast I was hopeful that we could get in at least part way along the Silver Skagit Valley to gather a few images of the lake and peaks. So when we left home in a slight drizzle I wasn’t too concerned since I thought the weather would improve further up the valley. Alas, it got worse! Much worse in fact. By the time we reached the start of the Silver Skagit it was snowing hard with huge flakes. We persevered and started up the road, the initial paved section was cleared but the huge piles of snow to the sides were ominous.
Soon we reached the end of the pavement only to find a few trucks pulled off to the side the road - ahead was deep with snow with a deep pair of ruts in it. It looked to be a challenge so we put on the chains and started up the road. The ruts proved a challenge alright as the snow had a thick crust that stubbornly refused to let us choose our own path. At times we broke free and shattered the crusty snow so that we could make our own way up. This proved a slow and painful process. After a kilometer we stopped to review the condition of the road and our truck and concluded that we were not ready to admit defeat yet.
Pushing further on, we slowly inched our way through the deep snow and made our way up a rise and past a widened section of road. Eventually we came to a spot with a nice view of the Silver River. Here we stopped so I could gather a few photos. Ethan checked out the road ahead and felt that it just wasn’t getting easier and that we wouldn’t likely get much further. So we decided to not push on. Just then another truck came up the road behind us and pulled even. We told the couple occupying the truck of our decision much to their disappointment. They had been using our ruts and if we didn’t go on they would be stopped as well. So hearing our decision they backed up to the wide section of road and pulled to the side to set up a small day camp. Their large propane heater looked quite inviting. They planned to spend a few hours enjoying the area with their dogs. I gathered a few more photos and then we returned down the road. We removed the chains at the pavement and made a quick jaunt to The Blue Moose Bistro in Hope for lunch.
After lunch we decided to travel back along highway 7 rather than the main route. This would allow us to see more of the area before heading home. This proved to be a good choice as we did find a number of lovely sights along the way. The snowfall was too heavy to bother with photos but we both enjoyed the view. Continuing past Agassiz and Mt Woodside we decided to take a detour to the Kilby Park site. This proved to be well worth the time as the view across the bay offered some lovely scenes of the cloud shrouded peaks to the north-west. I would have liked to have stayed longer but the heavy hail chased me back to the truck and so off we went to continue our drive home. The rest of the drive was growing in normalcy the further we drove west as the amount of snow was significantly reduced, soon we were driving in a wet environment rather than a snowy one.
Despite not getting to see much back country we did enjoy some heavy snow and a few intriguing views. So the day wasn’t a complete loss just much different from what we had planned.