Skagit Range Snow Shoeing

I quite enjoyed the bit of snow shoeing I did last season and dearly wanted to get out for some more snow filled adventures; but the season was rapidly closing and I still hadn’t gotten out. Finally on April 12 I had the opportunity to get to the Chilliwack River area with my Snow Shoes. I had planned to drive up Church Mountain and hike along the higher portions of the logging roads as it is a scenic area and quite easy to reach. Unfortunately, as we got only a short way along the FSR we were blocked by a new locked gate! This was recently put up – not by forestry companies protecting their equipment but by the military to keep the area clean so as to prevent embarrassment in front of international visitors. It would appear that so many people would dump garbage along the road that it had become a big ongoing task for the military base in the area to clean it up. Since they had regular foreign visitors they wanted the area to look presentable and so after years of cleanup they finally gave up and simply locked 4x4’s out! They did provide for access to quads and others by permission. I find it appalling that so many do dump garbage out there, it really needs to stop.

So as Church was not accessible, we moved on up the valley to the Chipmunk FSR, the main access to Mt Cheam. We were able to drive in only 2km before the snow blocked the road and we had to park. So though we didn’t get in as far as I had planned, we did reach the snow and we quickly got out the snow shoes and started up the FSR. We made it to the 4km mark where we felt quite tired and worn out, so back we went. We had to jump out of the way of a few snow mobiles as they ripped past at full throttle. It was a good work out – and the weather was hot and cooling so it made for a pleasant hike.

Our way home had much excitement as we decided to travel the logging road that parallels the main paved road along the Chilliwack River. About half way back to pavement our cab filled with smoke and we suddenly fearful of a car fire! It seemed that the transmission was on the verge of igniting. So we quickly stopped and let the SUV rest. After a short while and looking over the vehicle we tried moving again, but quite soon smoke started filling the cab. We were starting to panic as while I may have BCAA roadside service, it doesn’t help on a logging road, so I had to find a way to get the several kilometers to pavement. The strange thing about our situation was that there was no smoke outside the cab! As we were getting close to the final downward part of the road, we limped the SUV along keeping the RPM’s low which slowed the smoking to a simmer. Then we coasted out of the logging road onto pavement. But we noticed that low RPM’s stopped the smoke so we kept driving and did make it home.