Uztilius Adventure

It had been two years since we last visited the Anderson and Uztilius region and being such an extensive road system we had seen very little of it back then. So it didn’t take too much convincing to head up there and see what we could find. The drive to the start is the biggest deterrent to exploring this road system as one needs to drive up to Boston Bar just to get started. In all we drove 500kms today most of which was on the highway coming and going. The drive to Boston Bar went quite quickly, the canyon segment of the drive had very little traffic and we made great time all the way from Hope to Boston Bar. After a quick top-up in town we back tracked a couple Km’s to the entrance to the FSR.

It was already hot by the time we started in but the air handling on the truck was working and we were able to enjoy a comfortable ride. The new tires gave us good traction on the gravel and we soared up the steep sections without any tire spinning or loss of grip. Previously we explored a few side spurs along the first section of road as it made its way south along the Anderson River but today we wanted to head straight for the narrow Uztilius Valley and start some serious looking once in it. That made for a quick drive south and then we started into the valley heading in a general north-easterly direction.

The lower section of this valley is much like those closer to the coast with firs and hemlocks though a bit drier. So far on the FSR, we came upon only a single truck on the road and we noticed one campsite along the Uztilius otherwise it was very empty and pleasant. In reviewing the map for the area we decided to try a major spur to the south but when we came to the fork it was washed out a few meters in where it crossed the creek that was quite disappointing. Continuing a bit further, Geoff spotted an interesting rock face across the creek so we pulled over to explore the creek. The short walk to the creek saw us pushing through some dead undergrowth and clambering down large rocks. It was obvious that no-one had been along here in many years. We soon noticed some interesting sedimentary rock along the bottom of the creek bed. The smaller rocks were embedded in the base rock and it had interesting patterns. The original cliff face that caught Geoff’s attention proved less interesting but it did get us down to the creek where we enjoyed some new sights.

Continuing on, we came by a piece of heavy equipment parked to the side and a very steep side road to the north. It was too challenging to ignore so Geoff turned up the spur and we made our way in. We soon came by a very steep section that had pure dust for a road surface. It was very slow going as we inched our way up the slope through the very low traction dust while creating a massive dust cloud in our wake. We did get up the road and after a few switch backs we came face-to-face with another track bearing piece of large road equipment. The operator was stopped chatting with a person in a safety vehicle. Once he spotted us trying to get past he started down the slope towards us. We backed up a few meters into a wide section of the switch-back to let him pass. Once cleared we continued up to the ridge and an extensive road network. Here they were busy adding in a new line of transmission towers. We drove up to the closest one, here they had completed pouring the cement base. It was interesting to see that they no longer tried for a level area, each cement pad was at a different level and all sloped inward. I gathered a few photos from the site then we drove up to a second tower pad, here the tower was in place but there were still buckets of bolts on site to finish the task. We decided to head back to the mainline as we wanted to finish exploring the narrow valley before I had my planned radio contact. The return down the steep soft slope went with little challenge and we were quickly back to solid level gravel.

Continuing along the valley we stopped a few km further along so I could get some photos of the slope to the north and below the transmission line. This slope is very steep with a talus surface and many dead trees along the upper section. It looks quite interesting, last trip we climbed up it a bit but today I was content to just gather some photos from the bottom. Meanwhile Geoff was trying out is semi-auto .22 rifle on an empty water bottle. We continued up the road and made our way along the headwaters of the Uztilius. It is a swampy area and we could only skirt alongside it on the mainline. Perhaps one day we can explore it on foot. Next we came by a major fork, the right branch continued east and down to the Murray Lake road area which we followed last time. Today we went left and soon came along a ridge with a view of a wide grassy swamp area with a winding creek through the middle. The road continued along it so we made our way down and were soon driving alongside the sweet grass. It was very pretty and here we looked for a pullout to setup our radio gear.