Birthday Trip 2014 and British Columbia-Again

I took Friday the 8^th of August off and the family went into Slide Lake in the morning. Vashti wanted to get out of the pack almost immediately and ended up walking most of the way into the lake, with some help here and there around the rough spots.

It was very instructive to see what Vashti found challenging. She generally did okay going uphill but needed help over big steps or if the grade was too steep. Almost anything downhill, whether it was a big step or just a steep grade was a challenge. Watching and helping Vashti brought back faint memories of my experiences when I was little and before I was adept at trail walking. There can be a lot of things on a trail that are pretty scary when you are only 3 feet tall and just getting the whole leg coordination thing down.

Along the way we discovered rock rabbits (pikas [Ochotona princeps]), banana slugs, blue huckleberries (the sour ones, Vaccinium ovalifolium), salmonberries, mushrooms and single delights (Moneses uniflora) to name a few things. The trail goes through a lot of rock piles and there are many holes and overhangs. Vashti needed to know who lived in about every other hole or rock overhang, rock rabbits and weasels being the standard answer. It took us about an hour and a half or more to walk a little over a mile into the lake.

At the lake we stopped for a break and a snack. I caught a couple of fish and then Vashti got to try her hand at fishing (after the hook was removed). Many years ago I was going into Slide Lake and met a guy coming out with his kids in tow. One of his kids had managed to hook him in the corner of the eye while casting. He had the lure hanging on the side of his face when I met him. He asked me if I could cut it out and I recommended that he see a doctor. That situation might be in store for me some day but not yet.

I wanted to make a little better time out so I put Vashti in the pack. She promptly fell asleep. I think Phoebe stayed awake most of the way in. She was getting hungry and fussy on the way out. It took a little less than half an hour to get out.

Because it is so easy to get into, there is more litter around Slide Lake and it isn’t as pristine as places that are harder to reach. But it isn’t completely trashed either. It is an excellent place for someone in our situation who wants to take their kids into a nice place without having to do a death march. It is also an excellent place for people who don’t have the best physical capabilities.

When we got home Vashti helped me clean the fish and I was off to B.C. to try to do some more lakes on the Canadian Skagit.

There was a wait of several hours at the border but travel was good once I was in B.C. I headed to the Silver/Skagit Road. My plan was to check out a few more logging roads, camp for the night and then head into Shawatum Lakes. The maps I had available to me indicated that there was a trail to them or very near to them, one map even indicated a horse camp. So I figured these would be some pretty easy ones to get in to. The plan was then to head to Lightning Chain Lakes at the head of Lightning Creek which drains to Ross Lake. These are just out of the development for the Manning Provincial Park Lodge Complex. I figured they would be easy as well. The overall plan was to do a multi-purpose trip. Get some scouting done and hit a few new lakes as well.

The logging road scouting went about as I had figured it would. The roads I had planned on using for access were blocked. So budget more time to walk the roads or walk in by another route. I did see a moose trotting down one of the roads I was scouting. Judging by the antlers which were still in velvet, it was a younger bull, not really young but not quite in his prime yet and full sized, not that I know a lot about moose.

I scrambled for my camera which was in the back of the pickup and, sure enough, by the time I got it out, the moose was gone. I had never seen of moose before so I thought it was pretty cool. Though a moose in British Columbia is hardly a unique sight. I know some people who have seen moose around Diablo and Gorge Lakes. Now that would be pretty cool. I have seen quite a few moose tracks and droppings in the Lightning Creek area on Ross Lake and in the Pasayten but this was the first live one.

I slept in the back of my pickup just off the main road and got up early to head into Shawatum Lakes. As I mentioned earlier, I expected this to be a good workout but fairly simple. The trail followed an old road and was in pretty good shape for about 3 miles (5 kilometers).

Then, at a small stream named Pyrrhotite Creek, it pretty much disappeared into a brush pile. Someone had been up to this point this year and had been cutting a path here and there and there were some random flags but all of this seemed to peter out just past Pyrrhotite Creek.

I was really disappointed. I figured I was about half way in but I hadn’t planned on having to deal with all the brush. The brush was tag alder (Alnus sinuata) and vine maple (Acer circinatum) with a healthy sprinkling of Douglas maple (Acer glabrum). This is the type of brush that sucks your energy and slows your progress to a snail’s pace.

I wasn’t sure if it would be like this the rest of the way into the lakes. If it was, I probably wouldn’t have time enough to make it the rest of the way in, take a good look around and make it back out before dark. I decided to bag it for this trip. Then I chided myself for giving up to easily. So I went down towards Shawatum Creek to see if there was a better way there. No dice. After hemming and hawing for half an hour and another abortive attempt, I called it quits.

I was quite discouraged as I made my way back down the old road. It looked like another great weekend had been squandered. I will have to make another attempt after I am better prepared.

This is not an uncommon experience for me. In the summer of 2012, it took me three attempts over three separate weekends to make it into two small lakes on the Whitechuck River. It is part of traveling into an unknown area. Still, it is very discouraging.

When I got back, I looked on Google Earth at the area and it appears that a large slide came down over the road at Pyrrhotite Creek and that is what I had run into. Evidently it discouraged most other people from going any farther. I am sure there have been people in there after the slide, just not in enough numbers to keep an obvious trail open.

So, feeling rather downcast, I headed for Manning Provincial Park. This was via B.C. Highway 3 or the Crowsnest Highway. It is obvious this highway is used all winter and it must be a nightmare in heavy snow and ice. The highway follows the Sumallo River, which is a tributary to the Skagit and then the Upper Skagit, and I mean Upper, Upper Skagit to Allison Pass and then into the Similkameen River, tributary to the Fraser.

I thought I had heard that the Skagit headwaters are at Allison Pass but it is a creek called Cedar Creek. I don’t know where it is considered to be the Skagit River proper. This doesn’t seem to be clearly delineated on the maps I have. Maybe at the confluence of Cedar Creek and one of the large drainages from the southwest, Daynore Creek or Big Burn Creek or maybe the Skaist River or Creek, as it is labeled on some maps, which flows from the northeast. One map I have has the Skagit labeled as a river above Big Burn Creek. If one had time, there is a method called the Strahler Stream Order that gives a rough estimate of how big a stream is but I haven’t had time to figure this out for these streams. At any rate, the area is the head of the Skagit.

Lightning Chain Lakes was a bit of a shock. There are paved roads to several areas on Lightning Lake, the largest lake of the chain. Lightning Lake is also at the headwaters of the watershed. There was a day use area here, complete with mowed lawn, changing rooms, outhouses, a volleyball net and a place to rent canoes.

The wilderness camp at Strike Lake, where I stayed, was about 9 kilometers, or about 5 miles farther on. I hiked down Lightning Lake, past Flash Lake and arrived at the Strike Lake Camp at dusk.

There were two other groups there. One was a young family with three or four kids. One of them, who appeared to be a year or two older than Vashti had a whine, when he was unhappy about something, that was uncannily similar to Vashti’s. And it seemed like this kid was unhappy a lot. Sacha always tells me to enjoy the peace and quiet when I head out into the mountains. It appeared I wasn’t going to get away with it this time. I camped down by the creek where the sound of the rushing water drowned out a lot of the other sounds.

Sunday morning I was up early. I rigged my pole and stopped to fish at bit at each lake on the way out. I had just bought a B.C. fishing license (licence) and I figured I would get some use from it. I caught a few fish in each lake without much trouble. They were all rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss).

The trip back was relatively uneventful except for the 20 questions routine I got at the border crossing. I guess my story sounded a little strange to the border guard. I hope to have the chance to make a few more attempts at B.C. high lakes this year. For now, there are some places I would like to go that are a little closer to home.    

Navigating obstacles for two year olds on the slide lake trail. 

The family at Slide Lake examining the catch.

Vashti trying her hand at fishing. The hooks have been removed. 

Here fishie, fishie.

Maybe if I hold the pole differently.......

The catch. Coastal cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarki clarki). These were enough for dinner and a few leftovers the next day. 

Worn out, nap time.

The road up Shawatum Creek. This is fairly representative of what it looked like below the slide at Pyrrhotite Creek. 

The road up Shawatum Creek in the area of the slide at Pyrrhotite Creek. 

Moose droppings in the road. There were a lot of them. The actual live moose I saw on this trip would have been much more interesting, I know, but I blew it getting my camera out so you will have to settle for this. 

Pink heather (Phyllodoce empetriformis) in the road up Shawatum Creek at an elevation of about 2500 to 3000 feet.  This species is usually associated with alpine or sub-alpine settings but this is the third place where I have found this species well below the sub-alpine. The other two places are Newhalem Creek and Found Creek. In each of these places, as here, the plants were growing in an old road bed. 

Another interesting species distribution puzzle. This is vanilla leaf (Achlys triphylla). There is a lot of this plant in the Skagit watershed in B.C. The interesting thing about this is that, in the upper Skagit of Skagit County, this plant appears to be absent east of Illabot Creek, except for a small population in the Boulder Creek area on the Cascade River out of Marblemount. In all my travels in eastern Skagit and Whatcom Counties outside of the areas just mentioned, I don't recall ever coming across this plant yet it is all over the place in B.C. Obviously it is probably common in eastern Whatcom County at least just south of the border in the Ross Lake area. This leaves an apparently huge gap in this species' distribution. The reader should understand that I base the statements about vanilla leaf on my own and a few others observations. I don't hold any definitive records on vanilla leaf distribution and I or the others I referenced may have simply missed seeing or registering this plant in many of the areas where it appears to be absent. 

Lightning Lake Day Use Area, Manning Provincial Park. Lighting Lake is at the head of Lightning Chain Lakes which drain to Lightning Creek and Ross Lake. 

One end of the parking lot at Lighting Lake Day Use Area, Manning Provincial Park.

The outlet of Lighting Lake. This area was much less crowded, though I still saw quite a few people. It was a mile or two from the Day Use Area and accessible only by trail or boat.  

The outlet of Flash Lake, second in the Lighting Chain Lakes and just below Lightning Lake. 

Looking up Flash Lake from the outlet area. 

Shoal of fish in Flash Lake. 

Rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) caught in Flash Lake. 

Looking down Strike Lake, third in the Lightning Chain Lakes and below Flash Lake. 

Outlet of Flash Lake. 

Allison Pass on B.C. 3, The Crows Nest or Hope-Princeton Highway. This is the highest spot on the highway and I have heard that this is the head of the Skagit River. 

Pit at Allison Pass. The valley in the background is Memaloose Creek which drains to the Similkameen River and, ultimately, the Fraser River. The Skagit watershed starts at the right of the photo. 

Looking down the head of the Skagit (Cedar Creek) from Allison Pass. 

Cedar Creek (I think) at the head of the Skagit River a little below Allison Pass. I was able to jump this creek without getting my feet wet. 

The true Upper Skagit between the two crossings of the Crows Nest or Hope-Princeton Highway (B.C. 3). I couldn't jump it here. This spot reminded me a lot of Granite Creek on Highway 20 in Washington. 

The Upper Skagit between the two crossings of the highway where the highway trends away from it.

Sumallo River, a tributary of the Skagit that the Crows Nest or Hope-Princeton Highway (B.C. 3) follows. 

The Hope Slide. I had never been here before and was only vaguely aware of it. So I thought it was ironic that the first time I came through here was less than a year after the Oso slide. The Hope Slide is also huge. The material in the foreground is from the slide and the photo was taken from the viewpoint on top of the slide material. I wish I had thought to get some cars or people in the photo to give a better sense of scale. 

The story of the Hope Slide. My apologies, it might be a little hard to read.