September 28, 2014
Hope to Silvertip
Silver Lake Road is compact clay and gravel and was wet and slippery from the heavy night rain and continuing drizzle. The Flyer’s dirt tires never faltered in the gravel or the mud. Of course the checkout clerk at the local grocery store having driven to Ross Lake from Hope assured me it was mostly flat the whole way to the lake. I kept reminding myself of this certain information as my incline meter was reading between 12 and 15% grades. I'm suspect of its accuracy but it was backed up with the certainty I was in my seldom used 22-34 gear combination on a couple of the steepest parts. They were short and the road beside being wet and slick was mostly smooth with a little washboard and chuck holes spaced few and far enough apart to be easily navigated around. Given the severity of the surrounding Cascade peaks and ridges the pass between the Silver Creek Valley and the Skagit Valley is tame, thanks to the last ice age and Ross Lake Dam construction. The road was built for the Canadian logging trucks to haul the American logs and slash out of the impending inundation pool to be named Ross Lake.
Hozomeen CG on Ross Lake was an easy downhill reach but I came upon Silvertip CG, which was not on my BC campground map so I turned in and found a beautiful campsite among many beautiful ones and enjoyed the untamed free flowing Skagit for the night. It is worth noting that the Canadians did not stop at the Ross Lake shore line in their tree harvesting. The upper section of the valley where Silvertip CG was also heavily logged with stumps of old growth trees left as tombstones of the forest that was.
Silvertip CG - 3+ stars
Today's ride: 50 km (31 miles)
Total: 192 km (119 miles)
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