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surrey
Canada
246 Posts |
Posted - 08/18/2009 : 10:23 PM
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So after going to Clerf lake, I thought why not finish the valley off and hit the other lake. It's the next valley after the Upper Silver Hope FSR or 30km from the flashing yellow Light in Hope.
The lake was better then Clerf in my mind as the one end had a marsh/delta with all sorts of flowers, blueberry bushes, and swampy grasslands
       
Getting there was a real pain in the ass, I will likely never try to go that far up the valley agian. Took me around 7-8 hours each way although I did try a few different paths. I have never been so tired and fully spent if it had not been for my check in time with my wife on Sunday I would have stopped and had a sleep on the trip out.
If any one wants to try this chances are good you won't get lost as uphill leads to the lake and downhill leads back to the trail head. That being said the "old" road is nothing but solid alder for 7-8 kms. Where ever water crosses the road (lol) some kind of willow tree takes over and it is so dense I had a hard time falling through it.
The cut blocks are filled with berry bushes yummy  . Most of the berry bushes are around 5-8 feet tall, thick, nasty, and very dense oh yah also rather pokey.
  last bit right before the lake which is not too bad at all.
On the way into the lake I crossed the river at the start of the valley and went to the top of the cut block. Then I mashed my way arcoss the top of the block untill I conected to the upper road. I followed that road all the way to the very end then droped down into the lake. Gaining elevation in the cut block was hard even for a tall skinny dude like me. The upper road is very, very badly overgrown you can not walk on the road. Your choices are to walk on the downhill side of the road and try to fall down the 30% grade. Or take the uphill side and try to walk on a 30% grade of lose earth/sand that wants to give way every time you take a step
      This is pretty much what the upper road looked like
On the way out I tried the river, then the lower road. I left the lake along the river then went down the really step part and very slowly made my way through the cut block to the river. However they logged so close to the river there was no forest to walk in just very thick bush. So I went up from the river to the lower road and followed it out.
     
Now the lower road was alot better and inplaces you could even walk on the road. However, and this is a big huge BUT. From about the area where the river from clerf lake joins in until the end of the valley the road is the most overgrown of any part in the valley (make sense it is close to water). The worst part is, it has a decent grade to it, and all of the "trees" are pointing downhill. I had a very hard time swiming through it and I was going "with the grain". If you tried to go uphill into it it would be like walking into a Roman Phalax. It is so overgrown when it crosses the creak you don't even know it is a road. So it's pretty much impossible to find.
On a side not if you get hurt here you better crawl out cause NO one is going to find you.
PS lots of areas along this southern exposure road that had sandy soil with water running through it. (hint hint cough cough) |
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 Trail cuttin, GPS packin bushwhacker, wiki hike compilin, who is now Hope-less
Langley, BC
Canada
2397 Posts |
Posted - 08/19/2009 : 07:33 AM
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Very cool!!!
I hadn't even heard of anyone even attempting that lake in the past 10 years until now. |
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 canine loving, machete-toting bushwhacking lake seeker, Indiana Jones hat-wearing off-road 4x4 guru
Surrey Hole, BC
Canada
4886 Posts |
Posted - 08/20/2009 : 12:59 PM
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Well done!
We've discussed this trip a few times,and BG also had some interest.
Going on top of an early spring snowpack is likely the easiest way in, but then the lake is likely frozen.
Thanks for the T/R |
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No Name Lake South of Clerf Lake
