February 19  2005, Ipsut Road access MRNP

<br>We hiked up the Carbon river road to Ipsut campground yesterday. The road had been washed out by the pineapple express. To our suprise National Park employees had the heavy eqipment in there and are rebuilding the road. I talked to one the operators He said that this time they were going to raise the road and and a divertment channel has been cut along side the road. <br>Robie

<br>Thanks for the info. I had not heard about this & I'm surprised that they're working on it so quickly. It took them years to do any work when it originally washed out due to the environmental review process. I'm not bashing the process but just curious how they're able to respond so quickly this time..

Its a definite change in attitude. Perhaps the new superintendant? I could have lived with it either way but it does make some longer trip ski tours possible with the road open. To list a few Seattle ,Spray Park ,Observation rock/Russell glacier,Old Desolate and Carbon glacier.<br>Robie <br><br>

My understanding is that after the big washout years ago, the road washes out and they dump a bunch of gravel each spring.

Legdargger,<br>Thats what they have been doing alright but this time they are raising the level of the road and putting in this divertment channel.I'd be surprised if they did any asphalting.

Good to hear road is getting upgraded. On related note I went up to Mowich Lake yesterday (2/20) and road is quite drivable to the usual Paul Peak gate, with icy spots but no clearance issues. The first mile of walking/skiing had just an inch or two of snow over the gravel but got reasonable past that first mile. It might not be too long until a bike-ski combo will be more useful than skis alone, maybe just a week or two. I'd be interested in knowing whether areas like the Knapsack Pass side to the lake, or the steep forest near or above Eagle Cliff, are north facing enough to be a worthy tour, or if the main purpose of going in this way is to get to Spray Park and beyond. Anyone have any experience with that?

Wolfs,<br>I'm kinda of the opinion that if the gate is closed at paul peak I would drive to ipsut campground and go up Marmot creek to Seattle Park. This would also be a long hike and be best suited for multiple day trip. Now another thing that crossed my mind today was that the road to Sunrise might be quite rideable and a tour up there is feasible very soon. Charles the boss here is the expert on this.

I have done the bike-ski to Mowich-Spray Park a number of times. The regular Spray Park trail seems to melt out pretty early, and the area around Eagle Cliff seems to me to be more SW-W facing than anything north. A couple of weeks ago (before the latest snow) the MRNP site said that the Spray Park trail was mostly snow free until the base of the switch backs. As for Knapsack, the steep N-facing slopes on it's west side should certainly be holding most of snow they've gotten because they are shaded. I wonder about the coverage, though. As those slopes normally melt out a lot of rocks appear in the fall lines, so I'd be really careful in evaluating any line if coverage is as low as I would guess it is.<br><br>Sunrise: if only we could drive to White River CG! Right now it looks to be a long ride in to get to Sunrise: 410 from Crystal turnoff to WR road, then WR road to WR bridge, then Sunrise road to where ever you could start skiing. Sounds like a lot of biking and a little skiing for a day trip!<br><br>wolfs - could you give a little more info on the snow conditions on Mowich Lake road, especially near Mowich Lake, and beyond that if you went any farther?

Near Mowich Lake, the snow was pretty deep, probably around four feet. Although you lose elevation and it does face the sun a little I'd be surprised if the NPS report of Spray Lake trail snow free to base of switchbacks were even remotely true. Right at the start of trail as you started down direction Mowich Rv junction, you'd definitely want skis or snowshoes - deep snow. Even the Grindstone Trail, which might be representative of how much of the Spray Trail would be til switchbacks, had at least a foot or two of mostly loose snow that you'd want flotation on. It didn't look like too many folks had continued past the campground and packed the Spray trail down.<br>I had every intention of going further myself, BUT I had a bit of an equipment meltdown (the 3-pin soled part of my boots cracked completely off, leaving midsole exposed, on BOTH boots in succession!) before even reaching the lake and I ended up having to walk a couple miles rather than skiing all as I had intended, and thus had no flotation to tackle anything that hadn't been thoroughly packed down already. Another report @ www.nwhikers.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=8889 - can't call that a 'turns-all-year' report, more like 'kinda walking kinda skiing' with no turns made whatsoever ;D<br><br>Re: getting there Seattle Park as opposed to Mowich - I've never done either in winter, but my mindset would be that unless you could turn some of the 2000+ extra elevation gain you'd have to do coming up Seattle Park it wouldn't be worth it to me. The 5 miles of road goes down fast either via ski or bike. Via Seattle Park, if you went to Observation Rock (kinda the center point of good skiing up there), you're looking at 16 miles 6000 feet gain. Most normal humans couldn't do that in less than six hours. I'd guess on basis of gluing together times Paul Pk-&gt;Mowich-&gt;Obs Rock I could do it via Mowich in five, plus less wear and tear because you're not just storming down the hill on trails at the end when you're tired, you're either skiing or otherwise traveling on stuff that is long but not that steep.