Upper Silvis

With a bunch of our super great friends, Jo, Paul and I hiked up to Upper Silvis Lake ready for an adventurous challenge on a sunny Alaska day.

For the first part of the hike, we followed a large pipeline. Where we could've taken the main trail- the water pipe cut a strait, direct path and not only got us further quicker, also provided many more exciting adventures!

First obstacle: long, dark cave.

We'd hiked up to Lower Silvis before, so we were, of-course, very prepared for the trip through the rock tunnel. Armed with flashlights we entered the mouth of the cave - only to find what we'd missed the last time: a light switch. :) Who would have thought? It was really quite handy though!

We walked on top of this lovely black road - and you see way down at the far end of it where is rockets strait up to meet the sky? We climbed up that as well.

We were walking single file down the top of the pipeline when a voice from the back of the line calls out "Deer!" We all rushed back and caught a glimpse of the shy animal.

It was pretty amazing that it was spotted actually, for quite a lot of the trek on the water pipe was spent with head down, watching the person's feet ahead.

At the end of the horizontal part of the pipeline, looking back.

Second obstacle: beginning the long ascent.

Pretty steep - but we were up for the thrill, knowing that the slow ascent could very quickly turn into a speedy DEscent.

It's hard work!


Third obstacle: climbing the pipeline UP.

The pictures defiantly do not show how scary that actually was! They don't show how fun it was either. And I bet none of you were thinking how hard it was to actually TAKE that picture while trying to hang on and climb as well! :)
But we finally made it to the top and started off on the trail again. Our elevation had changed a bit however and we soon found ourselves surrounded by patches of melting snow. One of the most satisfying things in the world has got to be having a snowball fight on a warm summer day!

And as a all smart hikers would do, we tried to avoid the danger spots... spots such as unpredictable gushes of water flowing out of mysterious black pipes. :)

Ah! Lower Silvis.

We'd have to hike around the lake to another trail to continue on up to the Upper Lake.

So we kept on walking. By now the snow patches were much more frequent. Frequent enough so that we didn't have to stop at every one to have another snow skirmish. - and then we ran into something much more exiting:

AVALANCHES!

Fourth obstacle: crossing the avalanches.

Huge slides of crusty snow covered LONG sections of the trail. So - gingerly we picked our way over the frozen chutes that many times paved a path all the way down to the surface of the lake. No slipping for us!

We could hear the melting water running beneath the solid snow bridge that we were walking over.

It was absolutely beautiful!

We all felt very brave passing all of these yellow signs without so much as a second glance.

And then suddenly we came upon the head of the last leg of the trail.

It was hard enough to read that we still had a half-a-mile to go. I wonder what we'd have done if our destination was Deer MTN. We might have passed out just looking at it! :)

That next 1/2 mile was so grueling this is the only picture I have from that part of the hike; A dead tree. How very alive I must have been feeling right then. - the trail was a series of steps and steep switchbacks. All attention given to breathing and putting one foot in front of the other.

But when we took the last step out of the woods it was all worth it.

Before us stood this shelf of rock - behind which was Upper Silvis.

The snow here was deep though, and as we soon found out, much feebler than the stuff formed by the avalanches.

You see, looking up to snap this photo while trying to cross a narrow snow bridge, I suddenly found myself in a snow hole up to my waist. I was quite stuck. And, when my friend made her way over to me to try and pull me out, she wound up in the same predicament.

It would've been cool to say we had to dig our way out, but there were plenty of hands to pull us up out of the cold snow.

And then finally...

UPPER SILVIS!

wow.

We ate lunch on the dam.

The breeze was cool and any pain from our recent excursion was completely forgotten.

...and while I was taking a picture of my friend, and Joanna was taking a picture of me, the boys were... uh... they were... um... actually, I'm not so sure what they're doing...

Talk about a good looking group of kids! :)

For a one-take shot, with the camera balanced on the edge of the dam, and every one swatting flies away every half-second, it actually didn't turn out too bad!

And then:

we started back down.

Once again, you gotta wonder who really reads those silly signs.

Funny thing about this picture- neither knew the other was there!

She wondered why we were taking pictures of her, and he was wondering the same about himself, and both were quite startled when we told them that the other was right behind them.

(now I'm wondering if that whole thing made any sense. Oh well, if it didn't just skip to the next picture) :)

When we reached the pipeline we split up. Some of them went back down the trail, and the boys I climbed back down the way we had come up.
On the way down we saw fresh bear sign that hadn't been there the first time we'd come through... it was an interesting moment- all of us wondering what the situation might have looked like had we showed up before the bear was through.

What an amazing day!

It didn't stop there either - doughnuts and watermelon afterward at our friend's place!

now-

Fifth obstacle: getting this whole trip posted! :)