This summer my nephew Ethan came up from California to visit his grandmother for several weeks. He has been making this flight north every year since his family left Ketchikan back in 1997. One morning we both decided to hike a local trail Lower and Upper Silvis Lakes which is located on south end of the road system. We parked the car at the trailhead then signed into the trail log to begin our day.
The trail starts out fairly steep on an access road leading up to a pump house which is the midway point then level’s out a bit along the creek. It was overcast with a misty fog much of the first half of our hike that morning with the transmission lines peeking through on occasions. We noticed the water level in the creek, which was cutting through low hanging shrubs and trees, was down low. About 30 yards from the first pump house, just across the access road, we discovered a still quite pond with a few lily pads with dragonflies darting around.
We continued on our way up the access road past a tunnel with much of the penstock pipe from lower Silvis Lake in view. At some point we noticed that the misty fog was slowly clearing up with the promise of a sunny day awaiting us for the rest of our hike. Just before we arrived at Lower Silvis Lake dam the fog lifted to reveal waterfalls cascading down the surrounding ridges. As we rounded another bend the lower dam came into view as well as the lower lake with the surrounding mountains. We rested here for a little while as I wasn’t in the best of shape.
Ethan was eager to get to the upper lake so we continued up the access to the next pump house. It wasn’t long before we came across an avalanche sign warning about possible dangers that awaited us. Still we pressed on until we came across an avalanche chute filled with compressed snow and ice with a small creek running through it. Usually by this time in the summer these ice filled avalanche chutes have melted away, but due to higher than normal snow fall this past winter these areas were lingering around longer. It was fascinating to witness how the seasonal run-off had cut a tunnel thorough the chute craving out an ice cave.
We both stood there in the quite entrance of the cave simply listening to the water dripping off the ceiling of the cave while a cold fog rolled out on the ground. I waited outside the tunnel while Ethan entered to explore the ice cave and the raging creek flowing down the chute. Every now and then he would call out beckoning me to join him in the cave but my survival instinct wouldn’t permit me the opportunity. Besides he would share his picture with me later on.
After about fifteen to twenty minutes of cave exploration we decide to make our way up to power house between Upper and Lower Silvis Lake. We finally made it to the trailhead of Upper Silvis Lake to start our upward trek across the multiple switch backs leading to the grand vista’s that awaited us. The trail was well worn from the seasonal run-off and snow melt as well as previous hiker’s day long expeditions. At one point there was breakthrough in the tree line where we were afforded a sneak preview of where we started our journey earlier in the day.
We were quite surprised, once we made it to the top, to find the water level in Upper Silvis Lake to be unbelievably low. The whole shore line was about 50 feet below normal lake levels exposing numerous tree stumps bleached by the sun. Sitting there while Ethan went around a point to explore I could hear the roar of water cascading down the numerous streams from the glistening snow covered mountains from across the lake. Looking closely across the snow field from one mountain ridge to the next, it was pocketed with areas of avalanche slides as well.
We really wanted to make it to one of the far ridges opposite end of the lake so we continued onward and upward. By this time it was apparent that it was one of those rare hot days in southeast Alaska as we were sweating like pigs. We decided to sit down and eat our lunches as well as rest our weary bones before going to much further. We had a great view of not only the lakes but the fjords and inlets that dotted the vista in front of us. We both agreed it was well worth the struggle to get up as far as we have. Seeing how I wasn’t in shape to continue to the next ridge we decided to head on back down the mountain.
On our way back down the trail we came across some signs of bear in the area that wasn’t there on our way up earlier. We made it off the upper lake trail almost totally expended (as least I was not sure about Ethan) and were looking forward to revisiting the ice cave to cool off. As soon as we came to the cave entrance we both took off our shoes and sock to soak our dogs (feet) in the ice cold water. It was exactly what I needed to reduce the swelling in my feet. We also filled our empty drinking containers with ice cold water for the remaining last mile down to the parking lot.
As we drove back up the dusty dry road we both agreed that it was an extremely rewarding day trip into the mountains. Ethan drove back to his grandma’s for a quick shower and nap. I did the same and later we met up at Grandma Karen’s house for a barbeque. As we were eating and laughing with everyone we both looked very tried but happy.
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