Ross Lake, North Cascades Paddle Adventure

Qoute of the week: " What are you waiting for? Next year you're only going to be another year older! "

We started at Colonial Creek Campground and took off on Diablo Lake.
Paddling Diablo lake is about 5 miles up to the bass of Ross lake Dam where we were to call for a Portage to the upper portion of the dam.
We met two fireman from Lake Stevens, (Dennis and John). Dennis and John were great guys to hang out with. They were there fishing from sit on top kayaks. We spent our first night sharing a campsite with them at Rainbow point.

The paddle to Rainbow point.

The haze in the air was a result of fires in the Stehikan complex (Lake Chelan)

The next day we paddled up Devils gorge. The west bank hiking trail crossed here over a very cool suspension bridge.

Later that day we paddled towards Little Beaver, which was to be our camp for the night. The weather was a bit windy, but died down as the day wore on.

We paddled up another gorge to some pretty waterfalls to get out of the wind and enjoy the beauty.

These gorges are very queit and somewhat errie.

The falls were somewhat surreal and made for great photo opprotunities.

This is the view as we paddled out of the gorge.

Our view from camp at the Little Beaver Boat Camp. Notice the moon?

The evening was special. We shred it with a local toad who scared us by hoping around in fornt of us in the dark.

Another day, another spectacular waterfall.

All in all, Ross Lake is a spectacular paddle trip. It is an unnatural experience. The lake is there becuase of a dam. The lake shore looks awkward and somewhat unreal. There are no natural beaches where the lake has had eons to carve away rock and pummel it into sand. Tree stumps line the shallows where once an ancient forest was. Experienced wilderness trekkers/paddlers can sense the difference. Come in the fall or spring and one will see a dramatic change as the lake is much lower than a natural lake.

Untill next time...