Hello, people of ClubTread. I’ve been reading this forum for the last ~12 years, and got a lot of useful information regarding local trails and trail conditions, but never posted anything in return. I think, I should start creating some content too. Perhaps, someone will find it useful some day.
I’m slowly going through my 2016 season hiking list and this Saturday we hiked Silverdaisy mountain trail. I chose Silverdaisy as Saturday destination because it had best weather forecast (less rain) and because there are mines and mining prospects in the area. I’m fascinated with mines and mining in general and like to explore them at every opportunity, also I’m rock and mineral collector.
Before the hike I read everything I could find about mining in the area, what kind of mineralization there is, what kind of ore there is, how big are the deposits, who mined them, when, where and how, what are the exact locations of adits/pits and how to find them. Armed with this extensive knowledge of region’s mining history me and my friend headed out to Silverdaisy early Saturday morning. It was pouring in Coquitlam, but we kept hoping that the rain will stop when we reach the trailhead. We almost missed turn to Sumalo Grove parking lot, because the entrance was gated and the sign “Sumalo Grove” removed. Perhaps, instead of deep research of mining in Upper Skagit valley I should have read trail conditions and road closures reports. Turned out that parking lot has been closed for at least a year now because of dangerous trees. So, we parked near the gate and walked extra 300-400m to the trailhead. By the way, it didn’t rain there.
Bridge over Skagit river.


I wasn’t sure if we will have enough time and\or energy to visit all mining sites in the area, but decided that we should see at least one, most easily accessible. It is located along Skagit River trail some 100 or 200m past the fork with Silverdaisy mtn. trail. That’s what we found there.


Remnants of a cabin.


Remnants of some other wooden structure quite high on a cliff.


Waterfall and entrance to the adit (black hole on the left)


The entrance is boarded up, but is possible to go inside (we didn’t)


We took a few pictures and returned to Silverdaisy trail. After the fork with Skagit River trail it switchbacks at somewhat steeper grade to a small rockfall area after that it straightens and flattens out. A sign at the first switchback, warning about mining activity. The sign is not too old, but there is no active mining anywhere on the mountain now.


The weather continued to change erratically from low grey clouds to blue sky with white puffy clouds and back to grey skies, though down on the trail everything looked consistently gloomy.
It didn’t rain at the time of the hike, but it did rain before and all the trees and bushes generously showered us with accumulated rainwater. Pretty soon we were all soaking wet and my boots were full of water, which trickled there from darn bushes. Also, to add some adventure into otherwise boring trail, winter storms fell a bunch of trees across the path. Huge mature trees, small trees, medium sized trees, by one or in groups. The first group of fallen trees occurred about 3 km from the fork with Skagit river trail. Climbing over them or detouring through thick bushes slowed us down somewhat.
Blowdown on the trail.




Trail became bushier when it reached old airtram cut, but was still easy to follow.
We decided to take a break when we reach the old deactivated road.
Changing into dry clothing and having a cup of hot tea (and wringing water out of my socks) was the best part of the trip so far. The going went easier after the break. Old road was not bushy, so no more water going into my boots, clouds lifted a bit and changed to blue skies more often.
After a while we reached the saddle between Silverdaisy mountain and Claimstake mountain.
View South-East from the saddle. I think the mountain we see is Eastpoint Peak.


From the saddle trail goes left and up the ridge. Sign on the tree, pointing in the right direction.


After the saddle the views really open up and walking is nice and easy. There is no well defined trail, but it is not necessary, since one simply needs to follow the ridge to it’s highest point. The weather improved greatly. We got some sunshine and blue skies.
View South-East down the ridge.


Silverdaisy summit is behind this bump. Not very far.


Gained summit ridge, looking south to Eastpoint Peak and Claimstake mountain (the red one on the right).




This is the bowl, mentioned in descriptions, where any path will lead to the summit eventually, but the left approach is shorter and more direct, while the right one is longer and goes via all sub-summits.


We took the left route. Almost there.


Views from sub-summit. Well, the fact that it was a sub-summit and not the real summit we discovered a bit later, but for the time being I was convinced that this was a real summit.




Ah, it’s so nice to take wet boots and socks off!


We had lunch at the top, enjoying great views and nice weather. But the latter, nice weather, didn’t last. While we were still finishing the last sip of tea large dark cloud with a veil of rain was quickly approaching from south-south-west.
When we were ready to go back I suddenly discovered another bump on the ridge, which turned out to be the real summit with a cairn and a summit register. We were not able to open register, it was closed too tight. But I’m pretty sure that notebook inside is dry. :-)
Some views from the real summit.
There is Mt.Outram somewhere in those clouds.




Claimstake mountain.


The rain cloud went by just slightly drizzling on us.
Looking down and south-east. Eastpoint Peak, small shallow lake and mining camp below. I think it is AM (AM Breccia ?) prospect. Would be interesting to visit, but this time we decided to skip it, because there was another rain-cloud approaching.


Travel back to the car was uneventful, the same wet bushes and sticky, scratchy, wet fallen trees on a trail, also a lot of bear scats and no other people. The weather kept changing from rain to sunshine and back to rain, but then it got stuck in sunshine mode.
Silverdaisy and Hatchethead mountains.


We were back at the car at about 3pm. The hike took 7 hours, which was faster than I expected, after reading trip reports and descriptions. Perhaps, I should have visited more old mine sites after all. We definitely had time for that. On the other hand, that mountain is pierced with mine tunnels like a piece of swiss cheese. I’ll make another trip there just to explore old mines and prospects.

P.S.: aargh, it's so hard to use just 25 pictures!

Thank you for much for posting, found your report very interesting and a fun read. Been up to Silver Daisy a few times; but never did realize there was all those old artififacts a short distance past the trail forking off to Silver Daisy.

My next visit would be to see all those old relics.. really neat.

K

Took a looksee into the black hole a few years back en-route to Delacy Camp. Nothing dangerous inside other then getting through the entrance. Think I bumped my head once or twice on the ceiling. Go's about 300 feet as I recall then just dead ends. No side tunnels. Think there was also some graffiti sprayed on the wall at some point. Turned the headlamp off in there and couldn't see the hand in front of my face. Was kind of spooky yet fun. No cave bears lurking about. (:

Wow, reading for 12 years and never posting! I'm glad you finally chose to write a trip report and hope you will share some more of your hiking adventures. Welcome to CT and re: the photos... posting only 25 photos has been hard for a lot of us! lol.

Nice report.

The mining road route to Silverdaisy Pass from Cayuse Flats still looks to be blocked at the bridge.

Thank you.

Yes, the road from Cayuse Flats is gated and blocked with concrete blocks before the bridge.

It's safer to park near the gate since the last time I was there, I had my car vandalized in the parking area which is out of view from the highway.



Nice to see the old truck still there.

Remnants of a cabin.

The cabin was still erect when I last saw it but not surprised to see it collapsed.

...a nice, good first report.

thanks for the TR. Hope you post many more. Have you ever hiked in the south east Kootenay area? There many great trails there with mining history. Trails around Toby River near Panorama and down to St Mary River south of Kimberley have excellent hikes that involve mining history.

We did a short hike to a place called Perry Falls near cranbrook last year that took us to a gorgeous waterfall and abandoned gold mine. Really fascinating stuff. here's some perry falls and mine pics

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Thank you.
Nope, I've never been to East Kootenay. If I ever get there I'll keep in mind the trails you mentioned. Thank you for sharing this information and for nice pictures. :-)