Alexandra & Siwash Creek FSR

Antarctican · Oct 7, 2013

Well I'd driven past the little turnoff heading north thru the canyon on hwy 1 immediately after the new Alexandra bridge a million times, and earlier this spring I followed it a ways but ran out of time. After checking the maps of the area, on Sunday my gf and I decided to follow it as it appeared to turn into Siwash Creek FSR. Appeared. On several maps. Turns out there are some sidings used by the railway for maintenance, though from there no good views of the bridge or the river. The road continues up a ways until it turns into First Nations land; there was a phone number on a sign, so I called it and within 10 minutes a fellow answered. Said that rather than moving the rock barrier I should just head back to the highway and take the actual Siwash Crk road as it was faster, and they connected up anyhow.

Antarctican · Oct 7, 2013

After exploring the railway siding roads a bit I headed back onto Siwash, where you have a decent view of newer Alexandra br. There was a gate around 13km up the road that said it was closed at 3pm on weekdays and weekends. We decided to wait and see if this was the case and explored outside the gate area a while. But by 3:40pm we returned and it was still open, so I chose to head down Siwash to connect back to the Coquihalla near the summit.

Antarctican · Oct 7, 2013

Siwash forks a lot, and it's not obvious by the road which direction to take. But it's pretty easy to stay on the right path by following the pink marking tape on bushes which always seemed to mark Siwash. After another hour or more, the road kept getting tighter and tighter, as we were now in a replanted area. We passed a few empty hunter's camps, and in one stretch the trees on either side appeared to have been cleared perhaps by quadders, since by this time there were no more detectable truck tires, only old quad tracks. We continued, the trees grew in tighter, until we basically couldn't see anything and had to crawl along at walking speed. I could barely get out of the cab as the trees were tight against the FJ, and decided to hike a bit to see what was ahead. Took a picture from a stump above my truck which is barely visible:

Antarctican · Oct 7, 2013

By this time the sun had set over Spider peak, and we were losing light fast. I walked a bit further, only to discover an off-camber slick area that dropped off the right into the creek a couple of yards below, then the road - what was left of it - turned into a creek entirely. I didn't go down the creek but I couldn't see where the road re-appeared. I decided to make the disappointing trip back, as I had really hoped to get to the Coquihalla. Reversing was a bit of a chore made easier by the backup camera as it had a lower view and I could see behind me better than ahead. On the way back we saw a little black bear, the only game on our Sunday day trip.

Antarctican · Oct 7, 2013

This is as far as we got before turning around. Has anyone gone right through to the Carolin Mine exit on Hwy 5?

Antarctican · Oct 7, 2013

videos to come, pornt.. I mean youtube takes forever to upload

Fantom · Oct 7, 2013

Nice, that one has been on my list of trails to check out as well. I did come in from the Coquihalla side one time, but had the company van so I never bothered. It looked like a good trail to take but that was years ago. One of my buddies did it in a quad but that was about 5-6 years ago as well. He had some nice photos of the area.

steverb · Oct 7, 2013

nice

that's were you were going. i drove past you just as you were turning onto the gravel road. if i wasn't in the car i would of chased after you. i was just coming back from 108 mile.

Antarctican · Oct 7, 2013

Okay here's the videos. First is driving in:

Second video is backing out. If you can't stand watching 1 minute of this, imagine half an hour of the same. BC pin-striping at its best.

Reversing hard core:

canucksafari · Oct 8, 2013

Great write-up, pics and video Pete. I especially like the pic of blackie surveying his domain before his winter nap.

Antarctican · Oct 8, 2013

steverb said:
nice that's were you were going. i drove past you just as you were turning onto the gravel road. if i wasn't in the car i would of chased after you. i was just coming back from 108 mile.

You could have! The FSR is like a highway, I didn't even bother airing down. There was quite a lot of traffic on it: minivans, compact cars, even a rental car with what appeared to be asian tourists. Not sure what they were doing or where they were going but I think the first half is well traveled. Only later on does it narrow.

jcolvin · Oct 9, 2013

Antarctican said:
You could have! The FSR is like a highway, I didn't even bother airing down. There was quite a lot of traffic on it: minivans, compact cars, even a rental car with what appeared to be asian tourists. Not sure what they were doing or where they were going but I think the first half is well traveled. Only later on does it narrow.

Mushroom picking season, at a guess.....

BC40 · Oct 15, 2013

Nice.
I had planned to do that traverse for several years. Drove over the pass at Caroline Mine and down a couple switch backs into siwash valley. The alders were as thick as you show them, and past trip reports mentioned a washout and the Siwash road being gated lower down, so I never continued too far down, but always intended to go back one day. Have also heard talk of the gate before Caroline being put back in with the renewed interest in that claim. That mine accounted for an interesting couple hours of wandering underground. I went on foot but people were doing it with quads and trucks from the tire tracks down there. Probably kilometers of old adits. Seemed solid.

Deny · Oct 15, 2013

Are these the photos from that mine Martin?

Antarctican · Oct 15, 2013

Update: on Saturday I just had to explore the Coq end of the trail. Took the Carolin Mine exit and followed Siwash Cr Rd not far until we got to the locked gate. Appears from signs to be some active mining in the area. So looks like we got around 3 miles from the gate before turning back last time. Nice little view too of the Coquihalla from up there. Going to return to that area to do some more exploring sometime.

BC40 · Oct 15, 2013

ha thats awesome Deny, you still have those old pics I sent you. Yes, thats the mine. Backed into what I think is the top portal. Here's a few more from the east side of this trail. Some of these are from 7 yrs ago.