Devils Tongue by Mount Spickard perches over Silver Lake in Chilliwacks. It ranks #10 in the Custer-Chilliwack Group after Mad Eagle Peak. Meanwhile, Silver Ridge via Galene Lakes boasts an idyllic traverse.
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Devils Tongue at a Glance
Access: Nepopekum Day Use Area
Round Trip: 23.5 miles
Elevation Range: 3160′-8048′
Gear: helmet
Route Info: Eric Eames
GPS Track: available
Dog-Friendly: on the trail
The Preface
Devils Tongue was our third time going through Canada this year. I had initially planned on climbing it over Labor Day weekend. But after seeing Eric‘s report, I knew we could perhaps climb the peak in two days.
Instead, I reserved the precious three-day weekend for climbing Booker Mountain and Johannesburg Mountain. And that worked out well in terms of logistics and pet boarding. Alas, fall has finally arrived!
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Skagit River Crossing
The pup and I used the same route as the other parties. Unfortunately, heavy rain was in the forecast for Sunday, so the goal was to climb Devils Tongue on day one. But an early start meant crossing the Skagit River in the dark.
As a so-so swimmer, the last thing I wanted was to cross the river at night. So we drove to the Nepopekum Day Use Area late Friday evening. At least that would give us enough daylight to ford the river before nightfall.
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Hiking Through the Lush Forest
The river turned out only knee-deep. And the rain boots came in quite handy in protecting the feet. Shortly, we met two fishermen and their dog on the other side. I bid hello and then looked for the trail entrance.
Glad to have noticed the half-hidden orange flagging on a tree branch. I stashed the rain boots before going on the decent path. Then right after dark, we found a flat spot off the trail and pitched the tent.
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A Cloudy Day Ahead
I anticipated a long day, so we started walking a few hours before sunrise. The trail was in excellent shape, with only a few down trees en route to Galene Lakes. Meanwhile, the long switchbacks had offset the altitude gain.
The daylight soon arrived on this cloudy morning. Higher up, the vegetation in the few brushy areas was still damp from the night before. So we were both soaking wet before reaching the lake basin.
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Galene Lakes Basin
I later saw the lower lake before reaching the campground by the middle pond. Then I looked for the reported direct route to the upper lake but couldn’t. So we walked along the east shore to the north end of the lake.
From there, we went west in the mists up and over the talus. Glad to have the GPS to know the direction we were heading. But I couldn’t pinpoint the upper lake until we were beside it. Talk about spooky!
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6360′ Ridge Camp
Visibility continued to weaken throughout the morning. So we didn’t see much while going up to the ridgeline above the lake basin. Then I thought we would camp close to Devils Tongue and climb it the following day.
But after rechecking the weather, it made me rethink the plan. For now, it made better sense to leave the overnight gear on the ridge and return here to camp. Soon, we went with a light pack plus the essentials.
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Side Trip to Silver Ridge East
We walked south on a faint trail and soon reached the international crop line. Then we took a break and marveled at the fallen obelisk of monument 70. I didn’t know how heavy it was until I tried repositioning it!
Soon, we hiked west through the broad clearing and went farther south on the US side and up the ridgeline. Through the heavy mists, we soon reached Peak 6434, aka Silver Ridge East.
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Silver Ridge Traverse
We only stayed for a few minutes before continuing west on the ridge. I couldn’t believe how much of the view we had missed in this terrible weather. But it quickly brought back memories of the mid-August trip.
Our next stop was Silver Ridge West via Canada’s Peak 6535. Without much landscape to enjoy, the ridge walk became increasingly uneventful. In other words, it would’ve been more pleasant with views and a blue sky.
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Devils Tongue via Silver Ridge West
I used Peak 6535 as a reference as it sat north of the border. But we almost went down the wrong side of the peak by staying on the crop line. Glad to have caught the top of Devils Tongue looming behind us when I turned around.
So we quickly retraced our steps and hiked up to Silver Ridge West. There the view slowly improved as the mists dissipated. Then we quickly walked down to the west saddle. And OMG, there’s water!
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En Route to Point 7103
The last time I filled my bottle was back at Galene Lakes. So we had been without water since before Silver Ridge East. But by then, my mouth was so dry that I drank straight from the two big puddles without filtering.
Below Point 7103 were a dozen roaming mountain goats. But as soon as they sensed our presence, they took off fast and went out of sight. Then at 6600′, I saw Devils Tongue’s glaciated north side.
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One Step Closer to Devils Tongue
We walked up the northeast ridge of Point 7103 and gained some altitude. But the terrain soon steepened as we weaved up through slabs. Then we kept our fingers and paws crossed for it not to get any worse.
Atop Point 7103 was another big pool. It would be our water source on the way back. Clouds remained throughput. So despite the proximity, there were still no signs of our goal.
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Devils Tongue East Basin
The clouds continued to obscure the route. Below the west saddle was the same group of goats we saw earlier that had soon vanished into the mists. Later we traversed west on scree and went into Devils Tongue’s east basin.
We stayed at 6900′ and reached the bottom of a broad gully. The goal was to somehow work our way up to the southeast ridge from that point. But the reports were vague about when to start moving south on the east face.
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Route Finding in the Mists
At 7200′ was a moderate snow ramp that led to what looked like a notch on the southeast ridge. As tempting as it looked, my gut told me we needed to go higher. So we continued uphill in the mists.
Shortly, we moved through more talus after checking out the snow ramp. Then we went above the downward slabs with solid holds to 7400′. From there, we were able to walk south over the east face.
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The Final Stretch on Devils Tongue
We used narrow ledges and reached the southeast ridge via a notch. Finally, the terrain eased after 200 more feet of steep climbing in the clouds. Then at 7800′, I caught the first glimpse of Mount Spickard.
Terrain steepened again in the final 250′. So we moved through narrow ramps and carefully went up to the ridgetop. We briefly stayed on the narrow crest before reaching the broad summit.
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Devils Tongue Summit Views
I had looked forward to seeing Silver Lake, but that didn’t happen. So only the 8000′-plus high points were visible through the mists. The shady side of Mount Spickard, Mount Custer, and Mount Rham seemed eerie.
Above us was a blue sky, plus the sun. Everything to the east was still under thick clouds to see inside Canada. But I could see Redoubt Glacier to the west, and a quick view of Jack Mountain before the clouds engulfed it.
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Outro on Silver Ridge
Despite the rough terrain, leaving the mountain didn’t take long. The talus in the basin took some time until we reached Point 7103 to pick up the pace. Then the goal was to go as far east as possible on this first fall weekend.
It darkened past Silver Ridge West, where we stayed on the boundary until the terrain steepened north of Silver Ridge East. That forced us up to the west saddle before bypassing the peak. Soon, we were back on the ridge above the lakes.
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Sunday Morning Rain
It was starry until clouds slowly moved in from the west. Then it rained at 4 AM as in the forecast. Like last week; we stayed inside the tent well into the late morning until the downpour stopped. We packed up soon after.
It was still misty, including the area over by Devils Tongue. Too bad we never saw the peak in its full glory, but the inversion gave us some views. I had wanted to see Hozomeen Mountain but only saw the north summit through the mists.
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Returning Through Galene Lakes
It soon drizzled as I saw Upper Galene Lake barely visible the day before. We took the east ridge down to the outlet, then continued on the ridgeline for the middle lake. The dense brush here explained why I couldn’t find a way up.
Once on the trail, we quickly went through the long switchbacks. We had walked past this part in the dark, so everything looked greener in the light. Before long, we were down by the river en route back to the trailhead.
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