Illabot Creek

[SWH]

I took a drive up the Illabot Creek road today and saw a way too familiar sight. Some of you may already know, but for the rest I figured I’d save you the drive. The Road is wiped out at about the 7.5 or 8 mile. I have’nt checked yet, but if it is anything like the rest of the roads in the Darrington District, then it won’t be fixed for a while. Here’s some pics.

[SWH]

Pic 2

[SWH]

Pic 3

[Dave Weyrick]

I sure appreciate the scouting report SWH, thank you. After looking at the map, do you suppose the washout is at Hilt Creek? Keep up the good work!

[SWH]

Ya, Dave I’m pretty sure it is Hilt creek, where the main drag crosses it for the last time.

[Sandy McKean]

Techniccally, Hilt creek crosses the Illabot road in more than one place. Given the mileage quoted, I assume this the crossing at about 2200′, right?

[SWH]

@Sandy McKean wrote:

Techniccally, Hilt creek crosses the Illabot road in more than one place. Given the mileage quoted, I assume this the crossing at about 2200′, right?

Yep.

[Larry Anderson]

The roads in Skagit and Snohomish counties have just taken a beating in the last few years. It’s hard to get anywhere anymore. I’ve been driving over the pass more and more.

[Sandy McKean]

King county has lots of problems too. Even the Middle Fork Snoqualmie road is out; and if you hike up the MF trail up-river from the Gateway bridge, you will be astonished at the huge creek washouts along the trail. Things of a magnitude I haven’t seen in that area before (20 years of history).

[SWH]

I called the Darrington Ranger Station, and they told me this washout won’t be fixed until 2010. I think it is a lack of $$$$ to fix the roads. The Darrington District sold their road crew equiptment 2 years ago, so now every washout or sluff off has to be contracted out. This also slows the process down. I have heard rumors that the Boundary Bridge on the Suiattle is supposed to get fixed in 2009, but I’m not holding my breath.

Happy hiking everyone, the snow is melting fast!

[Hulk]

Here’s a pano shot of the slide, for a better sense of scale. Check the far right corner of the photo too.

I’ve been intending to get down the rest of the road to check for more damage. As of May17 the Forest Service has not been down the rest of the road either….Sounds like they have had quite a few calls on the one.

[Hulk]

http://www.fs.fed.us/sopa/components/reports/sopa-110605-2009-10.html

Looks like there is a proposal to decommission 14.5 miles of Illabot creek road.

[Brian Curtis]

Wow, that’ll permanently change a lot up there. If the legel description is to be believed it looks like they will repair the Hilt Creek slide and close it past where the Illabot Peaks Rd takes off.

[allison]

Oooo, that is so sucky. I had a lot more exploring to do up in that neck of the woods…

[SWH]

I don’t want to bash the FS too much, but who in the heck is in charge of making decisions like this, and why would they want to limit access to so much country? We have the wrong people in charge if you ask me. The land of many uses is not so much anymore.

[allison]

I am in the process of researching this. What I have learned thus far is that once the Illabot Wild and Scenic River designation finishes working its way through Congress, there is a legal requirement to do a study within three years. The matter of this road will surely be part of that. I also have heard through my FS contacts that the District Ranger is in favor of closing the road at the washout, which would orphanize the Slide Lake trail. There will have to be the usual EA and scoping process, and the public will be able to participate in this process. I will update with more information as I learn it.

This a major recreation area with very limited access, we are going to want to keep this road.

[Scrooge]

I’m a newbie, here, but I’ve been around http://www.nwhikers.net a long time. We’ve been discussing the Illabot Creek Road situation for more than a month and some of our ideas might interest you.

http://www.nwhikers.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=7986121&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

In particular, we’ve started to talk about the possibility of ‘volunteer road maintenance’ (a la WTA trail maintenance) as an alternative to road decommissioning due to lack of funds.

The land managers have expressed some interest in exploring the idea and I would have been approaching the Trailblazers, anyway, because you’re among the people most effected ……. and some of you may be in a position to get involved in the actual maintenance. It might be a way to keep some of these roads open.

I’d at least like to hear some opinions …… in addition to Allison’s. 🙄

That’s a darned good road! It would be an incredible shame to lose it.

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