Mountain Loop April, 2003

Yuck. The weather forecast for the weekend was crappy. Q suggested a road trip around the Mountain Loop highway. It seems like everyone had driven up from Darrington or Granite Falls, but never had a loop trip been made. It would give us a chance to get out and look at something new, see the snow levels, and just generally goof off.

A typical 'restroom' in Granite Falls and Darrington too

Most of the way north past Lake Stevens to Granite Falls was wasted talking about computers and how people have a hard time using the Windows Explorer interface. On the stretch to Granite Falls we stopped at a Chevron with cheap gas and a large store stuffed with junk food. We loaded up on some snacks and took off, first noticing the typical backwoods restroom facilities offered by seemingly all gas stations and stores around Granite Falls and Darrington, with the exception of the Whitehorse Store - more on this later. Really, a sanikan is NOT a restroom.

Once in Granite Falls, we set the trip odometer. We had a nice listing of highlights on the route by mileage, the one we used can be found here, another useful one is here. We started down the road in downpour, passing the cutoff road to the Three Fingers area on the left, and the Old Robe trailhead on the right.

Q just outside the Black Chief Prospect, visible from road

Ugh. The drive was dreary through the rain, and it caused us to talk about computers once more, specifically about how people 'lose' files once downloaded from email. Whatever. Switching the conversation to BMW's didn't help. We passed by the Green Gables store and the Lake 22 trailhead. It was not known whether we actually saw the 'Shoo-Fly Curve' or not. Soon we zoomed up to a very red bridge, known obviously as "Red Bridge" at milepost 18. Here we slammed on the brakes, seeing a mine adit out of the corner of our eyes on the left. We turned around and parked in a large turnout area just after the bridge.

The mine tunnel was only about 80 feet long in solid rock

What we had spotted was the Black Chief Prospect, an effort between 1900 and 1926 that never revealed any ore. We dug up a flashlight in the truck and tramped down a few feet in the mud to check out the mine. A few beer bottles greeted us at the entrance. Our voices echoed deep in the tunnel.

The 2DrX rig was parked outside the Black Chief Prospect

The mine tunnel was dug into solid rock and looked safe. It was also pretty dry. We stepped carefully and noticed that many people seemed to have been digging at the walls of the tunnel. Maybe the miners had missed something way back when? The real question was why it took them 26 years to find nothing in 80 feet. We soon reached the end of the tunnel, where a small shrine of beer bottles sat. We noticed that our voiced echoed very loud from the end of the mine. In fact, we came upon an interesting phenomenon: when a certain low pitch was 'sung', it would reach a point of resonance, like when one blows over the top of a bottle. It was almost scary, and made it seem like the whole tunnel was collapsing. After partaking in the activity for a few minutes, we walked back out to daylight.

In the rain, we settled for a Sperry Iverson photo

We drove on, past the very obvious "sink hole" at 19.5 miles (where work was being done), and 21.5 miles where a sign advertises the Sperry Iverson Mine. We stopped and got out in the rain. The adit was a few feet back from the sign, and a grating made of rebar blocked any entrance - except for the fact that someone used a hacksaw and created a very real entrance to the mine now. Water was pouring down over the entrace, and cooled our desires for entering the mine. We settled for a picture instead. A trail led from the mine uphill into the woods - Q swore he saw an old cabin up there, so we explored in the rain for a while until we gave up. Evidently there WAS a cabin there at some time. Just not lately. We tramped back down to the truck and pushed on.

The remains of the Big Four Inn, Big Four in distance

Soon we passed Silverton, without much fanfare. At 25.5 miles we came to the site of the old Big Four Inn. We pulled off, as Q claimed he had pictures of his family in front of the Inn, taken some time ago. We parked at the picnic area and walked around the "Inn". Q was mistaken about the family photos. The Big Four Inn burned down in 1949. We walked over to the Ice Caves trailhead and looked at the obnoxious warning signs. Big Four loomed behind us, partly obscured by clouds.

Most of our trip after Big Four kept us contained in the truck. There was rutted snow on the gravel portion of the road just past Barlow Pass. We took off up the North Fork Sauk road to see how far we could get. About a mile past the Sloan Creek Campground, deep snow convinced us to turn around. We quickly drove through Darrington and stopped at the Whitehorse store, where we got ice cream cones and used the nice restroom that they maintain for customers.

References:

• Discovering Washington's Historic Mines - Oso Publishing. Information on Stillaguamish mines.