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Re: We Need the Stories.....
dnjacobson79
07/25/09 #6700
Trip Report for Up & Down Lake Ross
Easy trip from Bellingham, doable in one day with some motivation. We encountered a strong head wind in both directions and the motto for the conditions was “what are the chances”. Trip helps having a young twenty-year-old slalom team member in the back of the boat being the motor, but we both crashed at the end of the day with about ten miles to go. We were trying to break the paddle into 90 minutes intervals, looking back on it we pushed too hard at the start and paid for it at the end. An amazing lake and awesome views, warm water (really!), and I’m already planning on going back this fall for a camping trip on Cat Island. Trip is about 45 miles of paddling, the dirt road from Hope took about an hour and the faster you go the smoother the bumps are.
Lessons learned from the trip:
- Don’t tell the Canadian Border Guard “I wish” when they ask you if you have $10,000 cash on you at the Sumas crossing at 5AM in the morning, they’ll make it clear “that’s not the correct answer”.
- Don’t hesitate when the US Boarder Agent asks if you have fresh fruit; hesitation leads to total car searches.
- Don’t tell the park ranger you’re not camping on the lake and instead doing an up & back in one day, therefore you don’t need a permit, here again our law enforcement friends didn’t believe us.
Happy paddling with a week of July to go – I’m interested to hear how Morris and Kirk went…
Ross winds
Reivers Dustin
07/25/09 #6701
Many years ago a friend and I took little Ryler and Allie for a few days of camping on Ross. (They were 6 & 7 years old.) We packed everything in my Grumman canoe. Everyday the winds came up from the south. We saw marvelous things and played in wonderland. But the rule was: be off the water by noon. We were slow once when we made the run out to Cat island and I was afraid of losing my babies in the drink. We saw several boats including a kayaker getting a whoopin out there in the afternoon blow. I had heard that camp robber bears can be a problem, so I snuck bear spray across the border. We only saw one in our car on the way out. The squrrels messed with us more, and the deer.
Ross is a neat place since you're in the U.S. but can't get there from here. I've never heard of the wind coming from the North. You guys should have had it perfect. I bet this really messed up the hangliders up near Hope.
Regards the border: old timers around here know that you do not mess around. They do not need any reason to take your possessions apart or to detain you. It's like the airport - don't kid around. It's best if only one person speaks while being interviewed in the car. Be direct and clear. Even when they relax, they are wrapped pretty tight. The border patrol folks see some pretty heavy shit in their workday. Like a buddy from Oregon said when his wife decided to joke around from the back seat, “I got a new religion right away.”
RD
