Ask any seasoned pilgrim what it is about Ross Lake that draws them back year-in and year-out and they’ll inundate you with a torrent of reasons.

Quite often mentioned is the magnificently rugged mountain scenery, as well as the comforting sense of seclusion, elbowroom if you will, that pervades this North Cascades valley.

It’s a bet they’ll also tell you about its warm, peaceful summer evenings, the roughing-it camping experience at some hidden lakeshore campsite and fishing for Ross Lake’s famed, native rainbow trout, too.

But in talking to any of the Ross Lake National Recreation Area faithful, it’ll quickly become evident that the experience of a trip to this North Cascades treasure is much more than the sum of its parts.

The adventure is so magnetic that Ross draws its admirers back time after time, not only from here in western Washington but, as the guest register of Ross Lake Resort reveals, from all around the world.

The more than 20-mile-long Seattle City Light reservoir is the largest of three manmade hydroelectric impoundments stemming the waters of the mighty Skagit River in eastern Whatcom County. The reservoir, while transforming this oncepristine and impenetrable mountain valley, has itself turned into the centerpiece of a multi-use recreation area run by the national park service.

Besides the lake fishing, which since the mid-1950s has been a drawing card, outdoors pursuits such as boating, hiking, canoeing, kayaking, stream-fishing, backpack camping, horseback riding, wildlife watching and rock climbing have grown in popularity.

Lending to the isolation is the fact that there are just two vehicular accesses to the lengthy lake valley.

NORTHERN APPROACH

You can actually drive to the lake’s edge at the north end at Hozomeen. The 32-mile Silverhope Road, from the Trans- Canada Highway near Hope, British Columbia, was once a chuck-holed terror of a mountain logging road for motorists, especially those towing boats or house trailers. But today it is a reasonably well-maintained, gravel road that is easily driven.

For overnighters this is the do-it-yourself end with two campgrounds, one on the B.C. side, the other along the lake in the U.S., which together accommodate large numbers of campers. When the lake level is up boat launching is easy at several locations on the U.S. side. But wetting a boat becomes progressively more difficult as the lake level drops through the summer.

FROM THE SOUTH SIDE

Heading east from Interstate 5 in the Skagit Valley you can drive tantalizingly close, but the North Cascades Highway (State Route 20) does not actually touch Ross’s shore. Instead lake-bound visitors must turn pedestrian and walk 1/2 mile downhill from the parking area at Happy Flats.

More adventurous types can follow the lake’s east shore north from the East Bank trailhead, which starts near Highway 20’s brush with Ruby Creek. Horses and other stock also are allowed on this trail.

A third access, more like an odyssey in keeping with the Ross mystique, is one popular with leisurely sightseers or resort-bound travelers burdened with plenty of baggage. It involves taking the Seattle City Light tugboat up Diablo Lake to the Ross Dam Powerhouse and there jumping onto trucks that haul them and their gear up over the dam to where another boat waits to ferry them across Ross Lake to a stunning accommodation.

COMFORT IN THE WILD

Ross Lake Resort is unique among northwest outdoors accommodations in that it is borne entirely on huge log floats tethered to the lake shore and bottom opposite Ross Dam.

For wilderness visitors it is the ultimate home-away-fromhome, and for its location, positively plush in its creature comforts. Each of the peak and modern cabins are equipped with showers, electric heat and completely appointed kitchens. Linen and towel service also is provided.

The resort’s “little” cabins provide privacy and a modicum of comfort while gregarious trekkers and fishers will find the large, warm bunkhouse an inexpensive but hospitable respite.

Boats, canoes and kayaks are available to each party and fishing pole can be rented. Washington freshwater fishing licenses and ice are always available, too.

The only things resort stayers need bring are food, clothing and their own personal gear.

For day visitors and up-lake campers, the resort also rents their fleet of kicker boats (with nine-horse outboards), canoes and kayaks by the hour, day or week. Fishing boats run $20

per hour (two-hour minimum) or $90 a day. Both rates include fuel.

MANY MORE DIVERSIONS

In recent years, as fishing has ebbed and flowed, visitors have been tapping into other aspects of Ross Lake’s immense recreation potential.

A north-south trail runs the entire length of the eastern shore with junctions providing strenuous, but rewarding, side trips into the upper Devil’s Basin, Three Fools Creek and the Hozomeen Lake basin.

Though there is no continuous trail along the lake’s west shore, that side of the lake is the terminus for two major east-west park north unit foot routes, Big Beaver Creek and Little Beaver Creek trails.

Big Beaver Creek valley, including a historic stand of old growth red cedar and a intricate maze of beaver ponds, is well worth at least a day hike. You can actually walk out on your own back to the resort or waiting car via two trails that traverse the slopes of Pierce Mountain from the dam to Big Beaver campsite.

To the north nearer the Canadian border, another eastwest park trail ends on the shores of the lake near the mouth of Little Beaver Creek. You’ll need help getting away from here in the form of a boat pick-up since there is no overland link to Hozomeen.

Visitors needing assistance, emergency aid or information while on the lake in the summertime can contact park rangers at either Hozomeen Ranger Station to the north, Lightning Creek backcountry station floating about mid-lake at the mouth of Lightning Creek, at Ross Dam Ranger Station or through Ross Lake Resort.

Doug Huddle, the Herald’s outdoors correspondent, has written a weekly hunting and fishing column for the Herald since 1983 that now appears Fridays. E-mail him at doug.huddle@bellinghamherald.com.