Completed: Pierce Cr./Nesakwatch Cr/Mt. Slesse B.C.

by **BC backroader** » Sun Apr 19, 2015 8:22 pm

Sunday, April 19th, I met up at 0730 with my usual 4-wheeling/hiking buddies, Bill, Jason, and Thomas, for a day trip we had arranged the night before, to explore a couple of logging roads I hadn't visited in more than 30 years. We took my TB and Bill's Chey 1500 4x4, stopping in Yarrow to top up fuel, before heading SE on the Chilliwack Lake road, a scenic paved 2 lane route through a deep river valley to our first turn off, at Pierce Cr. This potholed FSR follows the creek for a short distance before climbing quickly up the shoulder of Mt. Pierce into several large clearcuts, ending at a loading stage in the last one, after only about 2.5 km. We stopped to stretch our legs and take a few pics, as we watched the rising sun light up the valley of the Chilliwack River below us.

We retraced our route to the main road, then stopped at Riverside Campground to allow Jason to shoot some footage of Thomas recounting his 1986 investigation of a Sasquatch sighting at that location, for a documentary they're working on. After an hour or so there, bushwacking into the forest a couple of times to locate the site of the incedent, and where footprints had been found, we were back in the trucks, and heading up Nesakwatch FSR, towards Mt. Slesse, the scene of a tragic airliner crash way back in 1956. Info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-Cana ... Flight_810

The road was not bad for the first 1.5 km., but got quite steep and rough as it climbed higher along the creek, with drainage trenches, a couple of rough washouts, and very rocky sections. Someone had earlier dinged an oilpan or trans. pan on one of the rough spots, as a trail of wet oily spots was visible along the trail. Fortunately, with my recent lift, I only had a few minor scrapes along the way. At km 4.5, we turned off onto a cutblock access that had a great view of Mt. Slesse, found a good spot to park, and lit a fire to boil some water for tea/coffee and have a bite of lunch, while discussing the old airplane crash. We could see the snow covered rocky snag that the plane had hit, across the valley from us, and amazingly, while we sat looking at it, there was a large avalanche down the face of the mountain! Of course, no one had a video recorder handy in time to catch it, as it was over in less than 30 seconds. The memorial to the victims, who were never recovered from the crash site, sits at the base of the mountain, across the creek from where we parked, and in light of the avalanche risk, we chose not to hike to it, at least till later in the year, when the snowpack will have melted.

Calling it a day, we packed up, and headed back out to the main road, turning North towards the highway, but with a stop along the way at the "Greasy Tractor" for burgers and wings served by a pretty waitress, to make the day complete.