Completed: Chehalis Lake for daughter's b'day

[BC backroader]

A couple of weeks ago, I asked my daughter Andrea what she'd like for her 50th birthday. To my surprise, and delight, she asked for a day trip with me in the 4x4, like we often did in her school age years, so we arranged it for the 28th. At the last minute, her boss called her in to work that day, so we postponed it to today, Monday the 29th, 1 day late, but she's now on 2 weeks vacation, so we were good to go. I OKed it with her to have a rock hound buddy ride along, so the 3 of us set out just before noon today, headed for the north end of Chehalis Lake, via Harrison Lake West FSR and Mystery Creek FSR, as the direct route to Chehalis was blocked by a massive rock slide about a decade ago, so the direct route in to the lake has been closed since then, more than doubling the distance there.

As it was a week day, I was watching for logging trucks, and we did meet 3 with huge loads on their way out, and were able to pull well over to let them by, as they really haul a** along those roads, and probably couldn't stop, if you met them on a blind corner, or single lane bridge. Their roads, their rules! What did surprise me, was the number of regular vehicles on the road, though I probably should have expected it, with school now being out for the summer. There are many small lakes along the route, with primitive campsites, as well as more camping at numerous points along the 60 mile length of Harrison Lake.

We pulled off the main road at km 27.5 to park and walk back a 100 meters or so to a large exposed rock slide where I knew there were thousands of shell fossils to be found. This fossil bed is now 500 meters above sea level, but millions of years ago, was obviously the ocean floor. My buddy Jim was exited to see the fossils, and loaded about 50 pounds of them into the back of the truck. Andrea enjoyed scrambling over the boulders to see them, too. After that bit of exercise, we got back into the comfy a/c of the truck (it was 30C out, about 86F), and went another few km to the Mystery Creek FSR turnoff, which leads over a pass in the mountains, to Chehalis Lake, in the next valley to the west. When we got to the lakeshore, it was time to stop for cold drinks and the Subway sandwiches we'd bought in Jim's little village of Agassiz, on the way up. We marvelled at the devastation the the tsunami created by the huge rockslide had caused to the shoreline of the lake; you'll see the height it stripped clear of trees in some of the photos below.

From N. Chehalis, we backtracked through Mystery pass again, to the Harrison West FSR, then went a little further, to 20 Mile Bay, the site of an old logging camp, and now a Forest Service primitive campsite. We spent a 1/2 hour there, enjoying the panoramic moutain views and very warm wind blowing off the big lake, then called it a day, and headed back for home. Along the way, Andi spotted a small animal at the edge of the logging road, which I though was a porcupine, but when we got out to get a pic, I realised that it was a juvenile beaver, which I've never seen before. I've only once seen adult beavers on dry land, and that was decades ago, so this little guy, only about 5 pounds, was a unique sighting for all of us. We tried not to disturb it's progress too much, got our photos, and climbed back in the truck to return home, and wash off the day's trail dust.

Pics from the day:

[Trail X]

Awesome Brad. You've got a lot of cool stuff nearby it sounds like.

Now, curious about your tsunami line, I looked up Chehalis Lake, and it appears to be land locked. Then I saw the massive rock slide on the east slope of the lake - and it clicked. That's pretty awesome - I can only imagine what a sight that slide was when it occured.

[BC backroader]

TrailX, that slide is awesome to see in person, it started near the peak of the mountain, several thousand feet above the lake, and has boulders bigger than buses in it! From where we were on the beach, only the lower edge of the slide is visible, but from about 1/2 way up the west shore of the lake, the whole slope can be seen, its hundreds of yards wide. The wave it caused completely wiped out a boat launch at the south end of the lake, and pushed up all the driftwood you see around my truck, at the north end. Fortunately, it occurred when no one was camping or fishing on the lake, so there were no injuries or fatalities, and since there's no private property around the shore, no loss of buildings. The slide is so big, that the road up the west shore will probably never be rebuilt.