Completed: Mystery Valley, BC, Canada

[BC backroader]

I've been lax about reporting trail runs here in the last few months, so I figured I'd better do so for my most recent outing, earlier today. My buddy Thomas and I had made arrangements a few nights ago, while out with friends for Chinese food, to get together today for a run up the Harrison Lake West FSR, to Mystery Valley, as Thomas had heard a second or third hand report of a logging crew seeing very large, human-like footprints near a specific landmark in that area. He is a long time Sasquatch researcher and author , so of course he wanted to check the report out, and I have a Spring Bear permit, as well as an interest in the big hairy hominids, so it was the perfect excuse for a road trip.

We got away at 0730 for the 40km highway run to the Harrison West FSR, then another 30km up that to the Mystery Valley turnoff. This route took us through the scene of last year's major forest fire, which I reported in another trip thread last August, and through a much smaller new fire that was burning today, with ground crews and bucket helis working to douse it. Once on the Mystery Valley Branch, we slowed down, as it was rougher than the main FSR, and we wanted to keep our eyes peeled for tracks. About 4km in, Thomas spotted some tracks in a small muddy pond alongside the road, so we stopped to check them out. They were from a good sized black bear, with the pads of the front paws half again as wide as my own size 12EEE boot, and just down the road a dozen yards or so, there was a large pile of bear scat, and a game trail through the weeds and crossing the road, but no sign of the track maker in the flesh.

Just beyond that spot, we came upon a couple of loggers pumping water into their fire supression storage tanks, mounted on a big flatbed trailer, so we stopped to chat, but got no further info on the reported tracks, as they were not part of the same crew that supposedly made the original report. Beyond the branch road where they were working, it was obvious that no logging had occurred in the last year, as the road became much rougher, and had frequent washouts, but we continued to the end of the trail just to see how far it carried on. That turned out to be another 10km, where a washed out old bridge, with a very swift, deep, snow fed creek running through what was left of the old road.

At this point, we stopped for lunch, then headed back out, checking out a few of the branches off the main road, including a stop at the North beach of Chehalis Lake, to marvel at the amount of driftwood that had been washed up on the beach by a tsunami created as a result of a huge landslide about a decade ago. We also located a lovely little lake in the forest that Thomas remembered from a previous ATV trip through the area several years ago.

The only part of the trip needing 4 wd was the final 10 km or so up to the washed out bridge, with my lifted EXT just barely touching the frame/skids at a couple of the deeper washouts, so basically an easy 2 or 2.5 on the trail rating scale.

Here's some pics from the day, and if Thomas sends my his video, I'll put a link to that up, as well.

[v7guy]

Looks like some beautiful country out there! I'm def envious! Thanks for the pics!