Field Trips

June 3, 2015

Great report BC. Having a grouse fly up from your feet does get the heart pumping.

I have never understood the need to do calls or wood knocks. To many people in my opinion, getting these crazy ideas from the TV shows. I can just see it a group over here banging trees and howling to a group over there doing the same. When I'm out there I love to listen to what the forest has to offer.

Amen & +1

Edited June 3, 2015 by BC witness

June 3, 2015

Funny thing is as soon as that particular BF show starts doing the calls, while they might in some cases get a return, in most cases things get quiet and stay that way the rest of the night. What they are really doing is announcing to any BF in the area exactly where they are so it is easier to avoid them. I have seen that over and over again. I am surprised they don't hear some mumbling from the woods something like, "You got to be kidding me!" But hey maybe they are a source of entertainment for the local BF population.

Edited June 3, 2015 by SWWASASQUATCHPROJECT

June 4, 2015

Overused for sure.

I think there's uses for knocking and calls, for instance, if you've been checking out a new area, and are a bit doubtful about it, (No reports, none of the bad evidence but still suggestive stuff, like trees pushed over trails, X markers, etc) then you could try a knock or call when you're about done for the day, see if it stirs any response, then you know if it's worth coming back. Then the alternate theory is that if you know darn well they are there, you visit frequently and announce yourself every time with a particular knock or whoop, hoping in time they will get comfortable with you. What it doesn't seem useful for, is exactly how the shows use it, arrive mob handed, in an area that hasn't been visited by the principals much, make a racket, and expect them to be engaged enough to come see what's up. They might screw around with you for a bit if they feel they're safely the other side of a valley or something. (Whenever I've chanced a knock and seemed to get a response, it always seems to be from somewhere I can't figure out how to get to easily.)

June 4, 2015

It of course is a technique and the nature of techniques is what might work for one person may not work for another. So if something works for you go for it. The problem being that the TV show that has promoted it from day one takes people into the field and feel obligated to teach the technique, like it is some proven skill set, not even considering that in some cases what they are doing might have the opposite result from what they are looking for. They do not promote themselves as investigators learning but experts to be learned from. Often speaking in absolutes when in reality they are really just guessing like the rest of us.

June 8, 2015

Thomas and I attempted a research run today, but 9km up our chosen FSR, met a powerline crew stringing cable by heli on a major new cross country line. The heli had got some lines tangled in trees, and dropped them across the road, so we couldn't proceed. This is on a Sunday afternoon, and there's 2 helis, at $1000/hr, and about 10 guys on double pay (golden time!) standing around trying to decide what to do! No wonder our power rates are through the bleepin' roof.

The wildlife spotted score: some impressive bear scat, and 1 grouse hen with a lone chick.

When we got back to the highway, and cell reception, we called Bfh, to see if he wanted us to meet him at Harrison Lake, near his place, to try some locations there. Turns out he was headed out the door to a pub about 1/2 way between our location and his place, for 1/2 price appies, so we headed there, and joined him for drinks and food for the rest of the afternoon. I guess that's making lemonade out of lemons.

Thomas got some good video of my truck on the scenic trail on the way out, so if he gets it up on vimeo, or elsewhere, I'll post a link.

Edited June 8, 2015 by BC witness

June 15, 2015

I headed out after lunch today to pick up a new rock hound/Squatchin buddy, who drives a Chevy Cruze, definitely not suited to our logging roads, where the good rocks and the big hairy Sasquatch hang out. Our first objective was a high mountain fishing lake, S of Hwy 1, W of the town of Hope. As we started up the road, it was as steep and bumpy as I recalled from my last trip there, almost 30 years ago. What wasn't the same, was the amount of traffic coming down the very dusty road. We stuck it out, and went the 9 km to the lake, where we found huge weekend cabins that I didn't remember, and tents at every spot on the beach. The old trails that used to go beyond the lake were badly overgrown, in some spots even too much for atv's, so we turned around and headed for our second target, a mountain drainage of several steep creek valleys, which I had made a run on last year, while some active logging was going on along the main FSR.

This turned out to be a winner, as I could tell as we turned up the first hill, that no logging was happening this year. There were deep ruts, and washouts across the trail, but nothing that would stop the lifted TB. As we climbed the steep valley we met no other trucks at all, and never did, in our 4 hours on the trails up there. The hills definitely needed 4lo, both up and down, but there were some nice level sections that were very smooth. We explored to the ends of the first and second branches, which I had not done last year, and got some spectacular mountain scenerey for our efforts. Jim didn't find any stones that he thought worthy of collecting, and we spotted no hairy critters of any sort, though there was a LOT of large bear scat all over the old roads, so we turned downhill for home at about 6:30, getting me home for a late 8:00pm supper. Jim was blown away with the sights, and we both felt it was a very worthwhile trip.

Here's some of the scenery:

From bottom up:

Heading into the West fork

End of the West fork valley

Avalanche chute on the West Fork

End of the South fork valley

Heading North towards the Fraser valley, hidden below the background mountains.

Edited June 15, 2015 by BC witness

June 15, 2015

Beautiful! very rugged! Are there any trails that take you up to the timberline?

June 15, 2015

Beautiful! very rugged! Are there any trails that take you up to the timberline?

We didn't find any, and there are none listed in any trail guide for the region. You'd have to bushwhack from the ends of the logging roads, and the terrain is very steep, with heavy brush in the open areas, and big dark timber in others. At my age, I'd want a decent trail to follow, the old bones are getting a little brittle.

My buddy, Jim, is hot to do an overnighter in the West valley. If we do it, you'll get e report.

Edited June 15, 2015 by BC witness

June 23, 2015

I went out today looking for tracks. I found a few cat tracks, deer, elk prints and scat and a lot of human prints. I took off a bit late so I just did a short hike to blue lake by Mt St Helens. You can see in the pictures how much pumice and ash has washed down and has killed a lot of trees.

I did hear some strange calls? I thought maybe some type of cat or bird the sound was kind of a raspy guttural short call. I heard the first one right after I got out of the car to the north. Then as I was hiking I heard three more coming from all different directions, East, south, west. All the calls came from the older forested ares around the flow area, strange.

a few photos

this is the old road that was buried under pumice and ash from a flow off the Mountain.

looking west to Goat Mountain

a trail sign

Looking up to Butte Camp

Blue Lake should be Green Lake

a few more pictures

Of coarse Mt St Helens

I went past the NEON Tower location SWWSas described to me. I drove my Honda Accord part of the way but I feared putting a hole in the oil pan because it was a new road with big rock. I wil go back with the Expedition, better ground clearance.

June 23, 2015

Great shots of St Helens, daveedoe.

I got out for the afternoon yesterday with Thomas, and our new guy, Jim. We took Jim to the location of one of the early "classic" sightings, then headed into the mountains N of the Fraser. Our first valley still had the powerline crews stringing cable with helis, so we abondoned that valley for another, a few km east of there. The day was hot, and the road was dustier than our logging trails normally get, as we've had 1/10 of our normal rainfall in the last 2 months. The advantage of the dust was that it made looking for tracks easier, though all we found were coyote and deer prints. It was actually a pretty leisurely outing, with some track spotting, some rock hounding, a little gold panning (unsuccessful) and a bit of relaxing by the creekside. A small alpine lake we came across deserves a good search around the perimiter on a future trip, as it seems to be the only stable water source for miles around during this dry spell. Several of the smaller, high elevation creekbeds were completely dry. Later in the evening, on the way home, we met up with Bigfoothunter at a local pub for debriefing and nourishment. I did take a few photos, but they all look like I had the shakes, so no blurry blobs will be posted today.

Edited June 23, 2015 by BC witness

June 23, 2015

Ohh ohh. The road is really rough. The rocks on the road are about the size of your fist and sharp. Nice pictures you had a full day of it. Glad you took the picture of the sign. I should have done that but the guys on the tower were looking at me. Glad you provided me some credibility. Not much of that here lately.

June 24, 2015

Great pictures Dave. I was in that area a couple months ago. Definitely some rough roads!

I've been incommunicado for the last couple weeks. Working on my property in North Central Washington. Not really bigfoot country. A little too dry. Saw bears, deer, and coyotes. I guess where there are bears thriving bigfoot could also do well. Anyway here are some photos of the very big rock in my driveway. The area burned by the big fire last year and my project.

June 25, 2015

Love your project, BTW, that looks really "posh".

June 26, 2015

Thanks BC. It was a lot of work but I think the finished product was worth the effort.

July 1, 2015

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 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 and self-described "Sasquatch Groupie" ride along, so the 3 of us set out just before noon Monday, 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 to get 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 tail 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 the second-to-last of the photos below. Jim and I walked as far down the west shore of the lake as we could, looking for tracks in the course sand, but only found those of other humans.

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, again walking the shore looking for tracks, as there have been sightings at this bay in the past, but no luck for us. We 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. A great day out, but no evidence of our hairy objective.