Field trips 2.0

[gigantor]

2 hours ago, cmknight said:

The spot I got to, the road ended at a very large clear-cut area

 

I like your truck. 

 

[norseman]

2 hours ago, cmknight said:

@BC witness The spot I got to, the road ended at a very large clear-cut area near the top of a ridge. It had been recently worked as there were still tracks in the road from the equipment. I slept in the truck, as the ground was still muddy from recent rains, and cooked smokies on a campfire for my Thanksgiving dinner. It got really cloudy and foggy overnight, but no snow fell, which was too bad because something paid a visit while I was asleep. I was on a gravelled spot, so no tracks that I could see.

Whose hand print?

[cmknight]

@norseman I don't know. It wasn't mine. I was the only "human" up there at the time.

 

@BC witness 8-9 Oct. 2017. Thanksgiving long weekend.

 

 

[cmknight]

@BC witnessHere's a topo showing where I was. A bit better than a Google Maps image. LOL

 

[BC witness]

Yes, I like that. On the east side, I got just inside your marked circle, and a little short of it on the west side. The 6th photo in my post is very near where the map notes "bridge out" on Statlu Creek. I notice that the map shows the slide on the west side of the lake, but also shows the road going through, where it is now buried deep under the slide, probably permanently.

[gigantor]

On 10/18/2021 at 10:27 PM, cmknight said:

Here's a topo showing where I was.

 

There is a sighting report from 1936 in that area.

 

 

Yellow dot marks the spot.

 

[BC witness]

That's within a km of where I stopped for lunch on the 11th. I hadn't seen this report before, but there are several other unpublished reports from the area, including a few tracks very near that site that were reported to Thomas Steenburg a couple of years ago. He and I followed up on the report, but were unable to locate the tracks.

[MagniAesir]

On 10/16/2021 at 2:23 PM, BC witness said:

Love the old buildings and equipment, @BlackRockBigfoot. Although BC has fur trading and gold mining history going back 200+ years, not much survives in the wet coastal area where I live and explore; there is much more of what you show in the drier interior plateau.

 

Monday, the 11th, was our Thanksgiving holiday here in Canada, and since my family did our big dinner on the Sunday, I was free to do a day trip. I chose the Mystery Valley/Eagle Creek region due to it's distance off pavement and number of reports of sightings and footprint finds over the last few decades. The start of the gravel FSR is about 45 minutes from my home, and it's about 40 km on the main logging road to reach the Mystery Valley turn off. Once I was headed up that road, I explored every branch line off it, most of which were deactivated, with cross ditching to prevent the whole trail getting washed away in our fall and winter monsoons. I saw no big game sign, and no sasquatch evidence, but did manage to bag a nice plump grouse for a future dinner.

 

After crossing Mystery Pass into the Eagle Creek drainage, I turned upstream on the east side of the creek to a bridge about 5 km in, then headed downstream on the west side, hoping to reach Chehalis Lake on that side, but eventually reached a washout that was a bit too challenging to attempt, so I backtracked to the east side and reached the lake that way. The weather was great all day, and I sat for an hour in a camp chair during my lunch stop, with a great view of most of the creek valley below me. There were a few campers still at the north beach, where Eagle Creek feeds the lake, and  lots of human and dog tracks all over the beach, so no chance of locating extra large tracks on the pebbly beach. Near dusk, I headed back towards Mystery Pass, exploring one more side branch before dark, then it was back onto the main FSR, and a bumpy 40 km back to pavement and then home.

Good thing you didn't get stuck 

I was up by Roche lake and we didn't have cell service lol

Nephew got a nice 2 pointer

 

[norseman]

Newport to Usk. Over Pyramid pass to Priest lake. Had prime rib dips at the Moose Knuckle Saloon. And came home.

 

Saw all does, except a monster buck that darted out and followed the road and then darted back into the cedar. Im guessing he was a 5x5. But he was 1 mile inside Idaho. We also found a wolf kill. Dead cow Moose. Just sucks….

 

Never been over this pass. Pretty drive. The Tamarack and aspen are fully golden now.

[norseman]

LeClerk crick today, on the way home in the dark south of Usk we bumped a herd of Elk with a big herd bull. No bucks today, just does.

 

We found another Moose carcass, and saw some Elk scat. 

 

 

[BC witness]

You're making me jealous, norseman, I've only been out for a couple of day trips this hunting season, and haven't seen anything bigger than grouse. My old hunting partners are, well, old. One is now in a care home, one passed away 5 years ago, and the other doesn't go out any more, I need to recruit some young blood to do the heavy lifting. It's been about 4 years since I bagged a little buck. 

Edited October 28, 2021 by BC witness

[BC witness]

Our seemingly endless rainstorms broke yesterday, and we now get at least 3 days of sunny weather, so of course I couldn't resist the urge to get out today. None of the usual group were available, so it was a solo trip, but I filed my route plan with them for safety.

 

I chose to go a bit further afield today, to an area I last visited with my daughter and a 4x4 buddy a year ago. On that trip, we ended 30 km off pavement at a locked gate, but I had studied Gaia, and located a possible alternate route that appeared to go much further, that looked like it might cross a pass in the N/S mountain range and drop into another valley to the east, and a different route home, without back tracking. Those kinds of routes are rare around here, as most logging roads go to the headwaters of a watershed, and end there.

 

I got a late start, leaving home at noon, and headed east up the Fraser Valley, then north up the Fraser Canyon. The sky was bright and clear, but there was a brisk wind blowing fall leaves and dust devils through the valley, but once in the canyon, it dropped to a mild breeze. I found my turn off about 2 hours from home, and climbed steeply eastward up the Uztlius Creek valley, going from a few hundred feet ASL at the highway, to about 5000 ft at the pass, 30 km in. Along the way, I encountered just one ATV and 2 4x4s, so I had the road pretty much to myself. At the 4000 ft level, 30 km in, I hit the snow line, and for the next 30 km over the pass and down the east slope to the Coquihalla Hwy I was in snow that got as deep as 6" in places. There were a few deer and coyote tracks, but not nearly as many as I had expected to see. No big game was seen, but I did bag the only grouse I saw. The route I found on Gaia proved out, but did give me pause when I was in sight of the Coquihalla, when I came to a washed out bridge on the narrow trail. It was now late dusk, and I certainly didn't want to go back 60km in the dark. I stopped on the slope down to the creek, with my headlights shining into the water, and determined that the slopes of the banks were not too steep, and the water was only about 18" deep, so I made the crossing, and was at the highway in 10 minutes, and headed home on the fast 4 lane route. The day out was great, even though no big game or squatches were seen.

 

 

Edited October 31, 2021 by BC witness

[MagniAesir]

Nice trip

Too bad I was working on my pos xterra

 

[PNWexplorer]

Drove out in the Idaho woods over the weekend and just had a nice relaxing drive.  Produced a video of it.  Boring, but contains some beautiful landscape.

 

 

[BC witness]

Thanks for the ride along, PNW. That looks like most of my day trips, similar country, similar wildlife. Even with no exciting animals or road hazards, a day out like this really satisfies the soul of a country boy. May we both have many more !