Went to one of my favorite spots yesterday and thought I'd share some pictures. Some were interesting--this is a very inaccessible beach (except by boat or by driving in over a very bad road) yet there was lots of footprints, one clear one off to the side was 16 inches (if it was made by a foot, not sure) and there were strangely lots of little footprints very clear and fresh! There was a log with lots of little stones piles up on it and also a small sleeping spot where someone had obviously placed cedar branches to sleep on and then slept on them. There was also a big fire pit, so people are coming in here too and camping. Anyway it is a beautiful location and it was a lot of fun spending my afternoon out there. So here are some pictures.

Very nice.

I concur!!! Looks like a wonderful place to head out to, even if you don't see anything out of the ordinary.



By the way, did you take a peek under the branches to see if they might have been hiding anything?

Nice pics, some pretty good vertical ingress and egress, squatchy could be doin the beach thing or night fishing by moonlight despite the human prints

where abouts is this?

That is pretty ... I bet a little night boating with FLIR and night goggles and ... or maybe just a pretty spot to barbecue. Reminds me of the BC Coast up an inlet called Indian Arm. Thanks for sharing those photos.

Hi

Whats this ~ vertical ingress and egress ~ A simple walking upright coming and going would have worked, The time i spend on these professionally educated words really cuts into my forum browsing

Great Pic's and a very sweet spot ~ vilnoori

Peace
Tim

Awwhh, Tim, you crack me up!


Vilnorri - Very nice spot! Thanks for sharing!

Hi

Ya but wait till BP reads it

Peace
Tim

I'm jealous of you BC folks!

It's cool Tim, you obviously haven't heard of the hang-gliding squatch yet!

This is Chilliwack Lake, on the South end where there is no overnight camping, no fires, and no houses. This is the outlet of Paleface creek, you can look it up on Google Earth. A very pretty and quite isolated little beach. And yes, there is very steep ingress and egress to the south side of this beach. It is also a very dense forest in back of it.

I used to love camping back there. Is the road still blocked off? We used to camp on the big beach right at the south end of the lake. If you ever get a chance hike through the stand of old growth, it's awesome.

Did the smaler prints look like juvenile BF prints to you or were they maybe from human activity (campers)?

It was probably campers that came in by boat on the weekend and left that morning. There was a recently used firepit. The big print was intriguing though, although it might have been a hare I suppose. I didn't see any others near it, though the place was a mash of prints from the campers.

Oh, I forgot to add that on the path down to this area (it is a ways off the road, which, yes, is blocked off,) on the side in the forest edge was a stick formation I thought interesting. This area is not far from South beach where I found two big barefoot prints last November. By that time the campers are not an option, and no one in their right mind is driving in that deep, walking a ways off road and the swimming off the beach in the cold weather. They were really wide and half of the prints seemed to be inside a creek, the other half on the sandy side of the creek. So that one I did chalk down to a smallish sasquatch trying to avoid detection somewhat but not quite succeeding.

Here is the stick formation.




I'm thinking this would be a neat place to do a little overnight camping in. I think as long as I park outside park boundaries then use a bike to come down the off road area, and hang a hammock in this little beach, sleep without a fire... who knows what might come out of the woodwork. We'll see. Anyway you BC guys are welcome to come hang out here too, I hardly ever have the time away from my family to check it out properly. Winter seems to be a very productive time too in this area. The sloughs next to the creek outlets are probably a rich food source. There are HUGE lake trout here, crayfish galore too.

It's funny you mention a hammock. The last time I camped there was on a may long weekend and at that time I always slept in a hammock with a tarp over it. I woke up about 3 in the morning and I was FREEZING!

I imagine it would be OK this time of year, though. lol!

Nice pics. I haven't canoed Chilliwack, but have spent some good times on lakes in the northern end of BC: Atlin, Tagish and Bennett . These relatively young post glacial lakes in the west do share a lot of similarities. You mention doing an overnight trip and I can wholeheartedly recommend that as canoe camping up on those lakes is simply some of the best you can hope for; vacant beaches, lots of firewood and in a canoe you can bring practically anything you want. Do they require permits? The ones in the north didn't. I hope you get visit more or your provincal parks, they are genuine treasures.
I noticed in the pic of the lakeshore, at the bottom there is some kind of thing made of shiney black poles, like old shock-corded sections of tent pole or a collapable hiking staff or maybe a peice of camping furniture.

Yeah I was thinking about that today, it looked like a ripped apart camp chair that had been adapted to make a tripod for hanging a pot over the fire. This fire pit was dug down and enclosed, perhaps to conceal it since this is a no-fire time of year in this area. But it is cold still, there is still snow up in those mountains and the wind comes down to the lake right off those glaciers. The cedar bed was a bit out of the wind off the lake. So someone camping there would definitely want a fire. Heck, I would, too. But having been trained by Africans my tiny fire would be in a three stone hearth easily concealed by a sand embankment. You North Americans and your huge fires! lol

Thanks for that. As for fires...I believe in making them of appropriate size for the conditions and the requirements. When it's cold and damp or dark and lost, a nice big fire is just dandy...and sometimes lifesaving...as an example, you might recall the Cnet editor and his family that became lost with tragic results while crossing northern California's coastal range during some snowy weather a couple of years ago. They stayed with their stuck car for a couple of days(good idea), burning their spare tire at night to stay warm, but not wanting to make a big fire for fear of hurting the trees. If they'd simply lit a big fire fuelled with the trees of the forest that surrounded them both at night and during the daytime the column of smoke would have immediately been noticed and checked-out by one of the many searchers looking for them.

There are no campfire bans in BC yet.

Link


edited to fix link

Yeah, I was going by the big sign on the road, "No overnight camping! No fires!" And I'm not talking about a situation where you are lost, heck, then I'd probably set a whole (isolated) tree on fire. Or make a big smudge pile. Smoke signal!

I think I got the creek names mixed up--possibly it is Depot creek. Anyway, the last one before South Beach.

If there isn't a big campfire it ain't camping!

Signed,

Proud North American Pyromaniac (and S'Mores Fan)