The Rover-Landers of BC

Fossil Beach - October 17th -18th 2015

There are a few of us heading down to Hale Creek / Fossil Beach on the weekend, curious to see how the summer fires have changed the landscape. There are some that are just heading down for Saturday and some that are planning to camp out on the beach and head back Sunday around noon.

What - you can choose, a 1 day run or overnight beach camp out
Where - Up the west side of Harrison Lake, down to Fossil beach or/and Hale Creek (approx 30km from the highway #7)
When - meeting at the Subway Restaurant on Highway 7, Mission (34963 Lougheed highway) at 9.30am, grab some breakfast and a take out lunch - There is a gas station (Co-Op) that does Petrol and Diesel next to the Subway. If you need fuel, fuel up first when arriving, departing at 10.00am sharp. Google Link - http://goo.gl/maps/XNnzk
Why - Fresh mountain air, the adventure, beautiful scenery, to check out the fire damage.

For those just coming up for the day bring a packed lunch (or buy lunch at Subway), bring your camera....
For those camping out overnight on the beach, bring along everything you need for the two days, wilderness camping, no amenities.

The last report is the road down to the beach is quite rocky and rough, will have some challenging sections. All stock Land Rovers can handle this run with some slow and careful spotting over the rocky sections. As always, possible BC pin-striping, we expect we will have to get the chainsaws out to do some trail clearing. (bring one if you have one).
This is just what we all need to burn off the excess turkey and pumpkin pie from the long weekend......

Hope to see you there....

Cheers, Andy

I'm in! :D 1 or 2 day option TBD.

I am in for the one day option!

Sue & I are in. We will overnight.

I'm in if I finish all my work today. Just for the 1 day. Don't wait for me I'm not there by 10:00.

I'm in for sure and i'll be staying overnight. I will meet you guys at the sasquatch inn at 10:30 if thats OK. VHF will be on.

Sorry I won't be able to make it. I have to attend an event with the wife in Chiiliwact at 6 pm.

In! Been a while but I think I remember how to break the Rover, might just head straight to Sasquatch Inn depending on whether or not I need gas.

Sounds good .... see you for breakfast at Subway at 9.30am or the Sasquatch Inn at 10.30am.

Lunch & a fire on the beach around 1pm ......

Cheers, Andy

Well, the day got off to a bumpy start with Andy having to bow out due to wheel bearing issues. A couple of the day-trippers decided too much time had been spent watching Andy mess with said wheel and decided to bow out of the trip and instead accompany Andy to the repair shop. And then there were Three, Mike and myself in our Discos and Eric and Sue in their 90.

Once on the trail and up through the power lines we didn't get a sense of the forest fires we had been told about. Not until we got down to the lower road about 5 minutes before the first Hale Creek entrance did we get our first look at the charred remains. Wow, a completely different landscape than what I remember. Getting down to Hale Creek is not an issue but I dont think Fossil Beach will be on the cards for a long time to come. The road up to the connector (down to Fossil) from Hale Creek is completely blocked by numerous downed trees, going to take a lot of work to clear that.

We decided to make Hale Creek our camp spot and check out the Fossil Beach entrance the next day. We had great weather and the rain held off until later that evening. The next day we packed up and headed back up towards the main route (I have video of the drive up through the burnt forest) to take a look at the old Fossil Beach entrance...completely blocked by trees, some of which looks intentional. We were told by an ATV crew that this might of been done to prevent anyone heading down the trail over fear of landslides.

All in all a great October trip, was great to hang with Mike, Eric and Sue. It is really too bad about the forest damage though, hopefully the green ferns sprouting up amongst the burnt stumps is an indication that things are already bouncing back.

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Scott, Mike,
Sue and I enjoyed the weekend. Kind of relaxing as we were in camp early, and plenty to natter about for hours around the fire.
Just a couple of bumpy bits up out of Hale Creek to keep out lesser vehicles and give us a bit of excitement.
And a big shout-out to you both for scavenging and hauling in the firewood, and your log splitting attempts were a good laugh!
Eric & Sue.

Andy,
How did you make out?

Good to hear you guys had a relaxing, serene camp out while I slaved for hours replacing my seized-up wheel bearing, removing the skin off every knuckle and covering myself head to toe with dirty grease & oil ...... do I sound bitter... a little jealous maybe lol ....
Wheel Bearing fixed now, ready to hit the trails again!

Nice photos and report Scott, will have to sign you up for some Newsletter articles (we tried Mike before but he takes forever ...)

Sounds like it will be a while until we get back down to Fossil, need a chainsaw gang organized!

Eric, that was the "hard" way down to Hale Creek that you did, you make it sound like a Sunday stroll in the park ha ha ... or maybe Sue was driving...

Cheers, Andy

PS - Yes, I have had many laughs watching Mike and Scott trying to split wood... its a bit like watching the Laurel & Hardy show!

Finally got around to uploading the video of part the drive out of Hale Creek, get a little bit of a sense of the forest fires.

https://youtu.be/rfRpmWjSNp4

Hi Scott,

Thanks for posting up the video, It all looks so different without the trees and undergrowth!

It looks like they cut the trees to block the side roads so they didn't have to worry about people wandering around on these side roads during the fire. I don't suppose they will send crews back to return and clear all the roads now that the fire is long over!

Cheers,
Andy