The Rover-Landers of BC

Fossil Beach Camp out - West Harrison Lake Sat May 25th-26th

We normally start the year with a Fossil Beach Camp out, just to get a chance to find all that camping gear that's hiding in the back of the storage space.
Fossil Beach is a great Family and Dog friendly place to hang out. This will also be our "Monthly Social Gathering" for May so even if you dont want to camp, come on out just for the day and head back the same day.
The group will be meeting at the Sasquatch Inn at 9.30am on Saturday morning, 46001 Lougheed Hwy, Harrison Mills, BC V0M 1A0 (on highway #7), pick up all your supplies and gas before meeting at the Sasquatch Inn.
Departing the Inn at 9.45am. If you know your own way to the beach, feel free to come along later.
Best to come prepared for anything and everything at this time of year so bring Sunscreen, bug spray, extra blankets and swimming gear! If you have a canoe / boat that fits on your roof, bring that too!

Cheers,
Andy

Hi Andy,

We went up with you and your crew for the Wheels event in our 2004 Discovery - Stock.
What is the terrain to Fossil beach like compared to that rainy day on Vedder Mountain?

I'm trying to gauge the difficulty of the trail and likelihood of the wife fainting midway through the run!!!
Thank you,
Paul.

Shad lead me down the route a few months ago. I was shocked that Land Rovers could drive on what we were driving on. :shock: There may be more than one way down, I don't know.

I just went REALLY slowly.

Hi Paul,

There are one or two short sections that you will need a spotter to assist you over, but with a spotter it shouldn't be a problem for a stock Land Rover. I can spot you if you would like.
My wife always gets out over those sections, so that is always an option for your wife if she is not comfortable (plus she can take some good photos for you!).

Cheers,
Andy

Update - reports of unusually high water levels in Harrison Lake may mean that there is no beach at Fossil Beach to camp on.
There are some alternatives, stay tuned for more information ....

Breath is baited... :mrgreen:

According to the gov'ts real-time data, the lake level at the hot springs is currently ~1.8m above the level for last years Fossil Beach Camp out on the April 21 weekend. The lake reached 10cm short of 12m on May the 15 of this year and has been dropping since, down to a little over 11m this morning.

If there is little change in the landscape of the beach in the last year, that puts the water level up into the driftwood at the top of the beach by my best guess looking at photos I have from last year about the same time the club was there. Might be kind of squishy.

Happy Friday!

Not to be put off by a rainy forecast (if its 50% chance of rain it also means 50% chance of not raining right!). Hey, its warm and sunny in Richmond right now! ..... think positive .... think positive ....
We are going ahead with the weekend camp out, it may not be possible to camp on Fossil Beach due to the high lake water but there are other alternatives we can check out along the way. This may make the trip not so wife / kids / fair-weather camper friendly? All depends on the person / persons love for the outdoors.
See you on Saturday morning as per the details in the first post,

Cheers, Andy

I am in, but will have to catch up later in the afternoon. Is there a short list of spots for camping? Just so I have an idea of where to find you all.

I will bring my shades for all the sun! 8)

Hi David,

Kind of hard to say where we will end up camping, how far (hours) behind us will you be?

Do you have VHF or CB?

Andy

As it turned out there was still plenty of beach to camp on, the weather was warm and dry for Saturday and Saturday night, we had a full sky of stars and a huge full moon.
The rain started Sunday morning so after breakfast we packed up camp and headed over to North Chehalis Lake which is always a great spot to visit.
Great weekend out, lots of laughing around the camp fire ..... (must of been the full moon!)
Cheers,
Andy

Thanks again to everyone who went on the run and helped us through with the stock Discoverys...
We had a great time finding the limitations of the vehicles and owe a huge safe and undamaged thank you to all of the trail guides!

Here are a few video links from the weekend.





Paul.

Paul, glad you enjoyed the run, thanks for posting up the videos.

I have posted a bunch of photos from the run in the Gallery

http://roverlanders.bc.ca/gallery/view_ ... e=album433

Cheers,
Andy

Great shots Andy, thanks for taking the time to snap them!

I've posted up the photos that David B sent in to me.

It's been a busy week. I'm off to check out the videos and photos. Thanks to all for making it a fun outing. I'm looking forward to the next one! :D