Statlu Lake

June 23, 2025 -- Fraser Valley North, Chehalis

Stats: 15.8 km / 743m gain / 659m high point / 6:25 hours MT

What a day! One we won't soon forget. It required balancing on logs, wading through ice cold water, scrambling over boulders and bushwhacking through wet brush. Add to that 4.5 hours of driving mostly on a long FSR riddled with potholes. It took a strong team effort but we made it to our destination.

At 11:40am we parked just a bit off of the Mystery FSR and began with a brief but steep descent. I knew what to expect with the narrow bridge high above the Chehalis River. But to those who didn't (everyone else our group of 5), it was rather daunting. The log did a subtle but unnerving dip when we got to the middle of it.

This first log crossing was made by Wulf who also built the cabins on Dewdney Mt. in Mission. He passed away last year.

The forest gave way to this open FSR on which raspberries were growing.We were surprised that we didn't run into any bears.

Keep an eye out for flagged sticks that lead you left off of the FSR into the forest once again. We almost missed them.We had to do a little high hoisting step of faith to get onto this suspended log. Sheri made it look easy.

Oregon Sunshine Blueberries

Our first glimpse of Chehalis Falls where several fatalaties have occured.

This are used to be very dangerous to cross because of the very slippery smooth wet rock. Over this edge the falls plunge deep down into the valley. But a landslide has filled in most of this gully. I was standing on a log to take this photo. Behind me all this smooth rock has been covered with gravel and boulders.

Arrived at the east end of Statlu Lake, 1:45 hours moving time later.

It had been a long time since I'd hiked to the opposite end of the oblong lake. It took another hour & a half to get there. The trail was not flat, but rose and fell again several times.

The first of two boulder fields.

No, Brigitte is not singing. She's suffering from the cold.

Just before these falls there's the very faint Brotherhood trail that leads to Upper Statlu Lake.

Once beyond the falls (which were about 3/4 of the way down the northern shore of the lake), the trail became less distinct and we had to do some serious bushwhacking. Sheri, Brigitte & I were standing here when I said, "It's too bad we can't make it to the campsite, it's probably right around this corner". Then Sheri dropped her pack and said, "Let's do it!" That was music to my ears. They strapped on their clogs but I went barefoot.

The ground by the lake's edge was spongy and soft. We clambered to mounds of it to let our feet defrost before getting back in again.

A bit more bushwhacking and voila! We found it! We had turned back on a trail a bit earlier because we didn't want to cross another river. That probably would've been the better way to go.

The campsite has some nice flat spots for tents and several fire pits and is right beside the Chehalis Creek. But there were alot of mosquitoes.

The left side of this log had warmer soft sinking ground whereas the other side was cold and on hard-packed sand.

Back at the boulder slope close to the end of the lake, the sun came out at 6:00pm just as forecast. Yay!

Indian-rice False Morel

Mt. Bardean (1830m), Ratney (1740m) + Stonerabbit (1410m).

Back at the top of the falls, close to the campsite. We got back to the vehicles at 8:15pm.

Looking back at Mt. Clare (2010m) below which Upper Statlu Lake is nestled.

The All Trails stats were 11.9 km / 453m gain. This is not correct. It's 4 km more and my culative gain says it was 300m more elevation gain. This and the obstacles along the way, made the hike take longer than what we expected. We finally got cell reception close to the Sasquatch Inn at 10:30pm. When Annet phoned home, we realized a whole kerpuffle had taken place. Our famlies were so worried about us and had even sent out a few family members to go look for us. Oh dear. I promised my-daughter-in-law to use the live tracking feature on my Garmen66i next time...