[fishguidebrian]

Went for a drive into the upper watershed below Pe Ell today and total devestation is the word that best describes things up there. Tons of mud, trees etc... Hard to imagine it's even the same river. No good at all. Gonna be years before it's fishable again as every time it rains, the mud will flow. Saddest part is all the devestaion to peoples lives. I was in shock the whole time up there. As to the put-ins and take-outs, WOW! Prather Road is marginal at best, Indeppendance is ok, Oakville I couldnt tell but looks damaged, Porter is a mess and the put-ins and take-outs I used up high are destroyed forever. At least three bridges up high are GONE and most fields as well as the river banks look like sorting yards for Weyco. If you run the river, be careful as channels probably changed and the amount of debris is AMAZING! Gonna be a tough year for both the fish and people along the river. The first pic is along the Cerise Hill bridge where I take out and the 2nd is Chandler Road Bridge just above Rainbow Falls.

 

[Red Neckersom]

Man, thats terrible. Im heading down next week to help cleanup. sick:

Do u know if the highway is open through to Raymond yet?

 

[fishguidebrian]

Nope, it's not open. Closed just beyond Pe Ell and gravel in many places along the way. It can quit raining anytime as the people up there need a break!

 

[Red Neckersom]

I hear ya about th rain, DAMN!!!

Thanks for the pics and the info Brian.

 

[steelyden]

wow what a mess. I feel for all the people who had their lives turned upside down from this. Another example of how powerful mother nature really is.

 

[fishguidebrian]

Another pic looking downriver from Cerise hill bridge.

 

[eggster]

My sister and bro. inlaw have 100 acres right above friends landing. i went down on the 3rd of december to help cut up all the downed trees after the wind blew 80mph all day. left on the 4th after checking the river levels. all looked o.k. the chehalis rose another 5 feet over night on the 4th and that was the straw that broke the camels back. they had logs, goats, cows, horses, you name it, it was floating through the corn fields. it rose so fast that even the tides had no effect on lowering the level when it went out. the water was only about 6 inches from where it was in the flood of 96, and that was the flood that usgs had to open the dam on the nooch for fear of a breech. its amazing what water can do when its totally out of control.

 

[Soady]

Here is a link from the Seattle Times dated Dec 16, 07. The story is on the Stillman Creek drainage that empties into the South Fork Chehalis. The amount of devastation that remains up in the hills will have a huge impact for a very long time.
Under the photo in the article click on the related Photo Gallery.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004076111_weycologging16m.html

 

[fishguidebrian]

The main fork of the Halis is in much worse shape then the S Fork. Not sure why the pappers picked up on just one slide. Looks like their was a TON of slides above Rainbow Falls and almost every creek runing into the river looks totally and completely blasted as well. Maybe the media needs to be brought up to speed on what kinda of a disaster this was for teh whole basin up there and down below!

 

[humble-hubby]

Brian, I think that argument of the newspaper for the S. Fork was that there was an incredible number of logs that went down forming a logjam that diverted the river and flooded homes with 10+ feet of water that had never flooded and weren't in a flood plane. It all got hit bad from Chehalis west to PeEll. There aren't as many people that live along the South Fork though.

 

[Live to fish]

Thats sad... I really like fishin those steelys in march conf: sounds like I may not be doing that this year ?

 

[Dozer]

I seen some guys plunking at porter today, go figure.