June, 2020
You may be wondering where the blog post is about the second walk around the lake. I posted a blog about my first walk around the lake, but have said nothing else about any other walks around the lake until this post. And this blog post is about my third walk around the lake. In truth, I walked around the lake almost every day. Rather than bore you with incessant beauty, I thought I would hold off and share just the highlights from this third walk.
And oh, it was a beautiful day! My first view of the lake every morning never did get boring.
As I started my walk around the lake this morning and got closer to the fishing float on the left side of the photo above, I could see a few fisher-folk enjoying the float. They told me it was ok to take their picture.
Here’s a bit of explanation about fishing hereabouts, taken from a sign in the campground.
“The Chehalis River begins its journey to the Pacific Ocean high in the Coast Range mountains, south of the town of Pe Ell. First the river moves inland to the city of Chehalis, then it turns west for its run to Gray’s Harbor, and then to the sea. Along the way, it picks up water from the Newaukum, Skookumchuck, Black, and Wynoochee Rivers, and from countless smaller rivers and streams.
“In the river, you will find salmon, steelhead, and sea-run cutthroat trout. The deeper areas also furnish habitat for sturgeon. Sturgeon are bottom feeders. The very deep water with nutrients brought from the uplands provides almost ideal habitat for them. Salmon, steelhead, and sea-run cutthroat trout are anadromous species. That means they are spawned and reared for a time in fresh water streams and then move into the ocean for most of their mature lives. When the time comes to spawn, they return to the river system where they hatched to begin the cycle anew. After spawning, salmon die, but steelhead and cutthroat trout may survive and return to spawn more than once.”
I wished the fisher-folk above the best of luck, and then I walked on around to the bridge that you see in the distance in the first photo above.
In the photo above, Lake Quigg and the campground are way off to the left. The water you see under the bridge is the water coming into Lake Quigg from the Chehalis River. The Chehalis River is way out of the photo to the right. In fact, I couldn’t see the Chehalis River from where I was standing because of the bends in the small inlet that runs between Lake Quigg and the Chehalis.
In the photos above, you can see some indication of the current from the water running back UP into Lake Quigg from the Chehalis River. Obviously, the tide is rising, it’s coming in, from the Pacific Ocean and in through Gray’s Harbor then up into the Chehalis River. Since salt water is heavier than fresh water, the salt water stays on the bottom of Gray’s Harbor, and on the bottom of the Chehalis River for a few miles … the salt water pushes the fresh water up to the surface and then UP the river. So all of the water coming into Lake Quigg is fresh water, not salt water.
Here are two videos (below) to give you a better idea of the water flow in this short inlet into Lake Quigg from the Chehalis River. The first video was taken while I was standing on the bridge. The second video was taken while I was standing in the shrubbery off to one side of the bridge. Even from the side, I still could not see the Chehalis River. All I could see was more of the zig-zag inlet. Notice how fast the water is running. A kayaker in the campground told me he got stuck one time out on the Chehalis River while he was trying to paddle back into Lake Quigg, but the tide had changed and was then running out-bound and he could not paddle fast enough to overcome the current. He grabbed a tree trunk on the bank of the river and just sat there for 3 or 4 hours until the current slowed down enough that he could then paddle back in. He said he was mighty hungry and mighty thirsty when he did get back, and he said it was a good reminder … take an emergency pack!
Ok, here are the videos. Turn your sound on. Enjoy the water, and the sunshine, and the birds … it was so relaxing.
Video 1
Video 2
And then I left the bridge area and continued to walk on around, all the way around the lake, enjoying the sounds and the smells and the views without taking hardly any photos. But I did snap a few pics below.
Walking back onto campground property (below), I passed this lovely grove of trees. It seemed those trees were slowly meandering along the bank of the Chehalis River. What a pretty place.
