100 Camping at McLeese Lake

Les Mc Mullen was a great guy to work for but back in the eighties smoking was not considered as yet a health hazard as it now is and Les was doing his best to shorten his life and prove otherwise. Only four years later he quite on the advise of his doctor but I can still remember him trying to limit his puffing to one cigarette per fifty miles as we drove from place to place. Back then it was not in vogue to have separate rooms when on field duty so it was with great relief that I got to camp out with Sandy for a week and get away from the smoke filled room of the motel.

Sandy had come up with our tent trailer and we spent the week on McLeese Lake just a few miles north of Williams Lake. This worked out great as Les and I were working northeast of Williams Lake studying the mountain pine beetle not far from McLeese Lake and it was great to spend my nights with her instead of in a smoky motel with Les.

I remember that Les prided himself in his ability to make chile beans and insisted that Sandy and I come by for dinner at least one evening during the week so he could treat us to his special recipe. I’ll never forget it to this day, as the beans I think were delicious, but they were so spicy that I could not actually taste them. I told him they were really great but it was only a guess. The texture was great the beans were done just right with the finest beef, but I could only describe the taste as hot.

One evening that week when Sandy and I were having a great time camping by the lake and were just starting to eat dinner, Sandy drew my attention to a roaring sound coming up from the south end of McLeese lake. It sounded like a fright train or maybe like they describe a tornado as it roars by, and in moments it was just about upon us. The lake was virtually foaming white up to several feet with the velocity of the rain as it pounded its surface. It was a downpour of a magnitude that I have never seen to this day. What made it even scarier was the speed with which it was moving up the lake toward us.

We frantically tried to clear everything off of the table barely finishing in time as it roared up the shore and enveloped us in its fury. The weird thing was that there was very little if any wind, just a wall of water.

We were right near the shore at the bottom of a long slope and within minutes there was a wall of water running through our campsite fire pit and on into the lake. The next few minutes were bedlam but just as quickly as it had come it was over and the only evidence of such a happening was the channel where the river ran through our campsite and the mud splashed up on everything because of the fury of the storm.

I have often thought about that storm and am still amazed when I think about it as it compared with the worst thunderstorms I have ever experienced but with no thunder or lightening.