McLeod Lake Beaver Dam

A beaver dam broke today letting a bunch of water down the North Fork Snoqualmie River. It has been pretty much been pouring all day so I figured it was a good day to drive and see how the road had fared since it is an area I hike regularly.

It didn't take me long to find the damage:

This is the creek coming from the McLeod Lake and now crossing the North Fork road. There were a bunch of people back there doing road repair and surveying the dam so I was able to find out exactly where the dam used to be.

At first I just spend time around this part where it was draining across the road. Since I hadn't remotely dressed for hiking, I didn't plan on making my way to the beaver dam - but then I accidentally sunk ankle deep in mud.

So once I was already muddy and soaked I decided I should go check out the source - because you know I was dying to anyway. Besides, how else was I going to clean the mud off my shoes.

Nice and clean after crossing the creek in the road:

The trail up to McLeod itself is probably only 1/2 mile. The creek runs along the trail.

The photo doesn't really show the former site of the beaver dam well. McLeod Lake has a miserable swampy growth all around it which is why you can't see the actual lake but it would be off to the left in the photo and the guy with the red pack is somewhat marking the creek outlet.

Because there were witnesses who were far better dressed for the situation I stayed on the high ground for photos rather than go down into the hole which as you can see was incredibly muddy.