Next Hike

The next hike will be on Saturday, 26th May.

We meet at the Ballpark in Gillies Bay at 10:00am.

Last Saturday we had a larger than usual group of hikers including a couple from a small seaside town near Edinburgh on the east coast of Scotland.  The weather was perfect for hiking and we headed up past the  Vancouver Island hydro lines to park at the usual spot on the pipeline right of way.  Walking south then through the forest to the other Bobs Lake road we headed for the best high elevation viewpoint ahead on the very top of Mt. Davies.   It was too hazy to see as far as Mt. Baker, but the coast ranges on the mainland and the Vancouver Island mountains were quite visible and the visitors were suitably impressed.  My photo is of the hikers after the lunch break on the summit was over.

JD.

  

A happy group of hikers on the summit of Mt. Davies.

Next Hike

The next hike will be on Saturday, 19th May.

We meet at the Ballpark in Gillies Bay at 10:00am.

Last week we drove over to Pocahontas Bay and south on the the old Pocahontas Main logging road parking just before Russ Creek.  From there we hiked south on the spur road that heads down the east side of Texada and reached the very end of the road only a few metres above sea level, but still in the forest.  I had hoped the road would end right at the beach, but it turned out that there was a thick tangle of mainly evergreen huck between the end of the road and the two pocket beaches that we had seen on Google Earth. Perhaps on another day we will bring some tools along and cut a trail to the beach and have lunch sitting on the beach logs in the sun. 

I took today's photo through a gap in the forest about half way up the long steady climb back to the parking place.  

JD.

 

The view of Malaspina Strait with Nelson Island and the snow covered Coast Mountains beyond.

Next Hike

The next hike will be on Saturday, 12th May.

We meet at the Ballpark in Gillies Bay at 10:00am.

Last Saturday we had an extra low tide and decided to visit the beach at Davie Bay to see what we might find there.  As it happened there were few tide pools to explore and hardly any sandy patches exposed and we didn't find anything much unusual.  Unlike beaches in other parts of the world, in Europe in particular, our beaches are almost totally free from garbage and man-made pollution of the very worst kind.  I'm thinking in particular about tar and heavy oil that so often ends up washing ashore in areas with heavy marine traffic.  Please consider signing the message on the web site below to make Victoria aware of your views.  I understand it helps if you type in a few words of your own at the top of the message window which comes up if you first enter your contact information.  

http://www.leadnow.ca/tankers-bc-choice

JD.

           

The beach at Davie Bay is clean and oil free now, but the plan to build a loading dock on the right side of the island in the photo will bring tugs close to 

dangerous underwater rocks. 

Next Hike

The next hike will be on Saturday, 5th May.

We meet at the Ballpark in Gillies Bay at 10:00am.

Last week we had dull cloudy weather with a very unpleasantly cold wind for our hike.  We decided to explore an area to the north of Russ Creek where quite a lot of logging has been going on over the last year or more.  Our first attempt to explore a new road lead very quickly to a dead end in the middle of a very large clearcut, so we reversed direction and returned to our vehicles.  It had been far from comfortable walking in a very open area with such a cold wind blowing and we were glad to drive downhill into the forest hoping that our next new logging road would be less windy.  Parking at the start of a recently rebuilt logging road on the left we started on what proved to be a very long uphill climb that took us along winding roads nearly 700 ft  higher.  This certainly warmed us up very nicely and we were lucky to find a lunch spot beside an active beaver dam with no wind at all.  However, the very surprising thing was that the still air was full of tiny gnats that swarmed around us as if it was a hot summer day! The beaver lodge was quite a new one and there were fresh beaver paths going off in different directions from the dam.  Not far away was a lake without a name that we have hiked to a couple of times in the last two years.  

My photo was taken on the new logging road near the top of the ridge not far from the end. 

JD.

Hiking the long new logging road that ended not far from a beaver pond on the far side of the ridge at the top of the picture.