Next Hike

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

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

Last week we wanted to hike on the high ground for a change and drove up Bell Road towards First Lake.  All along the way the snow had been washed away by the recent heavy rains, but at the Bell Farm there was snow everywhere and the road surface very slippery.  We reluctantly headed back down the hill and started our hike on the High Road instead.  We took the Pocahontas Road on the right going down it as far as the big beaver pond where we found the hard-working mammals had been falling quite a few of the larger alders on the shore line close to the dam.  Beaver on Texada don't seem to cut down large trees very often and get most of their food from small fir trees, shrubs like salmonberry and water plants like bullrush.   My photo shows one of the trees that was partly cut close to the edge of the pond.  Lunch was beside another of the large beaver swamps in the area.  This one had flooded the old logging road a few years ago and we have yet to find an easy way round the obstacle to hike on down to the beach.

JD.

A good sized alder tree that is being worked on by a beaver close to the Pocahontas Bay road.