Next Hike

The next hike will be on Saturday, 22nd June.

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

Last week we drove south past Bobs Lake and Angel Lake and parked where the road runs alongside the gasline right of way. Hiking south along the gasline we turned off at the large cairn marking the start of the Twin Peaks Trail.  At first everything in the forest seemed quite normal, but then soon after the trail became much steeper we began to run into fallen trees which became more and more frequent as we progressed.  At the point where the trail levels off and divides, one branch going north to a viewpoint the other south towards the south viewpoint it soon became obvious that both trails were blocked by massive amounts of broken tree trunks and branches. Clearly a wind storm had hit the col with tremendous force not long ago and  it was quite a difficult task to find a route through the tangle of debris covering both trails.  We split into two groups before lunch and enjoyed the panoramic views from each of the two viewpoints 

My photo shows one group in an undamaged part of the south trail.  The giant trees behind the hikers were mostly undamaged by the winds, but the massive tree trunk on the ground in the centre of the image was part of one that had fallen and broken into several pieces.   

JD.

On the winding trail through old growth forest not far from the south viewpoint of Twin Peaks.