Next Hike

The next hike will be on Saturday, 28th May.
We meet at the Ballpark in Gillies Bay at 10:00am.

Last week we drove north along the High Road, then turned right and headed downhill to Pocahontas Bay. Parking at an intersection just up from the bay we started our hike going south on the old logging road called Pocahontas Main. This is once again in use as there has been a fair amount of fresh logging going on about three kilometres south of the bay. Our destination for lunch was at the end of a side road on the very small Taylor Bluff.

My photo this week was taken a couple of hikes ago when we were on our way down from the summit of Surprise Mountain, the highest point on the north end of Texada. The location was an open grassy bluff where we have seen a few plants of this flower in earlier years. This year there were far more plants than I had ever seen here before and many of them had clearly been in bloom not long ago, but only a couple of them had flowers left.
JD.

Next Hike

The next hike will be on Saturday, 21st May.

We meet at the Ballpark in Gillies Bay at 10.00am.

Last Saturday we met in Van Anda and drove past Priest Lake then onto the old haul road and took the turnoff that now has a smart iron street sign with the name Surprise Mt. Road.  We drove past the old Gem mine wast dump and parked in the wide grassy area where three roads meet.  Sometimes we take the right fork here that goes past the giant split rock, a giant eratic boulder, and approach the summit of the mountain from the north.  This time we headed on foot on the central road and took the route that approaches the summit from the north east. The view from the top includes the high ground that extends from Pocahontas in the north all the way south to the high point of the island, Mt. Shepherd.  

After lunch we set off on the trail that runs downhill to the High Ledges viewpoint and passes a couple of areas with specimens of some of our less common native plants including the dainty little Shooting Stars and the tough Indian Dream fern.  We tend to take our Arbutus trees pretty much for granted and only notice them if they are particularly twisted in shape or large in size.  This day we came across a medium small one which was remarkable for putting on a such a great display of its bright yellow flowers.  

JD. 

 This Arbutus was in peak bloom on the summit of Surprise Mountain. 

Next Hike — from Van Anda.

The next hike will be on Saturday, 14th May.

We meet at the Royal Canadian Legion parking in Van Anda at 10:00am.

Last week we drove south past Davie Bay and then turned left after the concrete bridge over Stromberg Creek then parking when we reached the gravel pit a short distance up past the Stromberg Falls parking place.  This is a pleasant hike, mostly in forest, that follows the main road climbing steeply most of the way up towards Thompson Road.  We did not go quite that far as the one side road on the right takes us under the power lines to the bases of two of the support towers  where a marked trail leads south along the hillside to a steep bluff with a lovely view of the sea and Mt. Arrowsmith on Vancouver Island.

My photo is one I took on our long recent hike in the Cook Bay area.  This cute treefrog was particularly bright green and very tame.  I'm not too sure, but I do believe it figured it was safe and sound sitting next to some leaves that matched it's own skin colour.  From just a short distance away it was certainly hard to spot as long as it remained perfectly still.

JD.

The local treefrogs do vary in colour quite a bit, and I thought this one was particularly bright green.

Next Hike

The next hike will be on Saturday, 7th May.

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

Last week we had really excellent hiking weather at last and ended up doing an extra long hike although we did not really plan it that way at the beginning.  It was an opportunity for some of us to visit an area and some coastline we had never visited before because of the absence of any flagged trail to it.  Earlier this year several hikers worked on a new route that took us down to the beach in my photo.  This beach, the coastline and the area of forest and grassy bluffs is part of a designated UREP, crown land set aside for the Use, Recreation and Enjoyment of the Public.  The location is not far north of Cook Bay. I can tell you our little group of hikers did greatly enjoy this excursion into a seldom visited part of Texada Island. 

On our way back to the vehicles we took a different route from the one in the morning and found ourselves walking through a forest of old growth giants, cedar and fir, that appeared to have been quite untouched by logging.  This was the iceing on the cake for a most amazing day! 

JD.

 

Looking south from a small beach on the rocky coast not far north of Cook Bay. This is the Sabine Channel with part of Lasqueti on the right

 and Mt. Dick in the distance at the south end of Texada.