Next Hike

The next hike will be on Saturday, 25th February.  

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

Last week we met in Van Anda then drove to the far end of Crescent Bay Road through the entrance into Woodwardia and down to the coastline at the cottages just north of Favada Point.  After taking a little time to view the noisy Sea Lions both on the rocks and here and there in the water we headed north on foot along the rugged coastline to the rapids and waterfalls at the head of Maple Bay.  Most of the snow had gone by then, but there had been so much rain not many days earlier that the creek was filled to overflowing.  Taking a different winding trail running through the forest we soon found ourselves back at the starting point at a good time to have lunch.  In the afternoon we headed south the short distance through the forest to Favada Point and encountered some patches of those prickly Opuntia cactus.

JD. 

        

        A group of sealions on rocks near Favada Point, a mix of California Sea Lions and Steller Sea Lions. 

Next hike is from Vam Anda

The next hike is on Saturday, 18th February.

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

We will car-pool from the Legion parking over to the north-west coast of Texada to "Woodwardia"  just north of Favada Point.  My photo this week was one I took on a recent hike when we visited one of the neat little pocket beaches on the west side of Texada close to the mouth of Eagle Creek.  On one side of the narrow trail we were hiking along we passed close by the base of an old sawn-off cedar tree.  Not only was it quite an attractive sight I was struck by the great variety of plant species that were taking advantage of the vertical side of the rotting stump. There are clusters of a small white bracket fungus and at least two different kind of mosses more too the right side of the picture.  On the left side the grey-green plants you can see are probably lichens and there are some thin brown trailing stems of a native blackberry vine.

JD.  

A cedar stump with mosses, lichens and fungi all growing on an old cedar stump.

Next Hike — update.

In my last hike notice I wondered what the conditions would be like this Saturday and made this statement:—

" It has been raining quite a bit today and it should be somewhat milder as we get into the weekend. "

Well the rain did not last very long and the evening temperature is down around zero degrees again, so no milder than before. As I walked home late this evening it was difficult to walk on the areas of deep snow and the roads had patches of black ice that formed where snow had melted in the sun.  It was OK last week when the snow was half as deep as it is now, but I've decided not to try to hike this time with conditions the way they are.

The geese in my photo are swimming around after a heavy snowfall had collected on a layer of cold fresh water from the creek that was sitting on top of the salty sea water.  

JD.

Canada Geese pushing themselves through small ice flows in Gillies Bay, 5th February, 2017.

Next Hike

The next hike will be on Saturday, 11th February.

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

Last Saturday there was already quite a lot of snow on the ground even at sea level and the roads were still in poor condition for driving.  We figured it would be best to stay close to home so we set off along School Rd and just hiked in a circle on the old logging roads then back to the main road near the Community Hall.  The time and distance were much shorter than usual, but the depth of the snow and it's heavy consistency meant it was quite hard work even without going very much uphill.  Since then we have had more snowfall and I'm just wondering how things will be on next Saturday.  It has been raining quite a bit today and it should be somewhat milder as we get into the weekend. 

JD.

Hiking in the snow along an old logging road not far from Gillies Bay.  4th February, 2017

Next Hike

The next hike will be on Saturday, 4th February.

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

It's difficult to know quite what weather to expect this Saturday as the predicted temperatures are so close to the freezing point.  Some moisture is likely to arrive during the day, but in what form is hard to say, and it could be either rain or snow or even some of both perhaps!  

Last week we knew there would still be snow and even ice on the higher level roads towards the south, but we guessed we would be fine if we picked a hike in the First Lake area.  We parked on the gasline at the cathodic protection site on Bell Road and headed uphill through the forest.  All the snow had been melted by the milder weather or washed away by recent rains and the only evidence of the heavy snowfalls of mid-winter was the layer of white ice on Horseshoe Lake where we had our lunch break.  For a while the sun warmed us up nicely there, but it was still on the cool side in the shade.  

JD.

The hikers at another frozen lake, Horeshoe Lake, not far from the Hydro East Road.