Next Hike

The next hike will be on Saturday, 1st April.

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

Last week we had an especially interesting hike that took us along new hiking trails and down onto a small beach not far from North-east Point on the east side of the island.  To reach this area we again drove along the High Road and then down the Pocahontas Bay Road to park a short distance to the south on the old Pocahontas Bay Main logging road.  As we had done a few weeks ago we hiked towards the new clear cut area where we had found a very old giant Douglas Fir tree, but this time used an old overgrown logging road that took us on a more direct route to the shoreline. This led to a winding trail that dropped steeply down through the forest and past the base of an astonishing vertical rock face covered in ferns and mosses. We had lunch at a small shingle beach then scrambled along some low bluffs to avoid a section of shoreline with no beach at all! Beyond that section and close to where a small creek reaches the sea we were able to return to the clearcut through a area of open forest with some very large old growth trees. One of these was a healthy White Pine that I think must be one of the oldest on the island.

JD.

     

An unusual vertical rock face in the middle of the forest near North-east Point.

The next hike.

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

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

Last week we needed to be back at the Ballpark about 2:00pm to allow hikers time to take in a presentation on the Texada Island Official Community Plan.  The hike started from the usual meeting place at the Ballpark and we made good use of some of the well maintained biking trails that climb through the forest to reach the Gillies Bay Bluffs one of which has the name Turkey Vulture Bluff.  It was quite a cool day again so the steady uphill climbing helped us to warm up. We have had so many hikes in snowy conditions this winter I was hoping the previous hike which climbed to above 1,000ft elevation would be the last.  Our lunch spot this time was much lower down, but I guess there is still a good deal of cold air passing over us and we should not have been surprised when snowflakes started falling from the sky.

JD.

 

On Turkey Vulture Bluff where we stopped for lunch there were snow flakes falling from the sky for a while.

Next Hike

The next hike will be on Saturday, 18th March.

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

The hike will end back at Gillies Bay a little earlier than usual to give hikers a chance to take in a presentation at the Community Hall at 2:15pm. Details of the meeting are in the attached poster. 

Last week we drove south towards Shingle Beach then turned off at the top of the last hill to get onto the new logging road system0 that eventually joins the lower part of the Cook Bay Rd.  We parked not far from the junction and headed up the road going north towards Mt. Davies.  The plan was to explore for a new viewpoint that is situated very close to a side road at a point very much higher than our parking place.  We did reach the spot we had hoped to reach, but there was cloud cover at that elevation so it will be another day on another visit before we can fully enjoy the new viewpoint.  For most of the hike we were walking on bare roads, but much of the side road still had a fair bit of snow on it as you can see from my photo which was taken at the highest point.

JD. 

Hiking in the snow to a new viewpoint high above Cook Bay Road.  

Next Hike

The next hike will be on Saturday, 11th March.
We meet at the Ballpark in Gillies Bay at 10:00am.

Last week we were fortunate to have a day for hiking with no precipitation of any kind and quite mild temperatures. We decided to do some exploration of an area which has always been quite difficult to access until quite recently when some logging was done. The area lies to the north west of the lower part of Russ Creek, a fair sized year round creek that drains down from high on Mount Pocahontas down to the sea close to Northeast Point on the east ccoast of Texada. We drove down the Pocahontas Bay Rd then south a short distance on the old Pocahontas Main logging road. Hiking south and taking the new logging road we were soon in a logged area that proved to be much larger than expected. From just beyond the far end of the clearcut where we could clearly hear Russ Creek in the forest ahead of us we strated to flag a new trail route that we hoped would reach the beach in Northeast Bay. We did eventually reach the beach but the brush was more of a problem than we thought it was going to be and the distance much greater! However, it does give us future access to a section of the creek with much natural beauty, water rapids and pools and even a couple of very attractive waterfalls.

My photo is of a fine example of an old growth Douglas Fir that has been spared the chain saw and a cluster of younger trees have been left around it to give it some protection.
JD.

The next hike.

The next hike will be on Saturday, 4th March.
We meet in Gillies Bay at the Ballpark at 10:00am

Last week we decided to stay low again to avoid the snow and ice that still covered most of the island. Around Gillies Bay the recent rainfall had cleared away most of the snow, but as we drove south towards Shingle Beach we found snow still covering the higher sections of road even on the approaches to the campground. The tide was low enough so we headed south along the beach until we were just south of the old cabins, Then we turned away from the sea and eventually found a pleasant sunny spot for lunch on the edge of a clearcut.

Next Tuesday there will be a talk at 6:30pm at the Senior's Centre that may interest some of the hiking group members. The subject is the conservation of a particular area of forest in our part of BC that is rapidly being lost to all kinds of human activity. Some of the conservation biologists will describe the work they are doing in the Powell River Regional District.
JD.