Next Hike

The next hike will be on Saturday, 8th April.

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

Last week we had an unusual hike that started off in very foggy conditions near Mascyk Farm and ended up in beautiful sunshine which had replaced the fog as we ate lunch.   

I'm giving advance notice of the Texada Trekker's 23rd annual beach Oyster Roast.  This will take place on the beach at Raven Bay on Saturday, 29th April.

My photo is one I took on a recent hike to the beach at North-east Point.  We had seen a really old giant Douglas Fir tree a little earlier in the day and I included a photo of that tree in the following hike email.  This time the tree I photographed was not so large at the base and not a fir.  This one is a White Pine, Pinus monticola, and the unusual thing about the tree is that it is both very old and also seems to be very healthy. On Texada the species is not usually very long lived as they are prone to suffer from a rust disease that weakens them to such an extent they frequently die well before reaching maturity.  

JD.

The base of a very old White Pine tree not far from North-east Point.  We do not often see such large specimens of this species.