Next Hike from Gillies Bay - meet at the Community Hall.

The next hike will be on Saturday, 29th July.

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

Last week it was Sandcastle Weekend so the group of hikers was very small. We drove part way to Van Anda and parked close to the old farmhouse with the covered verandah all round it. Walking north along the main road a short distance brought us to an overgrown logging road that heads north for about a kilometre. This is an old Trekkers trail that we used to use quite often before the forest had managed to reclaim much of it and some logging had destroyed a good deal of the flagged trail closer to Van Anda.  We had some problems, but eventuially reached the lunch spot with it's view north from the gasline towards Harwood Island. 

My photo is one I took last week on a plant hunting trip to the Bobs Lake area. It shows a part of the beaver pond near Bloody Mt. viewpoint that we pass close to on the south trail to the top of Mt. Davies. I had not realized just how large the pond actually was, and just how lovely it can look when the rains have kept the water level higher than usual quite late into the summer.  The strip of white along the edge of the water in the distance is from the fluffy seed heads of cotton grass, not flowers.

JD.  

A large beaver pond on the south side of Mt. Davies.  

Next Hike - from the Community Hall.

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

Because of the Sandcastle events at the Ballpark we will meet at the Community Hall in Gillies Bay at 10:00am

Last week we headed off on the long dusty drive to the start of the Cook Bay Rd. at the foot of Mt. Davies.  Hiking first on the road that leads to Bobs Lake we branched off down the Gentian Lake Trail and had a pleasant lunch under the trees at the beaver dam on the west side of the lake.

When we hiked in the Blubber Bay area a couple of weeks ago we visited two active eagles nests and my photo this time is of one of those nests with two youngsters quietly wating for the parents to return with food.  In the photo the nest is the mass of twigs at the bottom and one of the young is facing the camera standing on a branch on the left side while the other one is facing away from the camera on the right side.  Only wing feathers and part of it's tail is visible as some leafy branches are in the way.

JD.

 

Eagle Nest at Blubber Bay with two juveniles waiting for the next food delivery

Next Hike

The next hike will be on Saturday, 15th July.

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

Last week we drove to Blubber Bay and parked on the left of the main road at the gate for the gasline pumping station road. We walked north to see the pipeline facilities where the company inserts and retrieves the pipeline inspection pigs, and then on to visit Glass Beach and a nearby eagle nest.  From there we took the short trail through the woods to the cottages at Clam Bay and then back to the main road again.  We headed through the quarry and down to the beach access where the BC Cemnet Rd ends at the gate where the road to Grilse Pt. starts. As a brief side visit to a local point of interest that some of us had never seen before we were guided through some trees behind an old house foundation to find the massive concrete structure in my photo.  This was a concrete water tower built by BC Cement Co. to serve the houses of it's employees who worked in the limstone quarries along the shoreline as well as at the crushing plant and loading dock close by.   BC Cement was the company that operated the big Bamberton Quarry and cement manufacturing plant near Victoria for many years and the Texada operation was set up to supply extra crushed limestone from Texada.

In the afternoon we walked out to Grilse Pt. and visited with the seals that always seem to hang out in the same place at the end of a short trail that passes the site of the local radio transmitter in the last quarry on the right.  

JD. 

Concrete water tower at BC Cement townsite, Blubber Bay.

Next hike from Van Anda, again!

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

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

Last week we drove from Van Anda towards Blubber Bay and parked on the curve of the road at the top of the last hill before the road reaches the ferry dock. A gravel road there crosses the gas line and soon reaches a locked steel gate. Just past the gate an old trail heads down to the beach at the south end of Linekiln Bay.  We could have followed the trail along the top of the low cliff, but the tide was low enough to walk on the rocks instead. After crossing a small beach the trail continues around the hammer shaped headland of Marshall Point.  This is an especially attractive stretch of coastline with seals on the rocks and interesting wild flowers and rare species of Juniper trees along the shore. We lunched on the beach facing Crescent Bay and returned to Van Anda with plenty of time to visit the Texada Museum where a new mine exhibit had just been opened to the public in the morning.

JD.

A curious rotten tree stump near Russ Creek.