Next hike will again be from Van Anda.

The next hike will be on Saturday, 2nd December.

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

I understand that the hike last week was rather longer than usual and that everyone had a very good time.

My photo this week is one I took quite few years ago in June 2010 when we hiked down to the beach at Northeast Bay.  This waterfall is in the forest   very close to the beach and the large pool at the base of the falls makes a good swimming place if cool freshwater is what you seek. By the way the forest adjacent to the shoreline in this area is part of a U.R.E.P or an area reserved for the Use, Recreation, and Enjoyment of the Public.  There are just a small number if these reserves on Texada Island, and it's really import that we the public do all we can to ensure their existence is known about and protected.

JD.

 

The lovely clear pool and the waterfall where Russ Creek reaches the sea at North-east Bay.

Next hike starts from Van Anda this week.

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

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

I'm in the process of getting my eyes upgraded with bionic lenses and I'm not allowed to hike among other things until my eyes have fully recovered from the surgery.  I'm very pleased with the result so far as one eye now lets me see the world around me again in the vivid colours that had been missing for quite a few years. 

My photo this week is one I took earlier in the year on a botanical excursion to the Mt. Davies area.  It took me a while to figure out what kind of insect it was, but from its behaviour and appearance I thought it must be some kind of wasp.  It's related to those harmless wasps that often build mud nests on buildings and collect spiders to store for their young to feed on.  This kind, the Thread-waisted Wasp, searches for caterpillars which it injects with a special poison that turns it's prey into a kind of zombie.  Instead of mud nests it uses short burrows in the ground where it lays a single egg on the living food reserve before carefully blocking up the entrance to the hole. 

JD.  

Thread-waisted wasp, Mount Davies, July 2017. A solitary wasp that is eating a mosquito in my photo, but it feeds it's young on caterpillars.

Next Hike

The next hike will be on Aturday, 18th November.

We meet at the Ball Park in Gillies Bay at 10:00am

Last week we had quite nice hiking weather and drove south past Shingle Beach and parked at the gate at the entrance to the Cook Bay private property.  It was quite a long hike, mostly uphill along the Cook Bay Cutoff road and then on a side road that took us south to the viewpoint at the end of the short trail we have nicknamed "Machete Mike's Trail" This offers and wonderful view over the island of Lasqueti right below us and beyond the Salish Sea to the distant Vancouver Island mountains.

JD.

A red bracket fungus on a standing tree trunk near Gillies Bay..

Next hike

The next hike will be on 11th November.

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

Last week we found ourselves feeling a bit nervous about the significant increase in the number of hunters spread around the island.  It's hard to escape far enough away from them to be out of earshot of their weapons, but there are some areas a bit off the beaten track that can be suitable.  We drove towards Davie Bay passing some fresh snowy patches and parked on the roadside.  We did pass a hunters camp on a side road, but there was a TV satellite dish set up nearby and we figured the hunters were inside and unlikely to bother us for a while.  The trail was a bit difficult to follow for a while, but we figured it out and made good progress beyond that section and on to our cliff top destination.  There was a cool wind blowing from the south-east, from the land rather than from off the water, and we were lucky to have the rocky bluffs to shelter us from the cold. 

 

Before we had finished eating someone spotted whale spouts a little way up the coast and we hoped they would be moving along past us going south.  They were humpbacks and in the bay where Eagle Creek reaches the sea and must have had plenty to eat as they were still in roughly the same area when we left to head home again.

JD.

 

Lunch on a steep oceanside bluff near Eagle Creek.

The next hike.

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

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

Last week the day started with some sea fog in the bay, but this had begun to burn off by the time we gathered at the Ballpark.  We decided to do a circular hike around Bobs Lake with part of the route being on a new trail that takes a route through the forested southern slope of the peak just south of Mt. Flicker. Part of the new trail was steep and needed more clearing and flagging so half the trekkers decided to take a lunch break while the others continued to higher up.  The astonishing thing about the whole day was the intense sunshine and the high temperature — it must have been around 20 degrees C.  It felt much more like a day in August than in the last week of October.  After lunch we continued on the circular hike route and took another break to enjoy the view from the very top of Flicker Mountain.   

My photo shows the view we had as we ate lunch part way up the steep forested mountain side.  To the south of Texada the low North and South Thormanby Islands with Welcome Passage just visible on the extreme left side.  Beyond them lies Vancouver, but it was a bit too misty to see anything at that distance. 

JD.

The view south from a new viewpoint on a new trail near Bobs Lake.  Vancouver is hidden somewhere in the far distance.