Next Hike

The next hike will be on Saturday 24th March.

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

Last week we had more than the usual number of hikers and all were keen to do a hike with at least one good viewpoint so we headed off towards the high ground with no doubt at all that we would have no problem reaching the summit of Mt. Davies.  We did manage to reach our chosen destination for lunch, but it turned out a good deal more complicated than expected!  I was quite surprised to see unexpected snow patches along the roadsides just as we drove past Bell Farm and after the turnoff to the  Hydro Reactor Station sections of road had some snow here and there.  Then as soon as we came to the next fork in the road we found we were driving with snow an inch or so thick all over the road, in the ditches and up to the forest edges.  That was just too much and it took a lot of effort to get two pickups unstuck and up a short hill to a spot were we could park and turn.  I knew the road ahead had some long steeper sections so we changed the plan and started going forward on foot rather than driving to the start of the Mt. Davies Trail.

It was lucky the forest had no snow on the ground at all, and the rest of the hiking was uneventful. At the summit we ate lunch quite quickly as it started to blow, with a mix of rain and snow falling from the sky and getting moving again was the best way to keep warm. On the way down we did the side trail that took us past ice-covered beaver ponds to Bloody Mt. viewpoint.

JD.

PS.  The last Saturday in the month is set as the day this year for the annual Trekkers Beach Potluck at Raven Bay and the meeting place for hikers will be at a different location this year.  More details will follow next week.

 

Walking downhill and back to our vehicles after lunching on the summit of Mt. Davies.