Next Hike

The next hike will be on Saturday, 14th April.

We meet at the Ba;;park in Gillies Bay at 10:00am.

Last week when we met in the morning we all expected to be hiking in an unpleasant combination of wind and rain. That did not happen and we ended up having a nice enough forest hike that was a bit longer and steeper than usual and partly on a new route that we had cleared and flagged late last year. 

My photo this time is one I took last summer when we were hiking on bluffs not very far from Cook Bay.  It was on a hike in the same area the previous year that someone spotted this dainty little yellow daisy family gem.  I could not remember ever seeing it before this and sure enough although I searched both reference books and online sites I could not identify it.  Last year   on the day I took this photo we saw many specimens in flower in several different spots on the same bluffs and I later sent photos to a botanist who is an expert on this group of flowering plants, and he came up with the correct name.  It's actually a native of some eastern states including Virginia and has only been spotted in three locations on the west coast, near Campbell River, on Cortes Island and at Point Roberts near Vancouver. It's possible we have more of them on Texada than at any other location in Canada!

JD.

Dwarf Dandelion, Krigia virginica on bluffs west of Cook Bay.  This tiny plant is quite rare in BC although it can be found in several of the eastern states.