Next Hike

The next hike will be on Saturday, 26th May.

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

Last week we gathered in Van Anda and drove a short distance part way along the narrow gravel road to Kirk Lake and then some way along a side road to a grassy parking spot just before a gate into private property.  The hike was along winding new trails that swing up and around the Kirk Lake Bluffs.  This was for me the first visit to the almost vertical rock faces that form the south side of the bluffs and I think the high point of the hike was seeing the natural rock formation that looks for all the world like an even larger replica of the ancient rock statues of Easter Island in the Pacific. 

JD.

 

A curious natural rock formation at Kirk Lake Bluffs. 

Next hike from Van Anda.

The next hike will be on Saturday, 19th May.

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

Last week we had an extra long hike and a fairly long drive to get there.  Russ Creek flows down to the sea on the east side of the island very close to North-east Point and our hike took us from a logging road at an elevation of about 600 ft down to the beach and back.  There are trails now on both sides of the creek and in many places there are good spots to view the many waterfalls and rapids.  Where the ground levels out the creek is wider and long pools have formed and are shaded by the thick canopy of the many old growth trees. 

The plan for this Saturday is to hike a new trail route that will take us to the cliffs and bluffs on the north side of Kirk Lake.

JD.

Some are quite small, others higher and more impressive, but all the waterfalls on Russ Creek are very lovely. 

Next Hike

The next hike will be on Saturday, 12th May.

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

Last week we had a long drive to the parking place which was at Five-way Junction south of Angel Lake.  The hike is not very long, but it is quite steep in places and there is the two shorter trails at the top of the steep section.  We usually go to the north viewpoint first and then return to the fork before doing the last short but steep trail up to the best viewpoint at the top of the south peak.  This time I remembered seeing on online maps that there was a pond or small lake not far from the northern trail so we decided to explore and quickly found it.  There were some interesting relics from an abandoned grow-op that had made use of the large water supply including an oven and a portable flush toilet believe it or not!  An interesting botanical discovery was some mature and young Douglas Maple trees, all doing quite well.  This is quite a rare species of tree on Texada although there are quite a few growing in many parts of Vancouver Island.  

JD.

A very lovely lake very close to the top of Twin Peaks mountain.  This was our first visit to the lake even though we built the trails many years ago.

Next Hike

The next hike will be on Saturday, 3rd May.

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

Last week the hike turned out to be a bit unusual as most of the regular hikers were busy doing other things and were not able to come along.  Also a bit unusual was the fact that it started to rain shortly after we finished eating and it never eased up until long after the hike was over!  However we did have some interesting things to see including a very large number of swallows madly feasting on swarms of tiny black insects above the water at one end of a beaver pond.  This is at Blown-up Trailer Lake a kilometre or so south of Black Mountain.  

My photo this week was taken when we had our first lunch at a new viewpoint near the south end of Mystery Lake.  We had hiked in from First Lake where we parked on the main Bell Road and used the section of old trail that we had re-opened on a trail cutting day last year.  

JD. 

Our happy hiking group on a new viewpoint bluff near Mystery Lake.  The view from here is towards the north and east rather than towards the sea.