Next Hike

The next hike will be on Saturday, 7th July.

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

Last week we started off with a fairly slow drive along the bumpy roads that go down to Pocahontas Bay and beyond to the south towards Russ Creek. The hike was one that climbs almost continuously along some new and old logging roads to a rocky peak with an elevation of just under 1,500ft [450m] above sea level.  The actual elevation gain for the hikers was about 900ft, but the weather was dry and not too warm.

My flower photo this week is one I took last month of a tiny plant that is quite uncommon in our forest and often found with a much more common and larger plant called Prince's Pine.  Many people are familiar with the more common one which always has many more flowers on each plant instead of the one, two or three of the Little Prince's Pine. I think the flowers in my photo are quite curious because, to me at any rate, they look as if made of wax and hand painted!  So odd and attractive. 

JD.

Little Prince's Pine, Chimaphila menziesii, Hydro Line Lake Rd. This is a smaller relative of the much more common Prince's Pine.