Next Hike

The next hike will be on Saturday 1st June.

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

Last week I was not able to do the hike, but we had four visitors to the island, two of them from overseas, and I'm pleased to report everyone had a good time.  The destination was Cap Sheaf Lake which is reached from the Ballpark on older logging roads and trails through the forest.  This waterbody is an important conservation area as it holds a small colony of the rare Western Painted Turtle.  The biologists that study this species on Texada point out that it is unusual in being located at a higher elevation than turtle habitat elsewhere on the coast and the fact that they are almost never in contact with human activity means their survival chances are probably better than they might otherwise be.

JD.

Hikers at Cap Sheaf Lake where we have a very small colony of the rare Western Painted Turtle.  [Brian Redman] 

Next Hike

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

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

Last week instead of hiking a group of Trekkers spent the day working hard to clean up the flotsam and jetsam from a long stretch of beach not too far from Gillies Bay.  It was a job well worth doing as there was several pieces of boats, chunks of foam and assorted plastic items.  

My photo this week is a curious perennial wildlflower that has dainty cup shaped flowers with a fringe of white or pinkish petals.  Tellima grandiflora is not uncommon and prefers to grow in places with rich soil and plenty of moisture and we found it in a grassy area with masses of stinging nettle which also likes similar growing conditions.

JD.  

The curious and dainty flowers of fringecup,Tellima grandiflora, at Coxs Lagoon near Texada Airport. 

Next Hike

The next hike will be on Saturday, 18th May.

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

Last week we did some more exploration starting from the Cook Bay Road at just over 400m elevation this time and walking at first along a grassy old logging road and then through quite open forest heading west towards a line of bluffs that we hoped would give us a new viewpoint.  Eventually we did reach a narrow bluff and stopped there for lunch although the view was quite poor.  It was only after some more searching that we located the lovely spot where I took this week's photo.

This coming Saturday 18th May some of the hikers will be helping with the "Texada Beach Clean Up" between 11:00am and 3:00pm.  The meeting place is the beach access behind the RCMP Station and you can contact Ben Reiman at 604 414-9518 or  —   bjsonthebeachtexada@gmail.com    to volunteer.  I will be the guide for the hike as usual.

JD.

Hikers at a new viewpoint on the south slope of Mt. Davies about 500m above Shingle Beach.  Mt. Arrowsmith on the left with a snowy top.

Next Hike.

The next hike will be on Saturday, 11th May.

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

Last week my idea was to try to hike some part of a very old trail that I had last hiked along many years ago. At that time this very old logging road which was probably built at least forty years ago was getting so overgrown and blocked by fallen trees that I gave up trying to hike it. Another problem at the upper end was the fact that some active beavers had raised the water level of their pond and flooded a short section of the old road.  We had lovely hiking weather again and a very pleasant surprise when we started the hike from the Cook Bay Road end as over the years the route had turned into a wide mossy trail that was easy walking the whole way and even the beaver pond water level had dropped so we crossed that section with dry feet.  In a few places in the forest we came upon clusters of small bright yellow flowers and it seemed appropriate to give the trail the name "Yellow Viola Trail".  After lunch we explored a side trail and visited a small lake that I had never ever seen before and near to the lake there is a bluff with a fantastic view to the west towards Vancouver Island. 

JD.  

Trailing Yellow Violet, Viola sempervirens on the forest trail from Cook Bay road up to Gentian Lake.

Next Hike

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

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

Just look at that fantastic blue sky in this week's picture!  We had near perfect hiking weather last week and drove up to the Mount Grant trailhead to take in the views from the various viewpoints along the circular trail route.  For lunch we picked a sunny spot of the south side of the top of the mountain and were glad we were not bothered by the gusty north wind which might otherwise have been a bit uncomfortable.  This is one of the most popular of our trail routes and no one wants to miss the very short side trail that takes us to a rocky outcrop that for obvious reasons has been named after a much larger mountain in Switzerland. The group photo below is one of those neat timer delay shots that makes it possible to include every one of the nine bipeds as well as the three quadrupeds in the picture.   

JD.

  

A Texada Trekkers group photo on the very top of the tiny rocky miniature Matterhorn Peak on the Mount Grant trail.