We meet at the Ballpark in Gillies Bay at 10:00am.
Last week we drove part way along the High Road and parked near the turnoff to Pocahontas Bay. The weather was not very nice, foggy and light rain at first, but drying out later on. As there seemed to be little chance of a view at any time during the hike I decided to check on an old logging road I had known about for many years, but had never bothered to explore. It starts from the well used route to the old fire lookout on Pocahontas and runs south towards the part of the mountain with the towers. It proved to be quite easy walking, except for some young wet and leafy branches, but still fairly open. We eventually stopped for lunch when, much to everyone's surprise, the fog began to clear, the rain stopped and the sun came out. Our old road was just a few steps from the edge of a steep ridge and we ate lunch in comfort with a fine view towards the airport and the Vancouver Island mountains.
My photo this week was taken on the midweek hike last week when we hiked from near the Bell Farm along older forest logging roads, past a quiet beaver pond, to as viewpoint high above Malaspina Strait. Just before we sat down for lunch I was able to get some good closeup shots of a sleeping Garter Snake on a bed of moss. Snakes don't have eyelids so you have to watch them to see if they move, which they almost certainly will do if awake. This one is probably a Striped Garter Snake, one of our three species, which has extra large eyes and usually three stripes yellow or greenish-yellow in colour. When it did finally wake up, it flicked its tongue a few times and moved slowly away.
JD.
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