Next Hike

The next hike will be on Saturday, 16th June.

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

Last week we hiked in excellent weather up to the viewpoint to the east of the Pocahontas fire lookout peak.  Actually the small white wood building is long gone and all that is left of it now is some rusty metal and the concrete foundations. But the name has remained and the trail to the top is in good shape.  We were headed a little further to the east this time so we gave the lookout side trail a miss.

The previous week we had hiked along the beach from Sandbanks to Cox Lagoon and my photo shows the wide expanse of sand and rocks that is exposed below the sand cliffs at our lowest low tides.

JD.

 

The beach at the Sandbanks near Gillies Bay on a day with a very low tide.

Next Hike

The next hike will be on Saturday, 9th June.

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

Last Saturday we started our hike from quite close to our meeting place only driving up the Airport Road as far as Cranby Lake.  From there we followed very pleasant grassy logging roads and eventully took the steep trail down to the beach at Sandbanks. The tide was extremely low and it was a good opportunity to wander around checking the tidepools and seeing what the falling tide had left behind. Walking north along the rocky beach as far as Cox Lagoon we found increasing numbers of tent caterpillars and under the alder trees on the trail up to the airport there were even more.  

My photo this week was taken on the hike we did a couple of weeks ago that took us up onto bluffs high above Cook Bay.  Our lunch spot was on a steep slope above the Sabine Channel with good views towards Vancouver Island. We don't often get this far south on Texada on our weekly hikes and it gave us quite a close view of Jedediah Island which became a Provincial Park in 1994 after a small group of Lasqueti Island residents had raised more than four million dollars towards it's purchase by theProvincial Government.

JD,

 

The view south from a bluff above Cook Bay. Jedediah is the closest of the large islands and Vancouver Island is in the far distance.

Next Hike

The next hike will be on Saturday, 2nd June.

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

Last Saturday we had a long drive to reach our starting point near the bottom of the long hill down to the gate at the entrance to the Cook Bay private property.  The road here has recently been upgraded, widened and with new ditches dug along both sides.  For a short distance along one ditch the bank was damp, but had very little vegetation cover and for some reason was very attractive to a species of small blue butterflies.  I don't think I have ever seen so many of them gathered in one place before.  It reminded me of sunny clearings in the rain forest in Africa where puddles of water would sometimes attract masses of butterflies of many species.  I managed to get photos of these hyperactive blues at rest, but when in the air they moved so fast I found it impossible to get shots of the bright blue dorsal surface of the wings.  Later I identified them from the photos as the common Spring Azure, Celastrina argeolus.  This species is also found in Europe and was given it's latin name by Linnaeus way back in 1780 so it's certainly not rare or unusual.

The females lay their eggs on the flowers of shrubs, often Arbutus, ocean spray and elderberry in our area.  When the eggs hatch into caterpillars they are often looked after by ants which are rewarded when the larvae release drops of tasty fluid from their body.  What a curious symbiotic relationship!

JD.

Three Spring Azure blues attracted to a seepage area along a roadside ditch near Cook Bay.

    

Next Hike

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

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

Last Saturday we had a larger than usual group of hikers including a couple from a small seaside town near Edinburgh on the east coast of Scotland.  The weather was perfect for hiking and we headed up past the  Vancouver Island hydro lines to park at the usual spot on the pipeline right of way.  Walking south then through the forest to the other Bobs Lake road we headed for the best high elevation viewpoint ahead on the very top of Mt. Davies.   It was too hazy to see as far as Mt. Baker, but the coast ranges on the mainland and the Vancouver Island mountains were quite visible and the visitors were suitably impressed.  My photo is of the hikers after the lunch break on the summit was over.

JD.

  

A happy group of hikers on the summit of Mt. Davies.

Next Hike

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

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

Last week we drove over to Pocahontas Bay and south on the the old Pocahontas Main logging road parking just before Russ Creek.  From there we hiked south on the spur road that heads down the east side of Texada and reached the very end of the road only a few metres above sea level, but still in the forest.  I had hoped the road would end right at the beach, but it turned out that there was a thick tangle of mainly evergreen huck between the end of the road and the two pocket beaches that we had seen on Google Earth. Perhaps on another day we will bring some tools along and cut a trail to the beach and have lunch sitting on the beach logs in the sun. 

I took today's photo through a gap in the forest about half way up the long steady climb back to the parking place.  

JD.

 

The view of Malaspina Strait with Nelson Island and the snow covered Coast Mountains beyond.

Next Hike

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

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

Last Saturday we had an extra low tide and decided to visit the beach at Davie Bay to see what we might find there.  As it happened there were few tide pools to explore and hardly any sandy patches exposed and we didn't find anything much unusual.  Unlike beaches in other parts of the world, in Europe in particular, our beaches are almost totally free from garbage and man-made pollution of the very worst kind.  I'm thinking in particular about tar and heavy oil that so often ends up washing ashore in areas with heavy marine traffic.  Please consider signing the message on the web site below to make Victoria aware of your views.  I understand it helps if you type in a few words of your own at the top of the message window which comes up if you first enter your contact information.  

http://www.leadnow.ca/tankers-bc-choice

JD.

           

The beach at Davie Bay is clean and oil free now, but the plan to build a loading dock on the right side of the island in the photo will bring tugs close to 

dangerous underwater rocks. 

Next Hike

The next hike will be on Saturday, 5th May.

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

Last week we had dull cloudy weather with a very unpleasantly cold wind for our hike.  We decided to explore an area to the north of Russ Creek where quite a lot of logging has been going on over the last year or more.  Our first attempt to explore a new road lead very quickly to a dead end in the middle of a very large clearcut, so we reversed direction and returned to our vehicles.  It had been far from comfortable walking in a very open area with such a cold wind blowing and we were glad to drive downhill into the forest hoping that our next new logging road would be less windy.  Parking at the start of a recently rebuilt logging road on the left we started on what proved to be a very long uphill climb that took us along winding roads nearly 700 ft  higher.  This certainly warmed us up very nicely and we were lucky to find a lunch spot beside an active beaver dam with no wind at all.  However, the very surprising thing was that the still air was full of tiny gnats that swarmed around us as if it was a hot summer day! The beaver lodge was quite a new one and there were fresh beaver paths going off in different directions from the dam.  Not far away was a lake without a name that we have hiked to a couple of times in the last two years.  

My photo was taken on the new logging road near the top of the ridge not far from the end. 

JD.

Hiking the long new logging road that ended not far from a beaver pond on the far side of the ridge at the top of the picture.