Next Hike

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

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

Last week the hike day was also the first day of the annual Texada Sandcastle weekend and I found myself to be the lone hiker for a change.  I decided to visit the nearest creek to the meeting place and ended up spending an hour or so checking a section of the stream with many pools suitable for small fish.  I found good numbers of trout and salmon and was able to photograph them closeup, although it is important to be careful not to spook them too often.  Cranby Creek enters a swampy area south of the section I was visiting and a major obstacle for the adult fish when they try to swim upstream in the fall are the beaver dams which can stop their progress.  

JD.

Juvenile Coho salmon in Cranby Creek.  These fry are about three months old and still very small, but doing well in clean flowing water. 

Next Hike - we meet at the Community Hall.

The next hike will be on Saturday, 12 July.

We meet at the Community Hall in Gillies Bay at 10:00am.  This weekend it's Sandcastle Days in Gillies Bay so we need to meet away from the crowds.

Last week we started from Van Anda and still had some light rain at first.  We drove to Blubber Bay and hiked out to Grilse Point on the east side of the bay along the shoreline road which used to be the quarry access road for BC Cement Co.  The limestone crushing plant and shipping dock are in a sad state now, but the the old road is a pleasant place to walk.  There is a word of warning though, as there is at least one plant, a small shrub in fact, of the very nasty Western Poison Oak.   You can find it on the lefthand side of the road  in a small wooded area close to the shoreline.  You recognise it by the oak leaf shaped leaflets on the trifoliate leaves.  Be very careful not to touch these leaves which can produce an allergic reaction that can I believe, with some people, last days or weeks.

JD.

Western Poison Oak leaves on a single plant located beside a gravel road on the east side of Blubber Bay.

Next Hike from Van Anda

The next hike will be on Saturday, 5th July.
We meet this time at the Legion parking area in Van Anda at 10:00am

This hike will be somewhat shorter than usual as the new Clarence Wood room is being opened to visitors for the first time at the Van Anda Heritage Society Museum in the afternoon. This will also be a chance for hikers to view the changes to the Van Anda museum now that the original Texada Museum in Blubber Bay has closed. There will be refreshments for visitors.

I remember when I was a boy I visited museums all over the British Isles and it was always an exciting time for me when I could search out any museums in the areas we visited on summer vacations. My interests changed over the years and the history of the Roman colony of Britannia attracted me early on, all those military forts and the imperial roads were fun. Then I got interested in fossils and geology and museums were great places to go to see examples of rocks, minerals and ancient forms of life. We lived close enough to London and I do believe the city in those days had some of the finest museums in the world and I was able to visit some of them over and over again.

Last week we hiked to Mouat Point and sat overlooking the sea for lunch. No marine mammals around this time, but the marine traffic was quite interesting. My photo is of one of the big freight barges heading for Alaska and you can see the great variety of items that show up in a telephoto shot.
JD.

Next Hike

The next hike will be on Saturday, 28th June.
We meet at the Ballpark in Gillies Bay at 10:00am.

We drove towards Bobs Lake and then started our hike from the road junction just south of the Vancouver Island hydro line. Hiking south along the gas line for a while we then branched off along our winding trail that links the gasline to the north end of Bobs Lake and followed the main road as if going to Mt. Flicker. This old logging road that runs just north of Flicker is a long one that does eventually go right down to Hydro East, but part of it is too overgrown to use and we always have lunch at a viewpoint with gaps in the trees that gives us a glympse of Nelson Island, Jervis Inlet and some of the mountains beyond.

At the lunch spot Wayne noticed some dainty wild flowers and asked me what they were. I guessed they were a species of winter-green and took a few photos of them so that I could do a proper ID later. There are several similar species of plants belonging to several different genera that have been given this common name, but this particular one is the more rare Chimaphila menziesii and I was surprised to learn that it is not at all common anywhere in BC. There are a few records of it on southern Vancouver Island and along the US border, but only three official sightings in the Powell River and Texada area. What an exquisite little beauty!
JD.

Next Hike

The next hike will be on Saturday, 21st June.
We meet at the Ballpark in Gillies Bay at 10:00am.

Last week we hiked from a road junction part-way down Cook Bay Road south and east to a large beaver swamp not very far from Angel Lake. The weather was a little cooler than one would expect in early June, but proved to be reasonably comfortable as the morning was spent gaining quite a lot of elevation along the older logging road.

My photo this week is of Dragonfly Lake, a fairly large body of water that feeds Russ Creek on the east side of Texada. This is the creek that is crossed by a very high loggers bridge at the White Pine forestry test area. In the foreground of my picture you can see a few of the large round waterlily leaves and it was not far from the spot where I got a very nice photo of one of the large bright yellow flowers.

I think this lake at the north end might be a pleasant place for a swim as the lake is deep and free from sunken logs there, but I've not given it a try yet. The water was certainly clear and warm the day of the hike.
JD.

Next Hike

The next hike will be on Saturday, 14th June.
We meet at the Ballpark in Gillies Bay at 10:00am.

Last Saturday we had a lovely summer day for our hike. We drove along Bell Rd to the Hydro East tunoff, then left again along the road that goes down to Russ Creek, parking at roadside gravel pit not too far along. The air was warm especially in the open recently planted areas, but the open areas also offered a pleasant cooling breeze and in the sections with forest shade it was comfortable as well. Our destination was Dragonfly Lake and the small low bluff at the north end was just perfect for lunch. The trail along the eastern shore of the lake was mostly in good shape, but the last part was partially blocked by a few windfalls. We did a little cutting on the way in and again going out making it quite nice for next time.

A few bright yellow flowers of waterlily dotted the water near the lunch spot and one made a good subject for my weekly photo.
JD.

Next Hike

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

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

Last Saturday we decided to revisit a beach on the east side of the island that we only discovered one day last year.  The location is not very far to the south of Pocahontas Bay but the hike to it along old logging roads takes about one and a half hours.  It was quite a warm day and it was pleasant to be walking in the shade of the forest for much of the way, less comfortable in the full sun where the road crossed a recent clearcut area.  The view from the beach where we sat on the logs for lunch looks across Malaspina Strait to Stillwater with the very distintive surge tower on the old hydro generating station penstock.  The massive pipe running down from the dam on Lois Lake can be seen where it passes under the main road between Westview and Saltery Bay. 

My photo was taken at our new beach, Tower Beach, and has one of the adult eagle pair guarding the very large nest near the top of a big snag.

JD.

    

Eagle on top of nest tree at Tower Beach.