Next Hike

The next hike will be on Friday, 22nd December.

Meet at the Gillies Bay Backpack at 10:00am.

Last week the hikers drove part way down the Pocahontas Bay road and parked at the start of the trail to Pocahontas. They had lunch at the high point that has a large flat reflector for the BC Hydro microwave communications systems.  Hydro have a province wide radio network that controls the operation of it's many power stations, dams and switching stations etc. The view to the west from the site of the Fire Lookout hut was relatively clear, but the sweeping views of the Coast Mountains and Malaspina Strait was hidden by thick fog.

  

JD,

A hike to two Pocahontas Peaks, the foggy Communications Reflector viewpoint and the old Fire Lookout site. JM photos.

Next Hike

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

Meet at the Ball Park in Gillies Bay at 10:00am

My photo this week was taken earlier this year when we hiked along part of Russ Creek and down to the beach at North-east Bay.  We were walking through an area of very recent and extensive clear cut logging. The giant old growth living Douglas Fir in the picture had been marked "leave" and was standing with a handful of very young trees in the middle of this very large clearcut.  The young trees are an inadequate protection from gales that will sweep across the area in the years to come.  

JD.

The substantial base of a very old Douglas Fir, an old growth giant near Russ Creek. 

Next Hike

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

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

My photo this week is one I took back in mid-July this year. That summer turned out to be one of the driest on record with many weeks with little or no precipitation, but there were parts of the island, in particular the high ground at the south end where there were local showers that added moisture to the dry soil when the lower elevation areas received little or none.  As you can see in my photo there was plenty of water in this beaver pond on the southern slopes of Mt Davies when I was there.

JD.

A lovely beaver pond high up on the southern slopes of Mt. Davies. 

Next hike will again be from Van Anda.

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

We meet at the Canadian Legion in Van Anda at 10:00am.

I understand that the hike last week was rather longer than usual and that everyone had a very good time.

My photo this week is one I took quite few years ago in June 2010 when we hiked down to the beach at Northeast Bay.  This waterfall is in the forest   very close to the beach and the large pool at the base of the falls makes a good swimming place if cool freshwater is what you seek. By the way the forest adjacent to the shoreline in this area is part of a U.R.E.P or an area reserved for the Use, Recreation, and Enjoyment of the Public.  There are just a small number if these reserves on Texada Island, and it's really import that we the public do all we can to ensure their existence is known about and protected.

JD.

 

The lovely clear pool and the waterfall where Russ Creek reaches the sea at North-east Bay.

Next hike starts from Van Anda this week.

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

We meet at the Canadian Legion in Van Anda at 10:00am.

I'm in the process of getting my eyes upgraded with bionic lenses and I'm not allowed to hike among other things until my eyes have fully recovered from the surgery.  I'm very pleased with the result so far as one eye now lets me see the world around me again in the vivid colours that had been missing for quite a few years. 

My photo this week is one I took earlier in the year on a botanical excursion to the Mt. Davies area.  It took me a while to figure out what kind of insect it was, but from its behaviour and appearance I thought it must be some kind of wasp.  It's related to those harmless wasps that often build mud nests on buildings and collect spiders to store for their young to feed on.  This kind, the Thread-waisted Wasp, searches for caterpillars which it injects with a special poison that turns it's prey into a kind of zombie.  Instead of mud nests it uses short burrows in the ground where it lays a single egg on the living food reserve before carefully blocking up the entrance to the hole. 

JD.  

Thread-waisted wasp, Mount Davies, July 2017. A solitary wasp that is eating a mosquito in my photo, but it feeds it's young on caterpillars.

Next Hike

The next hike will be on Aturday, 18th November.

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

Last week we had quite nice hiking weather and drove south past Shingle Beach and parked at the gate at the entrance to the Cook Bay private property.  It was quite a long hike, mostly uphill along the Cook Bay Cutoff road and then on a side road that took us south to the viewpoint at the end of the short trail we have nicknamed "Machete Mike's Trail" This offers and wonderful view over the island of Lasqueti right below us and beyond the Salish Sea to the distant Vancouver Island mountains.

JD.

A red bracket fungus on a standing tree trunk near Gillies Bay..

Next hike

The next hike will be on 11th November.

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

Last week we found ourselves feeling a bit nervous about the significant increase in the number of hunters spread around the island.  It's hard to escape far enough away from them to be out of earshot of their weapons, but there are some areas a bit off the beaten track that can be suitable.  We drove towards Davie Bay passing some fresh snowy patches and parked on the roadside.  We did pass a hunters camp on a side road, but there was a TV satellite dish set up nearby and we figured the hunters were inside and unlikely to bother us for a while.  The trail was a bit difficult to follow for a while, but we figured it out and made good progress beyond that section and on to our cliff top destination.  There was a cool wind blowing from the south-east, from the land rather than from off the water, and we were lucky to have the rocky bluffs to shelter us from the cold. 

 

Before we had finished eating someone spotted whale spouts a little way up the coast and we hoped they would be moving along past us going south.  They were humpbacks and in the bay where Eagle Creek reaches the sea and must have had plenty to eat as they were still in roughly the same area when we left to head home again.

JD.

 

Lunch on a steep oceanside bluff near Eagle Creek.