Next Hike

The next hike will be on Saturday, 20th July.

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

Last week with just a small group of hikers we drove up to the High Road with perfect warm sunny hiking weather and headed for the bluff at the top of the George Lechner Memorial Trail.  The first part of the route is along a section of old logging road covered with long coarse grasses dotted with the ubiquitous Ox-eye Daisy.  In one small area a few individuals of a group of common North American butterflies called Crescents, and in this case the Mylitta Crescent or Phyciodes mylitta, were busy feeding on the vivid white flowers.

This Saturday the hike will end in good time for hikers to visit a couple of lovely private gardens in Gillies Bay that will be open to visitors from 2:00pm to 4:00pm. 

JD.

     

With the Ox-eye Daisy flowers in full bloom near the High Road the Mylitta Crescent butterflies had many to visit.

Next hike.

The next hike will be on Saturday, 13th July.

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

Last week turned out to be another damp day something that has been happening a little more often than is usual in the month of July. I was not able to do the hike which I understand this time did not reward the participants with wonderful views of the sea and distant mountains. However, I'm told everyone did enjoy the forest walk and I must say I always find the peaceful beaver pond a nice spot to visit along the way even on a misty day.

JD.

 

Mt. Davies Hike with the hikers on the trail through the forest well dressed for the showery day. [Terry Hollo photo]

Next Hike

The next hike will be on Saturday, 6th July.

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

Last week we drove along the High Road turning off onto the Pocahontas Bay road and parked at the old Fire Lookout trailhead. Our destination was the Pocahontas East viewpoint where a BC Hydro microwave reflector looks like a big screen for an outdoor movie theatre. The long distance visibility was not all that great, but more than once we have hiked to this viewpoint for lunch and found ourselves in fog most of the time!

My photo this week is of a frog resting in a shallow puddle on the trail. This individual  is a good example of the "brown morph" of the common Pacific Tree Frog which also has very bright green versions.  For a long time I have wondered about these distinctly different colourations and now I see from a Wikipedia web site that there is an interesting explanation.  

These frogs have the ability to change color from brown to green. Previously, adults were thought to occur in two different fixed colors. Now, some of them have been found to be able to change between the two. They can also change from lighter to darker, shift from patterned markings to pure colors and vice versa, and even display combinations of colors, brown/green being the most frequent.

It goes on to explain that the changes sometimes happen within a few hours, but more often it's a much slower process taking weeks even months. A chameleon frog? 

JD.

A brown Pacific Tree Frog resting in a shallow puddle on the trail to Pocahontas East viewpoint.

Next Hike

The next hike will be on Saturday, 29th June.

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

Last week we drove up to Bell Rd. and south just as far as First Lake.  Walking along the old logging roads that head east it was nice to see so many flowering plants putting on a great show of colour even after such a long spell of hot and very dry weather.  This route eventually intersects with Hydro East Rd. and heading south and after a while back into the forest again we reached the secluded Horseshoe Lake.  This is beaver habitat and an active beaver lodge could be seen out in the lake in front of us as we sat close to the shoreline.  A pair of swallows were busy feeding their young inside a dead tree very close to us.

The foxglove that is found all over the island is in full bloom just now and there was one particular spike of flowers caught my eye.  Most plants of this non-native species have purple flowers, but there is just a small percentage that have white flowers with curious dark markings on the inside of each flower tube.  The pattern of dots and spots seems to be different in every single one!

JD.

 

Next Hike

The next hike will be on Saturday 22nd June.

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

Last week we again headed south to the high plateau area where Angel Lake is the largest of several lakes and ponds.  For a few recent hikes we have been taking the time to establish some new hiking trails that give us access to places of interest including a high viewpoint on a grassy bluff and a couple of secluded lakes.  This time our plan was to clear a new trail to reach the south shore of a third and larger waterbody called South Gentian Lake.  We were able to do that quite quickly as the forest proved to be surprisingly free from underbrush.  We then continued north along the steep slope of the west shoreline and stopping for lunch on a spot quite high above the water until we reached an old logging road that crossed a narrow part of the lake on a low causeway. To return to the vehicles we used an old logging road and then the section of Anderson Bay Rd that runs through the forest down the east side. 

JD. 

The southern end of Gentian Lake, which lies about a kilometre to the west of Angel Lake.

Next Hike

The next hike will be on Saturday, 15th June.

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

Last week we decided to do some more bushwhacking and headed off towards the high ground not far from Angel Lake. We parked at the south end of the lake on the Anderson Bay Rd.  and headed west towards a lake we call "Never Been There Before"  where we wanted to have lunch.  The view from the bluff which rises steeply from the west side of the lake is one of the best on this part of the island.  The new trail we were creating skirts around the edge of another small lake that was visited by some of the trekkers for the first time just a couple of weeks earlier and for me this was a first time visit.  There is something about these remote forest waterbodies that I find so attractive and yet I don't really know what it might be.  This most recent lake is the subject of my photograph this week.

JD.

Other Lake - an exquisite and secluded forest beauty that was only just recently visited for the first time.

Next Hike

The next hike will be on Saturday, 8th June.

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

Once again and with just a smaller group of eager hikers this time we decided to do some more bushwhacking and exploration.  I had to look up the definition of that curious word in my last sentence, to be sure it meant exactly what I thought it meant and found it fits precisely what we needed to do, to reach another new bluff. 

   

( There are many definitions of "bushwhacking" available on the internet, but an extra good one is here:—  https://www.uncruise.com/cruise-blog/what-bushwhacking )

So we drove south past Davie Bay then turned off and up the road that goes past Stromberg Falls to a junction at an elevation of close to 1,000ft above sea level. The old logging road that starts there is still easy walking, but soon after passing a large wetland on our left we needed to leave it and bushwhack in the direction of a pair of open bluffs that none of us had ever visited before.  We made pretty good progress with those modern smartphone apps combined with GPS and online maps being so very helpful. I think the group photo shows just how much fun it can be to bushwhack to someplace new with a view!

JD.

A hikers group photo under a shady tree on  "Booby Bluff", a viewpoint high above Hydro West and not far below Thompson Road.