Because the weather forecast was poor, we saved the planned view trip for another day when we would have a view, and chose another destination below cloud level.  We also postponed it a day to avoid the worst weather.  As luck would have it, we had a beautiful sunny day for a hike down to Deepwater Bay and back.

The first part of the hike was an unexpected detour through the forest around work to renew the old road for future logging operations.  Trees alongside of the roadway had been neatly felled onto the logging road and not yet cleaned up.  Beyond that, the walking was good except for a bit of erosion and a landslide on the north bank of the creek, which swept trees across to the south bank and the trail.  The whitewater stream was impressive with recent rains and there were several waterfalls.  We had lunch at the Bay in warm sunshine and returned uphill to the vehicle. 4.4 km; 2½ hours.  

As the hike was fairly short, we made a side trip to some of the nearby karst sinkholes.  There was a report that the creek had re-routed.  However, there was some water in the insurgent and resurgent creek, though not as much might be expected with recent rain.

– Norris

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The weather forecast was not good. Bad actually: heavy rain and high winds.  But seven hikers ventured out anyway.  First we walked a trail along Open Bay Creek, a nice salmon stream, and walked back on a logging road.  There had been quite a lot of logging east of the road since our last trip here. 3.2 km; 1 hour.

There was snow on the trail and it was slippery, so for the second act we hiked to Stramberg Lake instead of the planned Crikey Creek mountain bike trails. The mountain bike trails were steep and the route to Stramberg was flat, but the snow was a bit deep in places.  We stopped for lunch out of the wind and then took the old logging road into Main Lakes Park.  We followed the side trail down to Stramberg Lake for the wintery view and then returned. 4.5 km; 1½ hours.

There were some wet feet from the snow. On the plus side, we were quite sheltered in these forests from the wind, and it didn’t start raining hard until we got back.  There were lots of huge wolf prints in the snow.

– Norris

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Thanks to Norris and Les for the photos

Hiking – Hikes from Open Bay Main- 28 Feb 2018

The seven of us went on this short, easy hike on one of the better official trails.  We started out on the trail through forest and meadow, and descended the steep switchbacks to the water.  After admiring the rather wintry view, we followed the short trail to the north along the shore, past some fine old growth trees, then returned back up the hill.  We turned north again and followed the logging road.  We took the short side trip to the Todd Scharf memorial trail and then followed the logging road west, back to the cars, beating the start of the rain. This is a short, classic hike with lots of variety in the forest and views.  4.5 km; 1⅔ hours.

Debbie

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Hiking – Haskin’s Farm Loop – 31 Jan 2018

Because of a big winter storm, we substituted this short hike for the previously planned trip to Mt. Washington. Five stalwart and cheerful hikers, undeterred by the weather, came out in a gale. We started at the pull off just past Mud Lake on the Walcan Road. After crossing the creek, we hiked up the South Bluff trail over the bluff to Morte Lake. The trail is quite steep, the bluff is open and covered with moss and lichen. We followed the old logging road down to Morte Lake. No one wanted to turn back so soon, so we continued on to the viewpoint, which was relatively sheltered from the southeast wind. We took the Tripod Connector trail back to the trail along Mud Lake. Again, no one was ready to head for the car, so we took the trail west to the Mud Lake trailhead at the Walcan Road. Finally we turned back to the car. The trail was quite wet in places and no one went home dry.  6.1 km; 2 hours.

Debbie

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Hiking – Mud Lake to Morte Lake Loop – 17 Jan 2018

Ten of us took advantage of the brief break in the rainy weather to explore another part of the island.  We started from near Mine Lake. After a short steep section, the old logging road is pretty flat and open, going through a section of the woodlot in which the re-planted trees are growing nicely.  The forest is quite diverse and some of it is mature with open understory.  We took a short side trip to a trailhead on the Bold Point Road, then had lunch in a nice clearing.  After lunch we bushwhacked a bit and climbed a little bluff with good views all around and continued south to rejoin the Surge Narrows Road, which we walked back to the starting point.   8.3 km; 3½ hours.

– Norris

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Hiking – Surge Narrows logging roads – 10 Jan 2018