Category Archives: easy

Trip Report – Morte Lake Mtn Bike Trails – 20 July 2016

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The weather forecast for Wednesday wasn’t great, but when we woke up in the morning it was raining pretty hard. Since the scheduled hike to Noel’s Pizza Peak is a hike to a viewpoint, we decided to postpone that for a day and hike some of the Morte Lake area mountain bike trails instead.  The rain stopped and five of us had a great walk on these wonderful trails.  Lower Deadfish, Upper Deadfish, Lost Rider, Stinky Beaver, Straight as a Dime, Back Door, Plaything, Yellow Mud, and Jack Rabbit.  11.0 km, 4 hours.

Norris

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Trip Report – Newton Lake – 13 July 2016

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Six enjoyed the peaceful walk to Newton Lake.  Half of us had a swim in the clear, turquoise water.  And we were all grateful (locals and visitors) to spend the day in such a pristine place.  We had the lake all to ourselves.

Julie

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Hike – Newton Lake – 13 July 2016

Hike – Newton Lake – 13 July 2016

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Activity Hiking
Destination Newton Lake
Date 13 July 2016, Wednesday
Trip Coordinator Julie Mellanby
Contact Info 285-3978; please contact the coordinator in advance of the trip
Description Lovely hike through the woods to a clear, sometimes cold, lake at the north end of the island.  Hopefully swimming will be involved.
Meeting Place Heriot Bay Store for car pooling
Departure Time 9:30
Difficulty easy to moderate
Costs none
Trip limits none
Dogs?
Notes: Bring lunch and possibly a bathing suit.

Trip Report – Open Bay Main Logging Roads – 22 June 2016

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Despite the downpour the night before, 5 hikers accompanied by one friend of the canine persuasion braved the wet woods for a day of pleasant rambles. The original plans to explore down from Beaver Lake were altered to avoid much bushwhacking in the wet woods. The first ramble began from a logging road at the bottom of Gravel Pit Hill beside the full creek flowing south towards Open Bay. The area appears to be a second growth riparian zone, the rich forest included thick outcrops of Devil’s Club in bloom, all varieties of ferns and two frogs (Pacific Tree Frogs?) on the trail. The trail veered away from the creek up to one of the many logging roads in the area. We crossed the road and followed the flagged route up through a more recently logged second growth to a higher logging road which we followed back out to the junction where our cars were parked.

We opted to drive to the trailhead to Stramberg Lake, taking Open Bay Main just after a fully-loaded logging truck pulled out, heading towards Granite Bay. We parked at the orange gate and followed the logging road east for about 10 minutes, branching off onto an old logging road trail which we followed for about 15 minutes. We found the northerly trail down to Stramberg Lake, but it was quite overgrown with some deadfalls. The final few hundred meters required some bushwhacking (sorry, Emily and Jess) to reach the lakeshore. After a short break on the sandy beach enjoying the tranquil view, we retraced our path back to our cars. We had walked for almost 4 hours, enjoying the lush, damp woods so full of life after the early summer rains. 7.6 km

Valerie

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Hike – Open Bay Logging Roads – 22 June 2016

Hiking – Surge Narrows – 1 June 2016

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Activity Hiking
Destination Surge Narrows
Date 1 June 2016, Wednesday
Trip Coordinator Julie Mellanby
Contact Info 285-3978.  Please contact the trip coordinator prior to the trip.
Description We will hike the trail to the Surge Narrows viewpoint.  There will be nearly a 9 knot flood current at 11:00.  We will continue on the unmaintained route for additional views of the rapids.
Meeting Place Heriot Bay store parking lot, to arrange carpools
Departure Time 09:00
Difficulty
 easy
Costs none
Trip limits none
Dogs? yes
Notes:

Trip Report – Snowden Demonstration Forest – 27 Apr 2016

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Five members explored the trails in the Snowden Demonstration Forest. Because the road over the dam is closed due to of construction, the access is via Duncan Bay Road (access map available at Outdoor Addictions), but the roads are good. We parked at the Lost Lake parking area and hiked around Lost Lake. We stopped for a snack on the eastern viewpoint and had lunch at the western viewpoint. The forest has quite an open understory, and there were trillium and other early wildflowers. The trails and routes we used were named Mudhoney Pass, Sanitarium, Scotty’s, T’aint, Riley Lake, and Tri Mac. The trail map is available at the Outdoor Addictions store or online at https://gocampbellriver.com/files/MapsForDownload/Snowden_Forest_Trail_Map.pdf

The trails range from flat grades that used to be logging railroad lines to walks along moss covered rocky ridges. We didn’t see anyone else while we walked. It was a very enjoyable walk, and it barely scratched the surface of what is available there. 7.6 km, 3.5 hours.

Norris

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Hiking – Snowden Demonstration Forest – 27 Apr 2016

Kayaking – Gowlland Harbour – 2 May 2016

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Activity Kayaking
Destination Gowlland Harbour and small islands within
Date 2 May 2016, Monday
Trip Coordinator Les Hand
Contact Info 250-202-4455 or leshand@gicable.com.  Please contact the coordinator by April 29
Description We will circumnavigate Gowland Harbour exploring some of the small islands as we go. We will stop on May Island for lunch. There should be a beautiful display of flowers this time of year.
Meeting Place Gowlland Harbour Resort parking lot, 823 Gowlland Harbour Rd.
Departure Time 10:00 A.M. (unload and prepare at 9:30)
Difficulty
 easy to moderate
Costs none
Trip limits limited by parking to 10 vehicles
Dogs? no
Notes: Bring your kayak and all necessary safety equipment.   If you have not completed your 2016-17 membership, please come prepared to sign papers and pay the membership fee. Only 2 vehicles can unload at beach at one time so please be on time. We will paddle South Gowlland and North Gowlland, about 4 hours weather permitting. Bring a lunch. If pouring rain or high wind, e-mail will be sent out by 8 am postponing trip. Gowlland Harbour Resort has kindly granted us permission to use their boat launch for this trip. This is not a public access.

Hiking – Snowden Demonstration Forest – 27 April 2016

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 Change of departure time!

Activity Hiking
Destination Snowden Demonstration Forest, Campbell River
Date 27 April 2016, Wednesday
Trip Coordinator Norris Weimer
Contact Info 250-285-3710, norris.weimer@ualberta.ca
Please contact the coordinator in advance of the trip
Description There is an extensive network of biking/hiking trails north of John Hart Lake.
We will explore the Lost Lake area.
Meeting Place Q Cove Ferry terminal
Departure Time The ferry leaves at 9:00 10:00 am
Difficulty
 unknown
Costs none except ferry costs
Trip limits none
Dogs? yes
Notes: Bring lunch.  We will arrange car pools in advance.  Due to construction, the drive to the Lost Lake Parking is a bit round-about.

 

Trip Report – Cape Mudge Loop – 6 Apr 2016

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When Wednesday dawned grey and drizzly we decided to postpone the trip to Mt. Washington and go for a walk instead. We set out on a loop on the Cape Mudge Reserve of logging roads, streets and trails. We started on an old road off of the road to the Lighthouse, hopped across the wetlands and continued into the village. We followed the trail along the shore, which has been much eroded from the recent storm surge, continued past the campground, Lighthouse, Tsa Kwa Luten and into the forest trail which returned to the road. There were lots of flowers to admire along the way. 9km; 2½ hours.

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Trip Report – Silk Stocking and Little Black Dress – 16 Mar 2016

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Four hikers and one dog set off on the first sunny day we have had after weeks of heavy rain and gloomy skies. The trail was less sloppy than we had feared, which was welcome surprise. The sun filtered through the trees and the moss was a glowing neon green – almost too bright to look at! We made a loop down “Dick’s Ride” to check out the beaver pond with a collection of Mallard and Greater Scaup bobbing about on the calm water. Then we climbed back up the hill to get out on the mossy bluffs and into the glorious sunshine. Our lunch spot was a rocky outcrop with a view back toward Gowlland Harbour. As we ate, a group of wolves started to howl on the ridge to the south-west of us, and they continued their chorus for about twenty minutes as we started our descent – lovely!!

This section of Silk Stocking skirts the old copper mining area, now inactive for 60 to 70 years. There are bits of machinery still around and in some spots the rock has the classic bright green colour of copper ore. It is impressive how much the land has recovered from the scarring of mining activity – moss and young growth now covers the seams where ore had been taken out. It is a gorgeous section of the trail and hopefully will not be devastated by mining activity again.

Our last treat was a view of two Hooded Mergansers on the body of water at the base of the ridge. Then a twisty section of trail along Little Black Dress returned us to our starting point with almost dry feet.

Bird list for the day:
Harlequin Duck
Greater Scaup
Mallard
Hooded Merganser
Sooty Grouse
Bald Eagle
Pileated Woodpecker
Common Raven
Northwestern Crow
Golden-crowned Kinglet
Chestnut-sided Chickadee
Pacific Wren
American Robin
Spotted Towhee
Dark-eye Junco
Song Sparrow

Kathryn

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Hiking – Bike Trails – 17 Feb 2016