We had a group of 10 for this outing on a hot, sunny and very windy day. Of the ten, five had never been on a hike with the QIOC and the ages spanned more than 50 years. We started at Mine Lake, on the big rock, for a swim and lunch. The water was very warm, but there were white caps on the lake. We drove out to the end of the Surge Narrows road. As we visited the community dock, we were treated to a close encounter with an eagle carrying a fish. We hiked along the Surge Narrows trail to the viewpoint, arriving about a half hour before the max flood current of 10.6 knots, which was very impressive. Some of the group continued on the unmaintained route to the next bay and point, with views up toward Okisollo Channel and lots of wind and waves. There was a ground nesting wasp sting and a hurt foot on the return trip, but the victims took it in stride.

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Hiking – Surge Narrows – 3 July 2015

We left a bit earlier than planned in order to beat the unusual heat. The day was sunny and breezy. The seven of us started out on the Hope Spring trail, turning left at the T-junction on top and then onto open bluffs at the south end of Heriot Ridge. After wandering the bluffs and enjoying the views toward Vancouver Island, we continued east until we joined the Camp Homewood trail to the High Bluff. We stayed awhile and then descended the bluff and took the trail leading east, later veering right to visit the Homewood Bluff, where none of us had ever been. This made a great lunch stop. We once again descended and took the right-hand turn toward Gowlland Trail, which then made a loop back to the Hope Spring Trail. 6.4 km, 3 ½ hours.

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Hiking – South Heriot Ridge – 10 June 2015

The weather forecasts varied wildly, but in the end we had a good day for the hike to Maud Island. The nine of us hiked through the mossy forest and along the old logging road leading to the foot of Mt. Lolo. Even with some cloud, the views were good. We descended the trail down the south bluff, continued through the forest and along the coastal trail to the area north of the causeway where Canoe Pass Tidal Energy Corp. has recently built a dock and rearranged the rocks. The work leading to constructing tidal turbines was not as far advanced as we had expected.

http://www.newenergycorp.ca/Portals/0/documents/case_studies/Canoe%20Pass.pdf

We hiked to the overlook on Maud Island for lunch and were rewarded with sightings of sea lions and a whale (humpback?)  in Seymour Narrows. We returned via the saltwater lagoon. About 4 hours, 10.2 km.

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Hiking Maud Island 29 April 2015

This trip was postponed to the raincheck date, which turned out to be a lovely day. Rolf and Heather welcomed the dozen hikers at their property, and Rolf had lots of information about the history and natural history of the area.   He has the 1890 survey of the property and there are fruit trees from the same period. The group hiked past the Kellerhals’ garden and up through a series of mossy bluffs and intermittent forest to several great 270° viewpoints, extending from the Vancouver Island mountains across the Strait of Georgia (Salish Sea) to the mainland mountains. We had lunch at the Mt. Sweat summit and then descended by the same route until we turned off to the pond/reservoir. Along the way we saw the Sequoia trees in their experimental forest, their garden, beautiful spring deciduous trees, some old growth fir, a hummingbird, sapsucker, tree frog, a newt swimming in the pond, and an unusual worm case. Many thanks to Rolf and Heather for showing us this great area.

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Hiking Mt Sweat 21 April 2015