Eight of us hiked up the Campbell River on a beautiful, crisp fall day.  We started at the logging bridge and followed the trail on the north side along a side channel and on to the Canyon View trail.  Although we saw almost no salmon running, we soon encountered a young bear cub on this busy trail.  We avoided each other and continued to the bridge over the Canyon and on to the Millennium trail.  We had great views of Elk Falls from three different vantage points.  We stopped for lunch on sunny rocks above the falls and then continued along the river, passing some excellent old growth trees.  After Deer Falls we lingered at the pool below Moose Falls watching the eagles.  We took the most inland trail back to the Millennium trail and crossed to the south side of the river at the relatively new stairs and viewpoint at the generating station.  After admiring the new totem poles we continued back to the vehicles along the smaller trail along the river.  Apparently we walked by a mother bear and two cubs very near the Quinsam River.  We didn’t notice, but others turned back after getting between the bears.   This is a beautiful walk any time of the year, but it was particularly lovely on this late autumn day.  12.8 km; 5 hours.

Debbie

Eight hikers enjoyed a lovely fall day (possibly the last lovely fall day…) in the Snowden Demonstration Forest.  Starting from the Lost Lake parking lot (about 20 minutes from the ferry terminal), we walked the Lost Lake loop  – a pleasant and generally easy trail, with a good variety of fungi, lichen and moss.  After a short snack break at the picnic area (south end of the lake), we walked Mudhoney Pass, to complete the outing.  10.1 km; 3¼ hours.

 

 

The Demonstration Forest has an extensive network of biking/hiking trails, with several access points.  We took mainly level trails, but there are many with more ups and downs over rocky bluffs.  The coordinator stumbled onto one of these the next day, a black rated trail that looked, at first blush, like a shortcut….

 

Darcy