Eight of us hiked this loop starting from North Gowlland Road.  Part of the reason for choosing this hike was the recent trail work on the west end of the North Gowlland trail.  The work has been extensive by widening the trail, draining wet areas and putting in culverts.  Thanks, as always, to our wonderful Trail Committee volunteers.

We hiked North Gowlland Trail up to Rousseau Ridge with a short break to enjoy the view though there were some very low, wet clouds around.  We back-tracked to the North Gowlland trail and continued more-or-less easterly until we joined the Thompson and then the B&B Trail.  Unfortunately there were multiple issues once we followed the B&B trail.  First, we had some quite hard, cold and wetting hail, and the B&B trail has been abandoned, so the deadfall and  salal had overwhelmed the trail.  This section was quite brief however, and once we reached the logging roads, walking was very easy.  We hiked up a mossy bluff for lunch and then continued along the logging road toward the North Gowlland Road.  This area is quite changed from recent logging including new roads, which made it trickier to find the intended connection back to the North Gowlland trail.  However, we achieved the same objective by simply following the logging roads, making the loop slightly longer. 

In spite of the hail and threatening showers, it was a lovely spring day for this hike to some areas we had not visited for quite a while.  The improved trail will be reason to hike here more often.   (7.8 km; 3⅓ hours)

(click on photos to enlarge)

Hiking – Rousseau Ridge Loop – 15 Apr 2026

It was a lovely, mild day for our hike out to Plumper Point.  Starting at the trailhead to Maud Island, it was interesting to see the magnitude of the recently trail work, cutting down danger trees near the trail.  Some of that clearing continued after the left turn on the Maud Island trail. At the creek we cut off on a very old logging road which has been flagged and somewhat cleared.  We descended to the beach on Plumper Bay where the camping shelter has been set up.  Some of the construction is quite good.  There was ample beach for us to walk along the shore out toward the point.  It was the day after a full moon, so the tides were big and the currents active.  We were surprised that there was a three hour difference in the low tide between Campbell River and Brown’s Bay. 

The climb up from the beach back to the old, flagged logging road was quite steep.  It was only a very short distance from there to the beautiful, mossy bluff with the great views of Plumper Bay and north in Discovery Passage.   We stopped for lunch and then made our way out to the bluffs on the Discovery Passage side with views toward the west and south.  We returned through the forest with lots deadfall at first, then a better forest.  We picked up the flagged road again and made our way back.    (8 km; 182m; 4 hours)

(click on photos to enlarge)

Hiking – Plumper Bay and Point – 4 Mar 2026