Since the weather reports were mixed on Wednesday, we decided to err on the side of caution and opted for a hike at the nearby Seal Bay Park rather than somewhere a distance away. As it turns out, the weather was just fine for hiking - mixed skies and warm temperatures - so all participants were in fine fettle for the excursion. To get more of our hikers out, we split up the leaders (Gil and Dawn, in this case) and asked Bill Jorgensen to lead a third group (thank you for this, Bill).
Bill reports:
Five of us challenged the rigours of the sea side of Seal Bay Park. We also mixed in a chunk of the inland side, to round out the hike time to 3 hours. We successfully achieved our initial goal of descending and then climbing all 3 of the routes down to the water. After that, we headed across the highway and explored a series of pleasant forest trails which brought us back to the cars right on time. The weather was excellent and there were even a few photo ops.
Gil and Dawn's groups struck out in opposite directions; while Gil also included shoreline visits, Dawn's group gave that a miss, opting instead to emphasize the trails on the other side of Bates Rd. The groups passed each other at some point or other on their routes...and Dawn's group came across Gary's biking group, who wheeled by while on an extended bike outing. All hikers arrived back at their trailheads in 3 hours, happy with the exercise under such picturesque conditions.
Thank you, Bill, for the link to your hike photos...and to Steve Ray and Dawn for the ones shown below.
Bill reports:
Five of us challenged the rigours of the sea side of Seal Bay Park. We also mixed in a chunk of the inland side, to round out the hike time to 3 hours. We successfully achieved our initial goal of descending and then climbing all 3 of the routes down to the water. After that, we headed across the highway and explored a series of pleasant forest trails which brought us back to the cars right on time. The weather was excellent and there were even a few photo ops.
Gil and Dawn's groups struck out in opposite directions; while Gil also included shoreline visits, Dawn's group gave that a miss, opting instead to emphasize the trails on the other side of Bates Rd. The groups passed each other at some point or other on their routes...and Dawn's group came across Gary's biking group, who wheeled by while on an extended bike outing. All hikers arrived back at their trailheads in 3 hours, happy with the exercise under such picturesque conditions.
Thank you, Bill, for the link to your hike photos...and to Steve Ray and Dawn for the ones shown below.
