Photos by Cathy, Lindsay, Stan, Christine & Bill.
Eager to further explore the Thames Creek area our hiking group headed back down to the Bowser area. New routes guided the group along Thames Creek and we located and hiked a new trail that connected us over to Nile Creek before retuning back to Thames. Along the way we got to experience the beautiful sunshine before the clouds rolled in and left us with some snow flakes before the weather turned back to blue skies and sunshine. Who said you can’t enjoy more than one season during the same hike. The debrief at Roy’s Towne Pub was well attended. Photos by Cathy, Lindsay, Stan, Christine & Bill.
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This hike was hastily planned after the commencement of logging beside the Trent River was announced, to begin on Monday. We have done a few hikes to Upper Trent Falls, including the Lower Trent Canyon trail. A hike upstream from the falls has been planned for quite a while. With logging slated for the area, it's time had come. At about 16 kilometres and more than 500 metres of total ascent, this was the most ambitious hike we have undertaken in a while. The scenery did not disappoint. Photos by Cathy, Stan and Bill. Walk was at Seal Bay from Bates Road. No turquoise water yet from the herring spawn but a peaceful calm morning. Thanks to Karen B for photos.
Anne led us on a new (to us) route above Raven Lodge on the Alpine side of the resort. We climbed Albert Edward (the road), found a village made from blocks of snow, and took in some amazing views. In spite of the Family Day holiday we found plenty of room in Raven Lodge for our debrief. Photos by Cindy, Cathy, Anne and Bill. About 4 years ago we had a group hike on the north side of the Trent River. Most of that hike was on old logging roads with lots of recent clear cuts, so it wasn't a hit. This time Cathy led us on a more interesting route with more scenic single track trails, and less road. It looks like there is potential for an even more scenic route, so you can expect to see more hikes along the north side of the Trent. Photos by Cathy and Bill. The day was too nice to waste, so a hike around Comox was hastily arranged. Stairs featured prominently in our 8 kilometre route, including a climb up the Goose Spit stairs. For our debrief we walked downtown to The Mill. Photos by Cheryl, Maryanne, Lindsay and Bill. Walk was from the Millard Lookout. We headed south along the extension before crossing the highway to Beachwood and the greenway path that leads to The Ridge. The Ridge has trails and sidewalks to walk upon. On our return, the traffic was heavy on the highway. Quite the wait until a police car came, stopped and put on its lights so we could cross. Nice! Debrief was at The Bayside where we could all fit to enjoy coffee and hot chocolate upstairs.
We found very unusual conditions on our trip around the Mackenzie, Battleship loop. Under the tree canopy there was very little snow on the ground, but snow and water falling out of the trees and down the back of our necks. Open areas had a few centimetres of fresh snow on a firm crust. Snow on either side of the packed path had melted away on some boardwalks and bridges, leaving a narrow path that felt like a tightrope in our wide snowshoes. Fortunately we enjoyed the scenery and fresh air with no incidents. A few of us debriefed on the deck at Raven Lodge. Photos by Cathy, Stan and Bill. Cathy and David led us around a loop near Bowser that was new to our group. Our hike included trails near Thames Creek under a canopy of big trees, as well as Nile Creek. There are many trails in this area so I expect that we will be back to explore more. We finished the day at Roy's Towne Pub. Photos by Cathy, Lindsay and Bill. A few days after storms knocked down dozens of trees in the Cumberland Forest we set out on a loop that included Allen Lake, high views from Teapot and Vanilla trails, and Sykes Bridge. We met one fellow along the way clearing some of the last obstructions. Thanks to the efforts of UROC we only had one fallen tree to skirt around. We met the Strathcona Probus Hiking Group in Cumberland. They started off following us, but as we hiked our groups mingled. A few of us capped off the 14 kilometre loop with a debrief at the Waverley where we planned our next adventure. Photos by Cathy, Lindsay and Bill. What a day on the Royston Seaside Trail and Marine Drive! The photos speak for themselves. Great debrief at the Royston Coffee Shop. Photo Credit: Dawn, Cheryl and Karen
It was a lovely day for a walk today and there were smiles all around as we made a loop from Lazo Marsh to the beach off Curtis Rd. Since we were back before our allotted hour's ramble, we crossed the road and headed to the bird lookout in the Lazo Nature Sanctuary where birds abound! A debrief followed, at Qualilty Foods Comox. photos by Dawn M., Karen B. and Karen R-K. A sunny day for our birding was greatly appreciated and enjoyed by all participants. A bit of excitement came from sighting a number of Barn Swallows flitting about overhead at the south side of the lagoon area. They are normally a summer visitor but have been noted for the last few days on this side of the Island. In all, we sighted 28 species: Canada Geese, American Wigeon, Mallard, Lesser Scaup, Bufflehead, Common Goldeneye, Common Merganser, Red-breasted Merganser, Green-winged Teal, gulls including Ring-billed, Rock (feral) Pigeon, Eurasian Collared-Dove, Anna's Hummingbird, Bald Eagle, Belted Kingfisher, Merlin, Stellar's Jay, American Crow, Barn Swallow, European Starling, Brewer's Blackbird, Red-breasted Blackbird, Brown-headed Cowbird, House Finch, Golden-eyed Sparrow, White-crowned Sparrow, Song Sparrow and Spotted Towhee. Photos by Dawn, Katie, Bill J. and Bill S. What a treat to be able to leave raincoats at home and hike in sunshine from start to finish. It seems like it has been a long wait for this. Our 12 km route started at Simms Millennium Park and followed the Courtenay Riverway to Millard Nature Park. A loop through the park, along the railway and the Riverway Extension brought us back to the Riverway for our return to Simms Millennium. We met the Birding Group on our way back. A few of us added a bonus trip up to Mudsharks for coffee on their sunny patio. Photos by Bill and one friendly stranger. |