Checking out some easy walking trails in Powell River

 
By Keith and Heather Nicol

We don’t get to Powell River very often even though it is just a across the water from Comox. It is likely due to the fact that all of our nearby friends and relatives are located either in Victoria, Nanaimo or in Vancouver. But we recently decided to head to Powell River for a day trip with some cross country ski buddies to check out some of easy walking trails and to discover abit of Powell River’s  history. We took the 9:55 am sailing from Little River and landed in Powell River in time for a nice picnic lunch at Willingdon Beach Park. There is a nice trail starting at this spot heading toward the old townsite but since we had done this hike before we decided instead to drive to the old town site and former paper mill site (it began making paper here in 1912 and at one time was the largest paper mill in the world!!).  Keep an eye out for lookout overlooking the former paper mill with its interpretative signs. 

                                                           View from the top ot Valentine Mountain

From there we headed to Valentine Mountain lookout which is a short but steep trail which gives fine views of the entire area. We used AllTrails to get trail info about this hike and although it is  just 1.65 km return it does climb almost 100 meters –most of the elevation is gained through a series of steps near the top. There is a small loop at the top which gives views in a different directions and we would say that due to large steps and small drops in places that only people with good mobility hike the trail. It took us about 35 minutes to do the return hike. 

                                               Heading to the top of Valentine Mountain Lookout

From there we explored some other sections of Powell River by car and drove to Saltery Bay which provides ferry service to the rest of the Sunshine Coast. We ended the day with another short hike along the water front – appropriately called the Sea Walk which extends for almost 2 km overlooking the ocean. We took the 5:15 pm ferry back to Little River and were home in Courtenay for a late supper at 7:00 pm.  It was a great way to spend the day and if BC seniors travel midweek then the passenger fares are free!! Also you can use an experience card on this route which makes taking a car abit cheaper. Check Powell River for a different sort of day trip.  If readers have other suggestions about what it do while in the Powell River area put your observations in the comment section. 

                                                      Along the seawalk trail in Powell River

Saratoga Beach Golf Course gets our nod for “ Most Improved” in the Comox Valley

 by Keith and Heather Nicol

On Thursday June 13 we decided to check out Saratoga Beach Golf Course which is located near Saratoga Beach midway between Campbell River and Courtenay, B.C.  We had arranged a tee time for 11:30 am and we had perfect golf weather.   Saratoga Beach Golf Course is a 9 hole course that is very walkable since the distance is around 2200 yards and the course is quite flat. But don’t let the short distance fool you, there is still alot of challenge to be had for all levels of golfers. The course consists of 4 par 3’s, 4 par 4’s and 1 pair 5 but the course is generally narrow with water hazards that come into play on many holes.  You need to be able to get the ball in the air and carry some distance or else you will lose a few balls to the small ponds and creeks that flows through the course.  We liked the 2 elevated tees which gave some variety to the tee boxes. We last played the this course several summers ago and fairways were brown and the course was not in great shape. But it has taken a big turn for the better in the last year or so under the new management of Jesse Moussa who has alot of local golf experience. The greens are regularly rolled and are in good shape and the fairways and rough was well cut.                                                                 We liked the 2 elevated tees We were told at the front desk that they get most of their business from the local community but also from Campbell River. As with many golf courses, it tends to be busier in the mornings but we were pleasantly surprised that we had no one ahead of us and no one pushing us from behind which we really enjoyed.  They have a Father’s Day Special coming up in a couple of days and have a women’s night on Wednesdays and men’s night on Thursdays so check these out if you want meet some new golfers. Saratoga Beach Golf Course has a small putting green and a driving range as well as a small club house and pro shop. If you want to try a challenging course that will reward the straight ball hitter then see:  http://www.saratogabeachgolfclub.ca/   for more information.

                                                 As you can see the picture above - the greens are in great shape

                               The fairways are narrow so this course rewards the straight ball hitter

Check out the Evergreen Bike Group if you like to cycle in the Comox Valley

 
by Keith and Heather Nicol

The Evergreen Bike Group has rides on Mondays and Wednesdays and is a great way to meet cyclists and explore the country roads and trails of the Comox Valley. On Monday June 10 close to 20 cyclists headed from the Filberg Centre to Comox Lake via Nymph Falls for a ride that featured both roads and trails. The Evergreen group is open to cyclists over 55 years of age and the group uses mix of electric, hybrid and road bikes.  The rides on Mondays tend to be longer and it gives us a chance to explore places like Denman and Quadra Island as well as rides in Campbell River and Parksville. On Wednesday morning the rides tend to be in the Comox Valley and run for 2 to 2.5 hours in length. If you are interested in finding out more about this cycling group contact Ernie at: ejkimball62@gmail.com  The pictures below are of the group cycling the scenic trails leading to Nymph Falls and Comox Lake Recreation site where we had lunch.

 

 

Mulligans Golf Course makes golf affordable in the Comox Valley

 
by Keith and Heather Nicol 

 Golf is popular in the Comox Valley with many courses to test your skills but if you want to try a fine little course that allows you to still play 9 holes for just $18 or less then check out Mulligans Golf Course. We recently played on Friday, June 7 and were impressed by the great shape the course was in. Our round took abit over 90 minutes to play and we never had to wait at a tee off which we appreciated.

                             Heather teeing off on the second hole with the Beaufort Range in the background

 Mulligan’s offers an executive course which means there are mostly par 3’s with some par 4’s and the longest hole is 337 yards. Total length from the blue tees is 1763 yards which is about a mile so it is also easy to walk for many people from younger children to older adults. But just because it is short doesn’t mean it is easy. There is water on 7 of the 9 holes and there are many strategically placed sand traps, so depending on where the pin is placed, making par can be a real challenge. The course also gives scenic views of the Beaufort Range of Mountains and has been landscaped to create undulations and mounds which add to the layout of the course. 

                                                                          The greens were in great shape

 In addition to a small clubhouse with an outdoor patio, there is a driving range, a putting green and a sand trap practice area which is a nice bonus. The driving range is another bargain since a bucket of balls is just $3.75 ! One of the staff told us that weekday mornings are quite busy but it opens up in the afternoon and early evening. Mulligans is located right outside of Courtenay and for more information see: http://mulligansgolfcourse.com/  or phone 250-338-2440. This course is ideal for families or friends wanting to meet for a couple of hours of relaxed, enjoyable golf. See you on the course.

                     

Keith chipping onto the 9th green

 

The “Pub to Pub” trail makes a great lunch time walk

 by Keith and Heather Nicol

We always love doing the so called “Pub to Pub” trail which is roughly half way between Campbell River and Courtenay since is a scenic trail with both river and ocean/beach views. We hadn’t done the trail for a few months since last fall and so with a sunny forecast we decided to walk on Tuesday, May 14 with some xc ski buddies and Heather’s sister Lisa who was visiting from Radium.    The trail gets its name from the fact that at one time 2 pubs were located close to the start and end point of the trail. Since the trail is just 3.5 km (1 way) it is suited to a variety of options. If you have young children or walkers that would find 7 km too long a hike, you could park a car at each end and just make the 1 way trip. You can see from the photo below that the trail surface is well maintained and is generally flat so is walkable for just about all ages. On this day we opted to pack a lunch and enjoy the views. 

 To get there from Courtenay drive north on Highway 19A and keep an eye out for the Oyster River bridge since you want to turn right on the next road (Glenmore Road).  Then travel one roughly 1 block and then turn left on Regent and look for a parking lot with a sign Oyster River Nature Park. The parking lot coordinates are 49. 52.232 N and 125 07.616 W.  There is parking for several cars but this area is popular so we try to go mid week to be able to get a spot. There are a few forks in the trail but bear to the left and you should be fine.  After about 1 km you reach the ocean and from there you follow the Jack Hames Trail to Salmon Point. You can walk the trail in either direction although we tend to walk it south to north most of the time. The ocean views are spectacular and we fully recommend this hike. See you on the trail. 

 

 

The Vaux's Swifts are back this year at the Courtenay Museum

 by Keith and Heather Nicol

On Tuesday April 30  we headed down to a parking lot behind the Courtenay Museum to see if the Vaux’s Swifts that are in the area might fly down the chimney to roost for the evening. Evidently they have been seen coming to this chimney for the last few years in late April and early May but we had not checked out the action for this year. On this night we saw about 30 other people with their binoculars and cameras waiting and watching the for the swifts to gather their numbers and fly into the chimney.   The Vaux’s Swifts spend the winter in Mexico and breed in large hollow trees found in old growth forests in BC, Washington and Oregon. Because of this their numbers are in decline as logging removes their breeding habitat. 

 The birds feed on insects and their shape has been described as cigars with wings.  We arrived just before 8:00 pm armed with binoculars and a camera with a telephoto lens.  The birds arrival to the chimney seems to depend on the weather and so you don’t know when they might arrive but it usually anywhere from 7:30 pm to sunset. No sooner did we get there and we saw began to see a swarm of Vaux’s Swifts swoop over head and fly over the chimney. They then disappeared for a few minutes only to return again for another fly over. They do this arriving and departing routine repeatedly each time it seems that they gather a few more birds. Then on this night about 8:45 pm they began to spiral around and just like Santa they headed down the chimney. Presumably they like the rough interior of the chimney and spend the night huddled together along the edges of the chimney. It is hard to get an exact count of the numbers of birds that headed down the chimney on this night but it was likely between 400 and 500 birds !! How they all fit is anyone’s guess. Also below is a video shot a few years ago and it is an impressive sight if you have not seen it. Check it out !! 

 

A mid April trip to the Comox Bluffs

 

By Keith and Heather Nicol

 The Comox Bluffs are along the north side of Comox Lake and there is an ecological reserve there to protect the unusual plant life that exists in this dry rocky sun drenched area. Trees like Arbutus and shrubs like hairy Manzanita are common along this area where as they are pretty rare in the rain forest environment of the Comox Valley. We hadn’t been to this lookout for a couple of years and never in mid April so we were interested to see what wildflowers we might see.

                 The viewpoint overlooking Comox Lake is only a 20-25 minute walk from the trailhead

 This trail starts at a small parking lot at 49 38.477 N 125 06.256 W on the left hand side of the road a few hundred meters past the bridge the crosses the Puntledge River where it empties out of Comox Lake.  This route is called the Tomato Creek trail and it leads to a lookout which gives fine views of Comox Lake and is surrounded by the rare plants of the Ecological Reserve. It can be reached in just over 1.2 km (20 minute walk one way ).  Some of the many flowers that bloom here were out although if you come at various times in the spring you will likely see a  variety of different flowers in bloom. We saw lots of sea blush out on this visit. 

                           Sea Blush was out in bloom in mid April on our most recent trip to Comox Bluffs

 A longer trail continues from the lookout and it traverses the entire Ecological Reserve and ends up at the main logging road which you can then follow back to your car. Be aware that logging trucks may be using this road and it can be dusty so you also can return back via the same trail rather that do a loop.  This longer route is about 5.5 km and takes about 2 hours. But the shorter hike to the lookout would suit people families with smaller children or others that want a shorter hike.  Just be aware that the trail is hard to find in some places and it does have forks which makes route finding abit challenging. In fact we ran into a couple that was off route trying to reach the Bluffs and they followed us to the Lookout. The full route can be found on AllTrails and is under the name “Tony’s and Tomato Creek Loop”. If you use this app route finding should be easier. For more info see: https://www.alltrails.com/ 

 

 

Cherry Trees are in bloom in many places in the Comox Valley

By Keith and Heather Nicol

Vancouver and Victoria are well known for their cherry trees in bloom in the spring and although the Comox Valley does not have the number of trees of these bigger centres they do have some trees worth checking out. One of our favourite streets to view every spring is Anna Place which not only has many well established trees in bloom lining the street but it also has a superb view of the Comox Glacier as you can see in the picture below. Another tree that is very impressive is at the intersection of 14^th and Cumberland in Courtenay. It is also one of the nominated trees for Tree of the Year for 2024 (an event run by Comox Valley Nature). So be sure to check it out! If readers have other favourite cherry trees in the Comox Valley let us know where they are.  

 

The “new” Lake Trail Disc Golf course in the Comox Valley is great

 


By Keith and Heather Nicol

We started disc golfing through the CV19 pandemic and it became a great way to get some fresh air and socialize with friends at the same time. It is easy to socially distance while playing so we played many times on the different courses in the Comox Valley but always returned to our favourite at Lake Trail. When we started out the course had 12 holes and that then morphed to 9 holes but the tee boxes were always rough and ready unlike those at the disc golf courses in Comox and Cumberland.

                    Heather getting ready to throw off the new tee boxes with a map of the hole as well

 The Lake Trail course also lacked signage info but over the past several months both of these areas have been corrected. There are now small maps of each hole at the tee box and the new tee boxes are well made making this course now even nicer. So thanks to those that have made these improvements. On our most recent round we even saw some nice wildflowers like trilliums in many places which is a nice bonus of an early spring round of disc golf.   

                                                              Keith tossing in a putt on the last hole

 We enjoy this course it since it has some elevation changes and now has some variety with an open shot across the playing field at Lake Trail school. Since we are new to the sport we thought that another advantage of this course was its relatively short layout and reasonably open understory which means finding an errant disc is pretty easy.  This course is right next to Lake Trail school and there is parking for several cars at the start. Check it out if you haven’t already.  

Trilliums were out on our last visit in early April

 

Thanks for a great cross country ski season

 by Keith and Heather Nicol

   It was a sad day when we cleaned out our ski locker at Raven Lodge on Sunday, April 7 to end the 2024 cross country ski season. Raven Lodge is the base of operations of cross country skiing and snow shoeing at Mount Washington near Courtenay, B.C on Vancouver Island.  It was a strange year weatherwise with snow late to arrive at the start of the season and then a rain storm in early February closed the resort for a couple of days. But somehow the trail crew got things going again and then in March lots of snow fell which gave Mt Washington the cushion of snow they needed to be able to finish up the season. The Strathcona Park cross country trails were even open for awhile which everyone really appreciated.

                           We had some great times on the Mt Washington Cross Country Ski trails this winter

So next year if you have thought about trying cross country skiing or snowshoeing then check out Raven Lodge at Mount Washington. They have over 50 km of trail groomed for skating and classic skiing as well as many snowshoe trails. Raven Lodge has great mountain views and inside you can have a bite to eat, book rentals and lessons, buy day tickets and even have a sauna.  Lets hope next winter brings more snow and continued great skiing to Mount Washington.  For more information see: https://www.mountwashington.ca/  

 

                              Mt Washington Ski Resort has great trails for cross country skiing

Spring Wildflowers are out along the Tsolum River in Courtenay

 By Keith and Heather Nicol

        On Friday. March 29 we had a pleasant surprise when we had a walk by the Tsolum River. There were carpets of fawn lilies and trilliums in bloom along the trails which really brightened up our walk. The trails are located behind the Exhibition Grounds off of Headquarters Road in Courtenay, B.C. Take the main trail toward the river and we found many clusters of fawn lilies on the side trail to the right. If you are handy with a GPS turn right at this junction - 49 42.284 N 125 00.373 W. You don’t need to walk very far before you see the flowers along the trail.  We are not sure how long they will last but if like early spring flowers check out this area and don’t forget to bring your camera. We usually check out this area in early April so it seems like this year the flowers are abit early. A pad to kneel on for getting up close to the flowers for photography will also be helpful. 

                                     Fawn Lilies are out and we love those first signs of spring wildflowers

                                                    We didn't see many trilliums but they are there if you look closely

The Park trails are now open for Nordic Skiing at Mount Washington Ski Resort

 

by Keith and Heather Nicol

  Many skiers’ favourite trails at Mount Washington Ski Resort are in Strathcona Provincial Park and for good reason.  They are scenic and generally well suited to the beginner and intermediate skier with lots of flat areas or gently sloping trails which are easy to negotiate. With the very unusual winter that has generally negatively influenced skiing across North America, Raven Lodge at Mount Washington has been usually able to keep 20 plus km of Nordic trails open but when you think that they have 55 km of trails – that is alot that were closed due to lack of sufficient snow cover.  So it was great when the last big March snowfall added just enough to open those trails. Of course, conditions can change quickly so if you want to ski those trails you should do so sooner rather than later, especially with the double digit temperatures that are hitting us right now over the March 16-17 weekend. 

                                    The nordic ski trails are in great shape at the moment

There are just 3 weeks of skiing left at Mount Washington Ski Resort so now is the time to take advantage of the nicer weather and longer days to get in some exercise on your snowshoes or cross country skis. Next weekend (March 23-24) is Nordic Fest which always has alot on the go and is a great time to get some advanced ski lessons as well as checking out the other activities that are organized. You can also go on a scavenger hunt, check out Rossignol ski demos and much more- see https://mountwashington.ca for details – search under upcoming events for more info.  See you on the trails .    

                 The nordic trails in Strathcona Park are currently open - check them out

October Full Moon rise from Air Force Beach , Comox, BC

 By Keith and Heather Nicol

One of the disadvantages of living in the Comox Valley is that you don’t get a chance to see the sun dropping off into the horizon in the evening. Sunsets in this area can be nice as the setting sun undercuts any clouds that are in the area but a classic sunset (with the sun disappearing below the horizon) can’t be seen due to the Beaufort Mountains. But we do have moon rises which come up over the Salish Sea and so we have taken to seeing the full moon rise whenever the weather cooperates. Our favourite place to see the full moon rise is the Air Force Beach Parking area and this gives us a good view of the various Gulf Islands, the Sunshine Coast and the mountains of the BC mainland that lie behind.  Below is a shot of the Hunter’s Moon rising on October 27, the day before the actual full moon. 

                                        Hunter Moon rise over Texada Island and Mountains of BC Mainland

 Of course like the sun, the full moon doesn’t always rise in the same place each month so the back drop to your views and pictures will always be different. As well the clouds are often different so this adds another variation to each month’s offering.  To find out the date of the full moon and where it will be in the sky check out this web site: https://www.timeanddate.com/moon/canada/comox. See you for the next full moon and bring a tripod and telephoto lens for the best pictures. Check it out!

                                                               Hunter Moon just coming up

 

Fall is a good time to visit the Elk Falls suspension bridge

 by Keith and Heather Nicol  

With the good fall weather holding decided to check out Elk Falls near Campbell River and the suspension bridge that has been built there in 2015.  The suspension bridge spans Campbell River in Elk Falls Provincial Park and offers stellar views of the river as it plunges 25 meters over a picturesque waterfall.  The suspension bridge opened in mid May, 2015 and  attracts lots of people during the summer but we wanted to check out the fall colours. The suspension bridge spans Campbell River in Elk Falls Provincial Park and offers stellar views of the river as it plunges 25 meters over a picturesque waterfall. Also according to the posted information Hydro is releasing more from Oct 24-27 so now might be a good chance to see the falls in full force.                                            Be sure to check out the side trail to get this lookout of the falls To get to Elks Falls Provincial Park drive through Campbell River and take the road toward Gold River. Simply follow the signs to the turnoff to the Elk Falls trails and suspension bridge. The bridge is roughly 1 km trail from the parking lot and the wide gravel trail is suited to just about all walkers. We also walked an 800 meter side trail to get down to the river and another lookout which we recommend.                          The Suspension Bridge had a few visitors when we were there on Oct 20  There are also other hiking trails in the area but we liked the 800 meter Old Growth Loop which passes by some huge trees that have never been logged. These trees also managed to avoid a devastating fire in 1938 which burned much of the timber in the surrounding area. Evidently 1938 was the driest summer in 64 years and the forest was tinder dry. The fire was evidently set off by a logger who accidently dropped a pick on a rock and a spark set off the dry grass near his feet.  For more information on the park see: http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/bcparks/explore/parkpgs/elk_falls/                                                               The Falls from the another view point