Vancouver Island Nature Tours

It’s Good Friday today. This morning I hiked up to the Alberni Lookout. From Coombs Country Candy on Highway 4, it’s only about a 40-50 minute hike, depending on how fast you go. I’ve been hiking up regularly because it is a good bit of exercise. The weather was cool and foggy. But the weatherman said no rain and a little sun. So I wore just a shirt and a vest. The scents of the Douglas fir forest were wonderful. A nice sweet clean smell. The dog, of course, was in his glory.

The first part of the trail below the railway tracks had a number of fallen trees across it. The winter here has seen some vicious storms on Vancouver Island. And the Alberni Valley took the brunt of some of them. So the clean up is not yet complete. So this part of the hike meant climbing over down trees at times or walking along the trunks. I was also stopping to pull branches off the trail at times.

Above the railway tracks, the trail is fine, but steeper. No windthrow. This part of the trail is popular with mountain bikers. I was impressed with how deep the ruts can be from the bikes. I guess the braking the riders do causes the wheels to skid across the ground loosening the forest floor and the soil beneath it. Still, they made the trail and maintain it. So it is hard to be too critical.

The view at the top was fabulous as usual. I was surrounded by a small stand of old growth Douglas fir, that although they are not as tall as at Cathedral Grove, they are big and gnarly all the same. Today there was a light overcast with the fog laid out below me. To the north, the mountains of Strathcona Park were bathed in morning sun. It was the only bit of sunshine in view. It was stunning. the glow of the sun on the snow of the mountains made the view surreal. And because you couldn’t see any buildings or roads below due to the fog, it was as if you were the only person in the entire valley. Ok there was the sound of traffic coming up from below. But if you were deaf…?

I thought I would add a few photos of a trip a group of us made up to this lookout almost a year ago.