Yesterday our grand plan for another ‘mountain bike’ ride near the house was foiled. Since we don’t yet have our car to easily transport the bikes somewhere else we decided to find a nice hike for today. And a nice one we found. It was an easy 8km hike up and down but through lots of different environments.
We used the “All Trails” app to find a lesser used trail in the Cobble Hill area. It started off in what we now appreciate as ‘typical’ BC with the towering trees, mossy trunks. We noticed a lot less undergrowth in these forests compared to Ontario because the tree canopy is so high. It made for an airy walk even if it is the ‘green tunnel’ that we used to try to avoid in our backpacking days. The access road was wide and smooth, and this could be a candidate for a future visit on our bikes!
It flattened out and meandered pleasantly through the forest, up and down. The trail got a bit narrower but still navigable with our bikes, we think. We then ended up in a meadow with lots of wildflowers and a large forest up above us with lots of arbutus trees; the ones that shed bark and leave a red-orange trunk.
After we crossed a road, we were off the ‘Dragonfly’ trail and competed with a few ATV’s but we found the lake, which was really an old quarry. Views from the top were really nice and we made our way down and walked all around the lake. We enjoyed seeing several dogs jumping in and retrieving toys, walked along rock walls that could be a set from a science-fiction movie. It was nice an open and although not a natural lake, enjoying the different scenery and the dogs was a lot of fun. It was an easy trip back and a great way to spend a morning before the rain started!
There are a lot of other trails in the area that go to the summit; we will save those for another day!
Life on the Island 