Hikes

Twelve people came out to hike at Wanisan Lake. It was a crisp day but everyone seemed to enjoy getting out. We had people we hadn’t seen since Goldeye, and a few we hadn’t seen all summer. Some of us even brought family members.

Stuart demo’d his fire lighting skills and it added a nice touch to our lunch break.

The blue trail viewpoint gave a wintry view of the wetlands with a new coat of ice.

I was especially happy to see the totally fine job Brad and his work crew did on fixing up both ends of the first beaver dam crossing. That was a big job.

This would make a wonderful winter hike that could go on to the Meadow Shelter for lunch.

Thanks to everyone who came out and for Trail Maintenance for all their hard work. You can find more photos on Flickr.

Fifteen hikers got to see the prettiest part of the Waskahegan Trail, according to hike leader Oscar Zawalsky. Oscar has led Waskahegan Trail hikes for 50 years and on his final time as hike leader, Oscar chose what he believes is the prettiest hike on the trail system, from south of Gwynne to the Gwynne Ski Hill.

Oscar pointed out a million dollar view, a piece of land that was listed at $1 million with views of Coal Lake and the Battle River Valley. Hikers also walked along an area where the local landowner was a recycler and fence posts were held up with old grader blades and old power line insulator holders topped the fence.

We walked past an area of the original ski lift and continued on to the present ski hill where we had lunch.

On the way home we looked over what Oscar called a $100,000 view, a nice view, but not as dramatic as the million dollar view.

A herd of llamas raced across the field for a visit, but didn’t think much of us.

After the hike, some members drove to Chickadee Trail to walk part of that trail and feed the chickadees.

Thanks to Oscar for scouting and leading the hike and to Trail Maintenance for clearing the trail. You can find more photos on Flickr.

Lunch was at Rundle Park, in front of a row of large spruce trees. We could see busy tennis courts off to the side. 

The high bush cranberries and wild chokecherries along the river were plump and tasty. 

On the return, we extended our hike to the north pond. One of our group confirmed with binoculars that the bird we saw standing proud was the heron we had hoped to see.  

Total distance hiked was 14 km.

Thanks to everyone for coming out to the hike, and thanks to Michele and Sherry for the photos (which you can see more of on Flickr).

—Sandra