Hikes

Miquelon Park to St. FX Lookout

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Fifteen people came out to hike the Miquelon Lake area going northward. We started at the visitor centre parking lot and walked through the group sites until we reached the open trail in full view of the lake.

Earlier in the week, Trail Maintenance had cleared a wide path, which made it very easy to walk.

Sow thistle and Western dock (brown spikes in the background)

As we alternated between the meadows and the woods, we saw numerous mid-summer beauties: soapberries (Sheperdia), the ghostly white Indian-pipe (Monotropa), wild strawberries still in fruit, many-flowered asters and purple asters, fringed loosestrife (Lysimachia), vetches, fragrant white sweet-clover, Western dock, grass-of-parnassus (Parnassia), Canada thistle, gooseberries, goldenrod, and sow thistle.

  • Goldenrod
  • Wild strawberry
  • Grass-of-parnassus
  • Many-flowered asters
  • Asters
  • Indian-pipe

We reached the top of the hill of St. FX Lookout with its famous engraved post. The post was installed in 1973 to commemorate Vi Sunohara’s Biology 30 class at St. Francis Xavier High School, who cleared the trail in this area that year.

St. FX Lookout marker

We continued on the path until we reached the next woods, where we had lunch in the cool shade. Total distance hiked was 9-3/4 km.

Thanks to John for scouting and leading the hike. You can find more photos on Flickr.

Chickakoo Lake Summer Hike

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If you want to hike close to Edmonton on trails that aren’t wet, like they are in most places, Chickakoo Lake is the place to go. The recreation area is about 40 km west of Edmonton, where the country is starting to get hilly.

Nine hikers came out on a warm sunny Sunday to enjoy this popular park.

The wide trails took us through shaded woodlands and up and down slopes as we passed from lake to lake.

We noticed that the spring flowers are now turning into fruits.

  • Involucrate Honeysuckle
  • False Solomon’s Seal

This is an area that we usually visit only in winter, so it was nice surprise for most of us—especially the discovery of a large secluded lawn area, where we had our lunch.

Thanks to Johanna and Helen for scouting and to Johanna for leading the hike. You can find more photos on Flickr.