Back from Scouting...

Oh hello, I was just admiring this beautiful foxglove...

They have cute little spots inside and bees LOVE them... we have them in our garden, and you can usually find all sorts of different bees burrowed into the foxglove blossoms.

Huh... this old road looks like it's not so old. That's a fairly recent cutblock up there...

Not a huge fan of cutblocks... I mean, I know we need paper and toilet paper and lumber and stuff but... still.

It just looks like such a massacre...

On the other hand... it does give me a good view of...

That rocky knoll... on the other side of which is the lake!

I also got Mama to download a trail app onto her phone... so it tells us where each trail goes... this one will get us closer to where we want to go.

How do you navigate out in the woods?

This cutblock looks a bit older... some of the regen is getting pretty tall...

And some more... salmonberries!

I also found this beary cool fern... these are the flower spikey things...

And these are the fronds - beary narrow and slender... I think it is Deer Fern...

They are quite nice and a bit more of a lemony-green colour.

Hmmm... this boardwalk was obviously made by mountainbikers...

It's a bit topsy-turvy and slanted in spots... careful when it's wet...

Oh my goodness.... look at this...

This stuff... it's rattlesnake plantain! Cool!! Haven't seen that around here before either...

This is good... because I am also trying to figure out where chanterelles might be likely to grow here... still trying to figure out the right ecosystem... so all these familiar little flowers and plants are good...

And back to the road... 

Well... now I know where the trail from the lake goes... and we could head further uphill and go up the mountain from this direction as well... but right now... we need to talk about... berries.

Yes... salmonberries... they look so juicy and delicious... We had several samples to test... They are juicy but the flavour is... odd...

After about 4 or 5 berries, this little bear called it quits on salmonberries. The plant guides all say it the berries taste flowery... but to this palate... they just tasted kind of lemony-flowery which reminded this bear of... some sort of cleaner. Ick....

This looks like a ruined fortress or something.... straight out of Lord of the Rings... 

See... that would have been the door through which the bears stormed the castle of the bees... or something....

And... we're back!

Thanks for joining me on this little scouting expedition... Want to also join me for the post-hike brownie?

Here we go... I figure I can share this with two or three stuffies... any volunteers?