Hike to Helen Mackenzie

A great hike to Lake Helen Mackenzie today, with a small but intrepid group! Starting around the boardwalk Centennial loop, there were still a few persistent patches of snow - but many flowers are rapidly emerging:  great quantities of marsh marigold, patches of Jeffrey's shooting star, scatterings of violets, accents of bog-laurel, false azalea, pink mountain heather and bunchberry.

round-leaved yellow violet

false azalea

pink mountain heather with bunchberry (sometimes called dwarf dogwood)

Without the plant signs installed by Strathcona Wilderness Institute, we would have missed this tiny spider-like flower: the fern-leaved goldthread.

After the choruses of Pacific tree frogs in the meadows,  heading to Battleship Lake, the patches of snow increased - have to take care to find the sections of path & boardwalk between the snow cover. The lake is now quite open after the slushy surface of a week ago. At least nine Common Goldeneye, females and juveniles, were on the lake.

Water levels are high everywhere - Pigott Creek flowing out from Lake Helen Mackenzie sounded like a torrent. The weather which had started as overcast  became  misty by the lunch spot at the lake. The slope down through the woods after the lake was again a bit tricky for route-finding due to snow cover, but the trail soon became easier to find as it was mostly free of snow on this side.

Along the way we heard varied thrush, hermit thrush, juncos and chickadees. A flicker was near the Centre - but no gray jays today!

A bear was seen in the meadows from the Centennial trail - possible a young adult, which showed no interest in any hikers.