New Website

The new Strathcona Wilderness Institute website has been launched! Blog posts as well as background info will now all be available at www.strathconapark.org Check the latest post here!

First Rain

The first sprinkles of rain in more than seven weeks fell at Paradise Meadows yesterday - but luckily not till after the photo walk with Chris Carter. In fact overcast days are great for photographing many subjects as this example shows.

Rich colours & textures are enhanced in the diffused light.

Numerous king gentian and leafy aster are flowering in the meadows right now. There is a good patch of northern bedstraw blooming on the east Centennial trail, and still a lot of orchids, cottongrass, & Menzies' burnet. Sitka burnet & partridgefoot are mostly finished.

A blue heron was reported in the meadow ponds, an unusual occurrence , although it also happened last year.

Among the many visitors were a group of Junior Rangers from Tahsis & Port Hardy, enjoying several days of activities around the Park.

Photos in Paradise

Join nature photographer Chris Carter tomorrow at 1 p.m. for a photo walk around Paradise Meadows , looking for photo opportunities & compositions. Chris is known for his panoramas including the one featured on the interpretive signs on the deck of the Wilderness Centre.

 

 

More of Chris' work can be found on his website , viewed in person at the Centre, or the Comox Valley Art Gallery Shop.

New Volunteer

Strathcona Wilderness Institute is happy to have a new volunteer, all the way from Germany! Eduard Fischer will be assisting at the Strathcona Wilderness Centre several days a week, along with our other volunteer staff. Eduard is studying Conservation & Land-Use Planning at the University of Applied Sciences Neubrandenburg, and has previously volunteered in the Comox Valley, for MARS and Millard-Piercy Watershed Stewards. He is fluent in English, German & Russian, and is learning Swedish - so stop in to the Centre to say hi in any language!

Fog & Flowers

The road up the hill was socked in with fog all day , and the cloud cover only slightly higher at the Centre elevation of 1100 m, so the views of the alpine mountains were hidden. However still a lot of visitors , and a good audience for the Limnology talk & walk by CV Nature president Loys Maingon.

The latest blooms include king gentian (a month earlier than last year!) and one example of  ladies' tresses. A few new plants were discovered around the Centre also, as some of the weedier species take hold in the disturbed areas around the building & the trailhead.

A tall plant with delicate flowers, this white sweet-clover (Melilotus alba) is growing near the Centre entrance.

Tiny purple-leaved willowherb (Epilobium ciliatum) is growing in the picnic area - a relative of fireweed (Epilobium angustifolium) which is also found at the trailhead.

And a great photo of mountain arnica growing in Piggott Creek (which flows out of Lake Helen Mackenzie) was sent by one of the regular Paradise Meadows hikers - thanks to Chris for the photo!

Birds & Blooms

Saturday was a busy day at Paradise Meadows with several activites appealing to hikers & naturalists. Members of Mountainaire Avian Rescue Society (MARS) came up to give two talks: first on Whiskey Jacks; then on owls. The first talk featured the friendly camp robbers which many people like to feed, but which should only be eating their natural food such as seeds & berries. The Wilderness Centre is displaying several posters highlighting appropriate interaction with these active birds. The second talk  featured MARS  Barred Owl Shakespear, who was  rehabilitated after an accident. The owl is now an educational ambassador since she cannot be released back into the wild due to loss of an eye.

The bird presentations attracted a great audience of all ages especially when Shakespear was presented.

 Bryony Griffiths of MARS with Shakespear

MARS mandate, to conserve & protect native wildlife & its natural habitat through education & rehabilitation, is an excellent & worthwhile cause - hopefully many of those who attended the presentations will continue to support the society's efforts. 

The regular Saturday 10 a.m. naturalist walks around the meadows are continuing, with the basic ecology interpretation about Paradise Meadows supplemented with notes on the particular flowers blooming. Although many of the blooms are tiny, they are appealing to photographers!

Changes & Updates

A few changes in the program schedule of Strathcona Park Wilderness Centre activities:

• Sat. Aug. 18, 1 p.m: Bryony Griffiths from MARS (Mountainnaire Avian Rescue Society) will bring Shakespear the Barred Owl rather than Otus the Western Screech Owl, who has a date in Smithers.

• 9 hr. Level 3 Hike to Johnston & Panther Lakes: changed from Sat. Sept. 1 to Sat. Sept. 15, start time 8 a.m. Please pre-register at coordinator@strathconapark.org to attend.

• 10 hr. Level 3 Hike to Moat Lake: changed from Sat. Sept. 8 to Sat. Sept. 22, start time 8 a.m.  Please pre-register at coordinator@strathconapark.org to attend.

Other programs remain the same, & there may be additional programs offered in September, so please continue to check the Google calendar at the bottom of the page for details.

Recent trail updates from a couple of sources: Bedwell conditions on Club Tread; and Flower Ridge from Ron Otsu's blog Outdoor Solitude. (also check out his amazing photos!)

 At Paradise Meadows, contractors will be repairing some sections of the boardwalk within the next couple of weeks.

And final news, the Comox District Mountaineering Club just did the classic 27 km traverse of Forbidden Plateau: report here.

Hike to Croteau

As a preview to the guided hike on Saturday, I did the trek to Croteau Lake via Battleship Lake & returned via the Lake Helen Mackenzie loop. The trails are all in great shape & the weather was (and will continue to be) excellent.

Getting beyond Paradise Meadows is a chance to see some flowers that aren't found in the meadows area, but are more typical in the woods & rocky bluffs heading for the lakes & the Plateau beyond.

Battleship Lake from the south

Red paintbrush at lookout east of Lady Lake

Mt Elma view from Croteau Lake

Davidson's penstemon at Croteau Lake

Mt Allan Brooks from island in Lake Helen Mackenzie

Copperbush along Lake Helen Mackenzie north shore trail

Saturday's hike with naturalist Robin Harrison starts at the Wilderness Centre at 9 a.m.  - it should be an easy pace, about 6 hrs. total, with lots of time to look at flowers.

Further Fauna

A couple of visitors have reported seeing salamanders with gills in the meadows ponds & lakes. After a bit of research on E-Fauna BC, it seems likely that these are the neotenic form of the Northwestern Salamander . The neotenic adult lives in water  and retains its gills. Thanks to these reports, I have learned something new!

Numerous pollinating insects are active in the meadows right now. Bees are around of course, this one on a subalpine daisy.
 

Menzies' burnet is starting to bloom & looks like it will be quite abundant this year. This is not a bee but a syrphid fly on a bloom that is just emerging.

This butterfly, a purplish copper , was feeding on a fully blooming Menzies' burnet, in the same location where I photographed the same thing last year!

Lost, Found, & Info

So far this season has been good for lost & found items - not a lot reported or turned in, with some successful reunions already to date.

A phone was reported lost near Cruikshank Canyon lookout a few days ago - please contact coordinator@strathconapark.org if found , to reunite with its owner.

Number one found item this year is sunglasses - we have several pairs, including a pair of prescription lenses in metal frames, left on the camp registration box a couple of days ago. Other items include several odd gloves, including a right-hand black Thinsulate - probably from the winter; a small key (perhaps to a lock); and a couple items of kids clothing - a child's black Nike hoodie, again from just a couple of days ago,  and girl's blue tye-dye hoodie. Please contact us at coordinator@strathconapark.org to reclaim any items.

Trails & campsites in the Paradise Meadows & Forbidden Plateau area are all reported in great condition. Several recent threads on Club Tread are discussing areas of Strathcona Park: Mt Jutland, Kwai Lake, Mt Albert Edward, and the Bedwell area. 

A report was forwarded by Gerry Roberts, volunteer host at Buttle Lake Info Hut:  "On the east side of Buttle Lake trails, there are snow patches at about 1500 m and a lot more snow than usual at higher elevations. Possibly because last summer's snow did not melt before it was covered with new snow. The route through Augerpoint to Albert Edward is in good condition."

Nature Closeup

Another beautiful day at Paradise Meadows, so after the hike to Croteau Lake departed, I was able to do a couple of nature walks around the boardwalk. There is something new to notice on every excursion - the second time around, many details & closeups caught my eye.

White bog-orchid (Platanthera dilatata)

Right now many of the blooms in the meadows are small, and white - but all have intricate flowers, once you get close up for the details.

Fringed grass-of-Parnassus (Parnassia fimbriata)

Sometime the white flowers are pink or purplish - such as the sticky false asphodel , when not quite fully open.

And sometimes the pink/purplish flowers are white - such as the sickletop lousewort (usually pink in the meadows).

The tiny white spider-like flowers of the fern-leaved goldthread are long finished, but the seed pods are just as unusual.

Not all of the little gems of the meadows are flora - other small species can also be discovered. One of the benches along the boardwalk is at a sharp bend of Paradise Creek, where there is a great pool for viewing trout (henceforth to be called Trout Bend).  Apparently these are adults, although only about 6" long.

Gardeners in the Meadows

A great tour around Paradise Meadows with the Vancouver Island Master Gardeners - we took about 3 hours to cover the 3.8 km boardwalk loop which is about the right pace for looking at plants! Notable right now are subalpine daisy, Sitka burnet, Indian hellebore, bracted lousewort & sickletop lousewort.


The outing was a chance to try the new Paradise Meadows interpretive map & the on-line flower identification guide. Both are works in progress, being developed thanks to funding received from Mountain Equipment Co-op, to develop a script & map to guide interpretive nature walks. The information will be adapted for electronic media as well as eventually made available in a print form.

Deer-cabbage (Fauria crista-galli)

White clustered flowers, rounded leaves

 Sticky false asphodel (Tofieldia glutinosa)

White clustered flowers, long thin leaves

Many white clustered blooms in the meadows right now are a challenge to identify, and the flower guide should be helpful to sort them out. Click here to start exploring the guide for flowers - it will continue to evolve, but feedback is welcome in the meantime!

Indian hellebore (Veratrum viride)

Greenish clustered flowers, tall, lily-like leaves

Walks, Talks & Hikes in Paradise

A busy weekend coming up at the Wilderness Centre, with nature walks, talks & hikes. Friday morning, a group of Vancouver Island Master Gardeners will go on a tour around Paradise Meadows, looking at the native plants & subalpine ecology. On Saturday the 11th at 10 a.m. will be the next Meadows Interpretive Nature Walk for the public -  anyone visiting is welcome to just drop-in & come along around the boardwalk.

Also on Saturday is the next Level 2 Hike - Tim Penney of the Comox District Mountaineering Club is guiding an 18 km, 6-7 hr. hike, to Croteau Lake with an extension to Ball Lake lookout. Tim is also an excellent photographer - some of his work can be seen here. If you plan to attend please pre-register: coordinator@strathconapark.org

On Sunday, Alana Buchanan of the Marmot Recovery Centre at Mt. Washington will give a Nature Talk which will appeal to all ages - “Marvelous Marmots: Fun, Fact & Fiction”. This talk is a chance to see behind the scenes of the Recovery Centre: what the facility looks like, how it runs, and what they do with the captive marmots. The presentation will be indoors at the Wilderness Centre.
SWI programs are free, although donations are always  appreciated to support the operations of the Strathcona Park Wilderness Centre.

Super Hot

The BC Day long weekend is traditionally the busiest for visitors at Paradise Meadows, and this year was also the hottest weekend of the season! The temperature was reading 30 degrees in the shade outside the Centre. Visitors came from several countries but the majority stopping into the Centre were from BC: notably other areas of Vancouver Island (both north & south) and from nearby islands.

Mt. Alexandra seen from the Wilderness Centre

Lots of hikers went up Mt. Albert Edward as well - no difficulties or full campsites were reported.  In fact the Lake Helen Mackenzie campsite was reported to be only 1/3 occupied. Several hikers were going to the Cruikshank Canyon lookout & the trail was reported to be mostly free of snow.

Five-leaved Bramble (Rubus pedatus)

The berries are small & were not usually collected by coastal indigenous people.

It might have been too hot for the Saturday hike up Mt. Allan Brooks, but the ethnobotany talk on Sunday was well attended & enjoyed by a wide range of ages. Alison Maingon of Comox Valley Nature gave an excellent indoor talk for about 40 minutes followed by a 2 + hr. walkabout around the boardwalk.

Sitka Burnet (Sanguisorba canadensis)

Several new plants signs were placed out in the meadows, and a few brought in, as some flowers were finished blooming. Globeflower, marsh marigold, fern-leaved goldthread and bog-laurel are finished, and the heathers and shootingstar are past their peak in the meadows. Now there is an abundance of subalpine daisy, sticky false asphodel, and Sitka valerian in the meadows, with Drummond's cinquefoil, Sitka burnet, common butterwort, sickletop lousewort and narrow-leaved cottongrass underway. Orchids are blooming and we found a few northern starflower and five-leaved bramble. A flower I hadn't noticed before in the meadows is the third lousewort there: bird's-beak lousewort.

Bird's-beak Lousewort (Pedicularis ornithorhyncha)

The Latin species name is very descriptive: 'ornitho'=bird; 'rhynchus'=beak

A Hairy Woodpecker was making lots of noise on some snags but was too quick to photograph well. Steller's Jays have also been rather noisy lately. Hikers reported goldeneye, which nest in the subalpine, on Battleship Lake. Salamanders were reported in the lakes but not enough information to identify exactly.

Hairy Woodpecker

The wheelchair was appreciated by several visitors this weekend including a 99-years-young grandmother visiting with her family. Hikers appreciate the water available at the Centre also, especially on this hot weekend. Donations for water bottle refills are always welcome, as Strathcona Wilderness Institute pays for all utilities at the Wilderness Centre (including water).

Donations in general are welcome! as the Centre is entirely staffed by volunteers for SWI - our mandate is to provide information and inspire appreciation for Strathcona Provincial Park.

BC Day Weekend Outdoors

Why not spend the upcoming BC Day long weekend in the beautiful BC outdoors? Strathcona Wilderness Institute has weekend programs coming up, all starting from the Strathcona Park Wilderness Centre.

View from summit of Mt Allan Brooks

On Saturday August 4, naturalists Heather & Rolf Kellerhals will guide a hike to Mt. Allan Brooks. Starting at 9 a.m., this is a strenuous eight-hour hike to a mountain named for Major Allan Cyril Brooks, noted ornithologist & artist; and Allan Cecil Brooks (Jr), biologist & teacher. Pre-register at coordinator@strathconapark.org

Indian Hellebore- a plant respected by all indigenous peoples

On Sunday August 5 at 1 pm, Alison Maingon, retired archaeologist and member of Comox Valley Nature, will give a talk & walk titled “Ethnobotany in Paradise Meadows”. The outing will be an introduction to some of our native plants and their uses. Last year her talk was standing room only!

A new program for August is a regular weekly interpretive walk around Paradise Meadows. Every Saturday, the Wilderness Centre Naturalist will guide an interpretive walk around the boardwalk for anyone who drops by – just meet at 10 a.m. at the Centre.

SWI programs are free, although a donation of $5 –10 is appreciated to help with the Institute’s ongoing activities.

Summer Flowers

The next wave of summer flowers is blooming at Paradise Meadows.

Sub-alpine daisy comes out earlier in the season than its almost-identical twin, the leafy aster. The daisy has 30-80 outer petals while the aster typically has 15-60. The daisy has one flower per stem while the aster often has several.

Among the yellow flowers of the subalpine, arrow-leaved groundsel is easily recognized by its large triangular leaves.

 The little partridgefoot is worth a close look for its delicate flowers & leaves (branched like a partridges' foot)

 Queen's cup is blooming near the trailhead, at a location I haven't seen before.

Easily overlooked, alpine speedwell adds tiny spots of violet colour to the subalpine.