Anguilla - Wardward Point

Beach hike ... yesterday. Wardward Point ... cactus and geocache too. George and the girls headed off ... after navigating along a rough road only to be redirected along a rougher one we got close to the right spot [much of this was from memory of 6 years ago]. We spotted the famous people place ... Pitt-Jolie-Anniston or some combination. Then wound among the braided dune trails, some flooded from the ealier rains ... eventually we got the close to the beach ...

Lovely wind blowing enough to keep us cool, breakers pounding into the beach ... beautiful coral beachcombing, lots of flotum and jetsom ... then we branched off to wards the cactus fields and the marker ... where we expected the geocache.

Success on all fronts ... beachcombing, fantastic views, exercise and the geocache FTF [first to find].

Anguilla ... Iguana Cave Hike

A windy day, so plan B was, hike into the island today, beaches tomorrow. We loaded up the car, headed to the bakery then off towards Crocus Bay for the hike up into the caves and conveniently a geocache called Arawak [the early indegenious people of Anguilla]. 7 of us scrambled into the car.

Stas was prepared with a chair and book, as he is recovering from a hip replacement. We didn't know how long the hike would be ...

Off we went - the beginning of the trail was flooded with the recent rains so George led us around the edges and following the geocache directions we made our way up to the sistern then around to the cave entrance where Julie entered the cave to turn around shortly announcing there were bats!

Some of the rest of us were searching for the red tree beyond the cactus for the geocache ... we never did find the geocache but there were lots of cactus, which tend to make you focus on them!

Defeated but resileant we headed back to the house for lunch and a pool swim.

International Chapter ... Anguilla, BWI

As one of our members is interested in crossing England we decided that we should try walking across some other islands. As Anguilla is a small island we decided it should be our first.

This morning at 7:30 we set off, 7 of us, from Shoal Bay [where we are staying and headed across the island, having checked with the maps etc. so we wouldn't get lost, as if we could!

Apparently we have some geographically challenged hikers, so we kept in a group ... this was not our regular hiking, along trails, but along the roadway ... remember they drive on the left side of the road here and the roads are narrow ... occassional white lines with no sidewalks. Very friendly people ...

Anticipating heat ... we had backup care with MaryAnn and Stas [who had hip surgery very recently] who had water for us and hosted us at Sandy Hill, our destination.

Then we returned to Shoal Bay, by car as the next thing planned was energy balancing exercises, snorkling and beachcombing ...

Next hike not planned but it will involve geocaching.

Nov. 14, Hardly an Opportunity Goes By

Monday and couple of hikers had the day off so why not ... doesn't matter that we actually had snow last night [a skiff really] ... and today there has been wonderful sun both preceeded and followed by snow and rain. It has been exciting but like the postman off we went!

Crabapple Creek was the destination ... we went up from the Dry Land sort across to the creek, which was rushing, then followed Paul's flagging to the back bog then retraced out steps and came out on 2nd Ave. down to 10th and then back to the dry land sort.

Enjoy the lovely calm beautiful greens of the ferns and brilliant orange of the mushrooms ... it is bit slippy in places so be careful.

Nov. 11, 2011 Remembrance Day

As a wonderful part of Remembrance Day, following the Cenotaph Ceremony, we headed off for a Traundl Loop hike ...

So calm and mild ... we told stories, told to us, about when the towns folk used to go down there in the summers for ball games on the meadow and we admired the gigantic stumps as we walked through the woodland trails...

We were awed by the cliff side we had scrambled up earlier in the summer ... and the terrific view we had from our serendipitous hike that day. Thanks Reiner.

We checked out the area where we hope the work experience crew will be able clean up.

Then we went up to the see where our town water comes from ... the Honna looks quite high and delicious.


At the end of this hike is dinner and a movie ... doesn't always happen that way.

November 7, 2010 Experimental Hike

After a fun lunch with the QC Seniors at Tlell's Crows Nest a couple of the hikers took off to explore some of Tlell's woodlands.

Can you guess where we went on 2 mini hikes. Wildlife spotted; an expiring coho

Of course we ended up on the beach ... and talking about the Supertanker Threat of the Embridge Pipeline and the upcoming Joint Review Panel.

Update: 2 island locations have been announced for early 2012 - Masset and Queen Charlotte for the local in person presentations.

November 6, 2011 Sheldens Bay, Moresby Island

Emails went out and folks responded ... a couple hikers were double booked so we all fit in 2 hardy cars ... the roads were rough but the drivers were undaunted. 10:00 ferry had us over and down to Sheldens in great time ... it was a bit nippy on the way over on the ferry ... west wind!

By the time we found our trail, checked google earth's map, got our snacks organized etc. we were ready to set off 11:30ish. While we had rain gear ready, we never saw a drop of rain and there was no wind yet a powerful swell was rolling in against the rocks.

We went out the forest encroached logging road paralleling the shoreline to the big beach then walked the beach around to Dogfish Bay ... there we detoured into the forest, wide open and mossy, lovely to wander through.

Beachcombing wasn't the best ... but it was lovely to sit on the beach, warm and cozy, jackets off in November. The oxeye daisies were still blooming and the mint was still edible!

Eventually we had to turn back to retrace our steps to the cars and with perfect timing drove onto the ferry with 5 minutes to spare. We did stop to figure out this little fellow frog or toad.

Once again we did spot a bear [practically every trip out we see one but the camera isn't always ready!]