Gabriola folks will take one look at this frog and say that frog isn’t native to Gabriola! He lives here now, though, and seems quite content where I spotted him amidst the moss. He’s in the Elder Cedar (S’ul-hween X’pey) Nature Reserve, just near one of the bridges that GALTT built for us. In case [...]
Filed in Gabriola Island,trails Comments Off
These are the kind of trailmarkers that seem to stick around in the Gabriola forest: the unobtrusive ones made of natural material.
Filed in Gabriola Island,trails One Response so far
The Gabriola birdhouse mystery continues — I found this one yesterday. (Other birdhouses found in the Gabriola woods so far: first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth.) I’ve become quite fond of these birdhouses, and hope a few more will appear this winter. Dear birdhouse builder, whoever you are: don’t you think there should be a [...]
Filed in Gabriola Island,trails Comments Off
See it there, nestled in the tree’s bark? One reflector. Is it a fluke (fell off bicycle, placed on tree), or is it there for the benefit of those who walk through Gabriola’s woods while the rest of us are sleeping?
Filed in Gabriola Island,trails Comments Off
If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you know about the birdhouses that have been appearing in the middle of the Gabriola woods. (So far: first, second, third, fourth, fifth.) This is the latest one. It lacks a roof, and the usual fir-cone decorations; perhaps the birdhouse-builder will return to this birdhouse and [...]
Filed in birds,Gabriola Island,trails Comments Off
I keep finding trees with blazes like this in the Gabriola woods. They’re all over the place. Now I’d like to talk to talk to the people who made these blazes. Are they still alive, and still on Gabriola? Gabriolore, do you know? Or how about you, Nick Doe? Anybody else?
Filed in Gabriola Island,history 15 Comments so far
What do you suppose this is doing in the Gabriola woods? At first I thought it was the world’s biggest beer bottle, but no. It’s made of plastic, and the letters on the plastic say PERFEX. Is this another leftover from somebody’s forest grow-op?
Filed in Gabriola Island,junk in the forest,photos,trails 5 Comments so far
In Gabriola’s 707 Acre woods, the official trailmarkers disappear soon after they are posted. The red wooden triangles went, then the red plastic diamonds. Yet these piles of rocks remain, even though it would be ever so easy to kick the piles over and cast the stones into the outer darkness. I think it’s something [...]
Filed in Gabriola Island,trails Comments Off
I’ve seen all kinds of trailmarkers in the Gabriola woods – some fun and interesting, some not so much – but there’s only one I really, really hate. It’s this one. Some bright spark decided to scratch a large and ugly arrow into an otherwise attractive boulder. It points down a perfectly obvious road, so [...]
Filed in Gabriola Island,trails 2 Comments so far
There are a few places in the Gabriola forest where deer skulls serve as trailmarkers. Here’s a tree that’s just been skullified in the last while.
Filed in Gabriola Island,trails Comments Off
Have you been following the Gabriola birdhouse mystery? (Previous finds: first, second, third, fourth.) It’s odd: carefully decorated birdhouses appear in the forest, on the most obscure trails you can imagine. Well, here’s the latest.
Filed in birds,Gabriola Island,photos,trails Comments Off
Last year I showed you a plastic bottle that appeared in a tree in the Gabriola woods. Since then, five or six more plastic jugs and a large bucket have appeared in the same cedar tree. It makes a good landmark, but it’s kind of odd to have a tree in festooned in plastic. One [...]
Filed in junk in the forest,photos,trails Comments Off
I suppose this is a reminder of the days when the Gabriola woods were logged. It’s a knot of rusted cable, hung from a branch that somebody has jammed between two trees. The orange flagging tape is there because that’s what somebody has used to mark a few other places along this route.
Filed in Gabriola Island,photos,trails Comments Off
Here’s another installment in the Gabriola birdhouse mystery. I’ve already shown you the first, second, and third birdhouses. Then there were no new discoveries for a while, so I thought that was the end of this particular series. But no! Just recently the house shown here has appeared. These birdhouses are all placed on extremely [...]
Filed in birds,Gabriola Island,trails Comments Off
This one is 15 or 20 feet above the ground, suspended in a cedar tree. In the Gabriola woods, of course, where all manner of strange things turn up. It’s the glass trailmarkers I worry about. Is this one a fire hazard, do you think? Or do I just worry too much? Update: I’ve just [...]
Filed in Gabriola Island,trails Comments Off
Here’s another installation in the antlers in the Gabriola woods series of blog posts. Splendid antlers, no? I hope they last a long time, as I’m inordinately fond of this pair.
Filed in Gabriola Island,photos,trails Comments Off
Remember a while back I showed you the machete in the Gabriola woods? Well, these clippers and this saw have recently appeared just next to the machete. Go figure. (Thanks to my ever-observant hiking friend for telling me about this newest addition to the collection of weird stuff in the Gabriola woods.)
Filed in Gabriola Island,trails 2 Comments so far
I hiked in Gabriola’s 707 Acre Wood today, and came across this: a few trees wearing, um, sweaters? Really. I am not making this up. Somebody has been knitting for trees, and now several trees are sporting fanciful knitted stripes. I don’t know many knitters, and don’t knit myself. But a friend who does knit [...]
Filed in Gabriola Island,trails 3 Comments so far
