Good morning. It’s another gorgeous island Sunday, which seems like the perfect time to recommend a walk in the woods.

Beachy sunshine is so fantastic. But, when the temps start pushing the high 20s, I start thinking about heading toward the cool shade of the forest.

That’s exactly what we did yesterday, checking out the Quinsam River Trail just north of Campbell River with the small yet energetic weekend NeighbourWood Walk crew and walk leader Dionne Lapointe-Bakota

Just a few quick words about the weekend walks before I get too far into this:

Come join us!

I know, we got started late because I got all paranoid about the swine flu thing (hrmmmm). But, we do have a few great walks left and I have to tell you that it has been so much fun to get out and explore Campbell River a bit more. Dionne is a great guide and knows THE hot locations for families. Her explorer skills make these walks extra cool.

The list of remaining walks is in the sidebar (for e-mail readers, you have to click into the site to see them). If you think you want to jump in for any of them, just e-mail me and we’ll get you the directions and meet-up location.

Back to the trail.

Exploring Campbell River trails is a new thing for us this year and one of the trails that I’ve been itching to try out is the one along the Quinsam River that leads up to the fish hatchery there.

The Quinsam is a gorgeous stretch of salmon habitat that is lively with fish and wildlife all year long. Proof enough for us was that, within about 50 steps onto the trail and our first offshoot that lead to the river, we discovered a school of salmon fry hanging out in the warming late Spring water.

We also discovered piles of crawfish skeletons (see above) strewn along the rocks (they live in the river), and the kiddos were totally psyched for a day of fantastic nature discovery.

The trail is mostly flat, with a few tricky passages that make it unaccessible for strollers (bust out the kid-toting packs). Several old but sturdy bridges pass over tributaries feeding the river and even some ocassionally flowing river beds where, when drying up, are great spots for learning about animal footprints. We spotted a bunch of them and on getting back home discovered they were river otter and hare prints. Very cool.

Throughout the longish trek we found something new and fantastic at every turn. There was a huge snag with licorice fern growing on it that all of us took a little taste of, Queen Anne’s Lace coming into bloom, birds of all kinds and a quietness that is unmatched.

One of my favourite finds was most definitely the chocolate lilies nearing bloom.

The tiny people soooooo didn’t care about my flower discoveries, but that was probably because they were too busy scoping out skunk cabbage, searching for bugs and trying to see how close they could get to the water before one of the adult types perked up and re-directed them back into the forest.

We got pretty far down the trail when there was an unfortunate incident with a wasp nest. So, we all learned a really tough lesson in keeping our eyes peeled for nature in its raw form.

The wasp event ended quickly and was overcome by a fantastic stop at a rocky low point on the river where the kids spent a good 30 or 45 minutes (it could have been all day, really) splashing, laughing and looking for cool rocks to match to the rock guide (reviewed HERE) I brought along.

The forest was cool and relaxing, and even more so we realized when we got back out to the parking area which was baking.

This was one of the most lovely trails we have discovered to date and I highly recommend a weekend adventure on the Quinsam River.

Please use your bear and cougar smarts (we have a bit of a guide and great tips to check out HERE) as large animals are common.

But, don’t let that stop you.

You get to this trail head from highway 28 to Gold River.  Take 19A heading north through Campbell River.  Continue heading straight on highway 28.  Turn left onto Quinsam Road.  The turn is just outside of town and right by the Haig Brown House.  Once on Quinsam Road you will cross a small bridge.  Directly after the bridge are two parking lots, one on either side of the road.  Park in the lot on your left.  This is where the trail begins.

Have a great Sunday!