A walk in the Elder Cedar Nature Reserve

The Elder Cedar Nature Reserve is located just off North Road in the southern end of Gabriola, near Degnen Rd.  There is a walking loop that leads you through the the forest wetland and some rare species.   The terrain is fairly level, with a small bridge and stepping stones to cross the stream, it is single track trails and they ask that you walk carefully and stay on the paths.  We recently walked the trails and it's approximately a 25 minute walk.

A walk in the Elder Cedar Nature Reserve.

This is a beautiful park located just off of North Road (near Degnen Road) on Gabriola Island.  The single trail loops through part of the 65-acre reserve, taking you through the lush forest, on small bridges and stepping across the river on large stones. 
I've gone with my kids many times and it takes us about 30-40 minutes, we do stop along the way to take a look at things as we go (and there is also a geo-cache located in these woods), so you may find it quicker.  You are asked to go by foot only and stay on the trail in this park, due to the delicate ecosystem.
Here is a link to Randy Young's website, he has mapped out a lot of Gabriola's amazing trails and his website is a fantastic resource if you want to explore the trails on the Island.
Submitted by: Tina Lynch

Gabriola Mushrooms in the Forest

To get the kids motivated to go for a walk in the Cooper Road/Rowan Way area on Gabriola, I promised them to do a bit of exploring and that we'd hit the forest and see what kinds of animals and bugs we could find.

On the walk we found a huge variety of mushrooms, it was amazing to see all the colors, shapes and sizes so we decided to collect a few to see if we could identify them at home (with the help of Google). On the way home, we bumped into some neighbours that suggested doing some spore prints. We cut the stems off the mushrooms, put them on a piece of paper with their gills down and put a glass over each mushroom.

The spore prints that they left were beautiful and apparently a good way to identify mushrooms. **just be careful picking mushrooms that you don't know- we don't want anyone getting sick.