The Similkameen News Leader
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GROUP HOSTS WILDFLOWER EXPEDITION
A warm Summer morning, twelve field naturalists and a guest from Langley met at the bus deport at 9:00 AM for a hike to view the Spring wild flowers with Don Burbidge.
Someone said that the terrain looked like the opening shots of the movie "The Sound of Music" except this hills were alive with the blossoms of Springtime!
These hills, though not in Austria, but up Polecutter Road, off Sterling Creek Road East of Princeton.
The dark blue of the Larkspur, the red and orange of the Indian Paint Brushes scattered among the remains of the arrow-leaved Balsamroot. Chocolate lilies were blooming among the leafy remains of the Balsamroot plant.
Although most of the Balsamroot's blooms were over, enough remained to make one realize this hill would be spectacular covered in the yellow blooms this well-known plant produces.
Other plants in bloom were prolific showing of the low blue, phacelia, the Dwarf Mountain Lupine, the yellow of pasture sage, meadow death camas, and timber milk vetch.
Wooly pusstoes and rosy pussy toes grew abundantly, as did old man whiskers (did you know that these were considered a love potion?) The beautiful delicate shooting stars were also on the decline, but areas in the shade still had an ample showing.
Small wood violets also were abundant at the lower levels of the hill, growing amongst the birch and pine with the vibrant yellow of the dandelions. The view from the top was also quite breathtaking. All in all a real visual feast for the eyes.
We continued up the road and off to a trail on the left, which took us through some lovely treed areas, as it was becoming quite warm, we enjoyed the shade of the trees. We passed an area where some drilling had been done in the past.
We stopped for a companionable lunch and hiked back towards the cars. A worthwhile walk to take in late Spring.
Our next hikes are on June 11th (with the Bottenfields - call 295-3119) and on June 18th (Osprey Lake to Secret Lake with Madelon Schouten) - call 295-7078).
Our May meeting guest speaker was retired Biology teacher Harold Bauerbough, living at Naramata with a very interesting presentation of the aftermath of the huge fire the Summer of 2003.
Harold had documented with weekly slides the return and re-growth of plant life to a 10-acre sample plot just above Naramata.
Our next meeting will be a Swan Lake Celebration on June 13th at 7:00 PM at Swan Lake.
Birding, discussions and treats.
To get there head up Osprey Lake Road to just past the Princeton Fairgrounds.
A large sign on the left denotes the walk into Swan Lake. Everyone welcome to attend.
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