Time: 10:00AM–12:30PM

The next SFURA walk is at Minnekhada Regional Park in Coquitlam on Wednesday, June 16 at 10:00 a.m. Bob Horsfall will lead the walk, which is rated Easy to Moderate and will take a bit more than 2 hours.

Driving directions:
(Webmaster's note. There is much construction on the Lougheed Highway near the Port Mann Bridge. I suggest that you get yourselves to Coquitlam Centre via the Barnett Highway. The Barnett Highway joins/becomes Lougheed at the Coquitlam Centre. Continue driving east for a few kilometres past Coquitlam Centre to Coast Meridian.)

From Lougheed Highway in Coquitlam, turn north onto Coast Meridian and travel 2.5 km to Victoria Drive. Turn right and follow Victoria Drive for 1 km to the crest of the hill, then make a deliberate left turn to stay on Upper Victoria Drive. Travel northeast for 3.5 km (Victoria becomes Quarry Road, and the road becomes gravel) to the park entrance and parking on your right. We will meet in the parking area at 10:00 a.m.
The route we will walk:
We will follow the Lodge Trail and Fern Trail 1.7 km east to the turnoff to the Addington Lookout (view over the Pitt marshes, which we will probably skip on this trip). Instead, we will walk northwest for 0.4 km, passing a side trail to the Low Knoll, and taking the next right branch for 0.5 km before we turn right again onto the 0.5 km trail to the top of the High Knoll. This trail climbs and is a bit rough, but the views from the knoll make it all worthwhile (it's a great place to have lunch, with views across Pitt River to the east, south to Golden Ears Bridge and Pitt River Bridge, and if the weather allows, west to Alex Fraser Bridge).

The trail down from the knoll brings us to a choice point, at which we turn left, reversing our earlier upward path. We turn right at the next choice point, and are on the mid-marsh trail, which crosses between upper and lower marshes on a dyke (0.7 km). At the west end of the marsh trail, we will choose between three short trails that return us to our parked cars. Since we've already 'done' the Lodge Trail, our choice will be between Meadow Trail (looks easy) and Log Trail (beautiful, but involves crossing a big log with a very low rail on one side).

We are avoiding the northern end of the park because there was a black bear sow and her cub up there when Bob walked it — no problem with her, but he doesn't want us to accidentally find ourselves between mama and her child!
If you have questions, you can email Bob Horsfall.

Special note: If anyone is interested in leading a walk or walks, please contact us. To continue having walks every week, we will need more leaders.