This week’s hike with the Harbour City Newcomers was at Walley Creek Trail. It was a short but sweet walk, at first along a trail lined with aspen trees that were leaning in to reach for light.

Then we enjoyed a surprise side-trek to an opening in the forest where trees had been harvested in the 19th century. In those days, trees were not cut down close to the ground. Instead, the lumberjacks inserted planks into holes cut into the sides of the trees and then stood on the planks to cut higher up. I don’t know why they did this, but it is an interesting difference from modern techniques. Here is an illustration taken from The French Canadian Genealogist.

This technique meant that the remaining tree stumps are quite large, even though they have since been reduced a little by natural weathering. We also saw evidence that these old stumps have even survived a forest fire.

Todays walk was both a breath of fresh (cold!) air, and informative. I learned a lot while enjoying good company.