2006 LAST WALK, ANNUAL MEETING, PARTY TIME

[1] The Last Guided Walk For 2006

When: The walk will take place on Sunday, Nov. 12th

Registration: Starts at 12:30 PM

Walk Begins: 1:00 PM

Directions to the Start Point for this Guided Walk Event:
From Hwy 125 Exit 3, follow Rte.223 past Leitches Creek for approx. 7kms to the base of the Barrachois Mountain.

The walk will begin at the gravel pit located on the left (west) side of the road.

This is a guided walk event of 10k Rated at 3C, those walkers wanting to do 5 k are welcomed to do so.

[2] 9th Annual Club Meeting:

Place: 106 Carmichael Drive, Sydney River

When: Saturday, November 25th, 2006

Time: 2:00 PM (opening remarks by the chairperson will begin promptly at 2:05 PM)

The meeting is open to all club members and anyone interested or joining The Cape Breton Island Hoppers Volkssport Club.

We will be discussing the plans for the clubs 10th Anniversary celebrations for 2007 and we will have the brochure for these events available as well.

There will be a discussion as well on our 4th Celtic Colours Walk Program.

If you do not have our 2007 Guided Walk schedule you can pick it up at the annual meeting.

The club executive committee’s is open to any member who would like to volunteer for a position.

We will try to make this meeting as informal as possible but as informative as we can.

[3] IT's PARTY TIME, Annual End Of Season or Christmas Party:

This potluck dinner party will take place: TO BE CONFIRMED
Come out and enjoy the company of your fellow walkers; after this party we are taking an unprecedented extended break until March 2007.

Place: TO BE CONFIRMED AT A NEW LOCATION

When: Sunday, 10 December 2006

Time: 4:00 PM

The North River Trek

The trek along the North River Trail proved to be a little wetter under foot then we had anticipated.
Earlier in the morning before our walk there had been high winds and a heavy rainfall, particuliarly in the Glace Bay and Sydney areas where some power interuptions had been reported.
Undaunted by the weather a number of volkssporters from the Island Hoppers made their way to the North River Trail head.
Before starting off there was a light shower and wind. Then as we made our way up the trail entrance the sun broke out of the clouds and though the temp was a little cool we had a very comfortable walk.
Parts of the trail had turned into streams but we were able to walk on the high sides of the trail with little or no problems. We did not have to deviate from the trail as we have with some of the trails after a rain storm. The trail is well packed and rocky, not muddy, making it easier to walk during inclement weather.
The trail is also lined with a heavy foilage of fallen leaves with a distinctive smell in the air that you only get in the fall of the year when travelling through the forest. The vibrant colours of the fall were still visible but will soon disappear if we continue to have such wet weather this fall season.
Along the trail we passed over two bridges and the streams had turned into malstorms, the once tranquil small waterfalls along these brooks could be heard in the distance as we were approaching and then departing the bridges that crossed over these now new rivers flowing into and feeding the larger North River.
At the 4.5 k mark we turned left towards the North River; if we had continued to the right along the main trail we would have gone onto the North River Falls. Today was not the day for that particuliar trip.
At the rivers edge, the planned turn around point, we noted that the river had swollen over its banks. Where we had stood 3 days ago on the prewalk was now part of the river and after a short break we opted to head back as the weather was once again changing, thick black clouds engulfed the mountains around us and the temperture quickly and amazingly dropped in a few moments.
On the way back I noted fresh moose tracks coming up from the river heading for higher ground, apparently the moose was not interested in crossing the river today.
We were a fortunate group of walkers as we made it make to the Start/Finish Point without getting wet and in fact most if not all the walkers heeded the advice of the prewalkers to wear good hiking boots and we arrived back without even getting our feet wet.
A successful and wonderful walk along the North River.

In the coming years we will again consider this walk event for our Celtic Colours Program as there is potential for three seperate walks in this area; this Includes a much more comfortable start point to the North River Trail other then the SP that is located in the North River Park picnic area.

MESSAGE FROM SUZANNE & LEE LAZARO

ON THE CANOE LAKE TRAIL,CELTIC COLOURS WALKS, 2006




A VIEW OF CANOE LAKE, CELTIC COLOURS WALKS, 2006



The following message was sent by Lee and Suzanne Lazaro, California USA

Rollie - please share this short message with the Island Hoppers.
Thanks, Lee.

" Hello and greetings to the Island Hoppers ! Suzanne and I, as well as Suzanne's mom, Janet, wanted to share with you how pleased we were to join the Island Hoppers volksporting group this summer, and how much we enjoyed walking and talking with many of you. Due to the arrival of friends at our home in Cape Breton last week, we were unable to make the final walk in Louisburg, but we enjoyed the other Celtic Colours walks with you. The Island Hoppers are a fun group and we look forward to joining you next Spring/Summer on some new walks !

PS - some of you may have read in the Post last week that Suzanne had accidentally lost her camera during the visit of the Premier of Nova Scotia to Dominion Bay Beach, where we had (of course) been taking a walk ! The great news is, we recovered the camera with pictures intact, thanks to a typically honest Cape Bretoner, Mr. Joseph Elsworth of Dominion Bay, to whom we are very grateful (he of course received the obligatory bag of turnips as a reward! :-) Therefore, we will be sending Rollie the group photo's from our Canoe Lake walk.

Best Regards for a wonderful Fall and Winter !

Lee and Suzanne Lazaro"

Christmas Party, A Visitor to Louisbourg, Last Two Walks for October!

Our 3rd Annual Celtic Colours Walks will end this coming Saturday, 14th October with one of our most favourite walks going to the lighthouse in Louisbourg. After this walk I will be prepared to give the statistics of the numbers of walkers and where they are from for those who are interested.

We will start this event at Han Beck Sea Products parking lot located off Main Street Louisbourg.

Registration begins at 1:30 PM and we step off at 2:00 PM.

Special Note to Club members: If you have completed this event since 01 July of this year you may walk for distance only and the stamp for your DISTANCE BOOK is only $1.00; all other club members who have not walked in Louisbourg at anytime this year or who have walked prior to 31 June,you may stamp both Event & Distance Books at a cost of $2.00. PLEASE CHECK YOUR BOOKS PRIOR TO THE EVENT for a + sign and the last three numbers for Louisbourg are 243 with a stamp image of a lighthouse.

On Wednesday, Oct 11, five of our club members met Sylvia Fisher, a member of The St. Alberts Trekkers, Alberta. Sylvia is travelling by cruise ship from Montreal to Norfork, Virginia. It is Sylvia's goal to do all the capital city walks and lighthouse walks across Canada. The Island Hoppers have helped her with this goal by escorting her out to Louisbourg one of the two designated lighthouse walks here in Cape Breton and a part of the National Lighthouse Program.
Sylvia will try to return to CB in the near future to try and complete our other lighthouse walk in Baddeck. She may try to accomplish this during our 10th Anniversary celebrations in 2007.

Thank You to Carmel Coffin, Elsie Buck, Lucy Nardini and Bill Hopkins for joining Sylvia and myself for a great day of walking. The weather was perfect, unusual for Louisbourg,the comradiere on the trail was equally perfect.

SUNDAY, OCT 29th we are in North River Bridge at the Provincial Park, picnic area for a 10k walk along the North River. PLEASE NOTE: We will not be going to the falls.
Start Time 1:00PM, please register at 12:30

The Annual End Of Season and Christmas Party!

This year Marion Hopkins will be our host for this Pot Luck Event.

185 Fatima Drive, Sydney River

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 10th, 2006

Later in November we will coordinate what type of prepared dish that you would like to bring.

I though I should share one of the photos that I came cross while going through my files of photos that were sent to me recently. This smiling couple is Kathy and Doug Grant on top of Broad Cove Mountain in the Highland National Park. A fantastic view of Cape Smokey in the back ground.