Tag Archives: Tranquille

Thompson River Estuary Hike

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On a grey day with a chance of rain in fourth week of February, I drove to Tranquille and parked at the gate.    I then took a rough path down to the wetlands area and wound my way out to the Estuary area.    From there I followed the shoreline downstream, sometimes hiking on the shoreline, sometimes, crossing channels at narrow spots, sometimes on sand-silt islands, and sometimes on rocky beaches.   The route was out to the sandy point where Cooney Bay starts, then back on the road.

Various channels wind down from the hills to the river, but there are usually a way to the other side at narrows.

This is a scenic route.    There is no established trails, but sections of paths can be seen on the shoreline or hikers can be more adventurous, crossing over to sand-silt islands.    At Cooney Bay there are some footworn paths out to the lakeshore.    I returned on the bumpy road on foot back to the start.

Shared here is a Google Photos Album with captions at this link – Thompson River Estuary Hike

The same album can also be seen as an embedded slideshow (without captions):

 

Cooney Bay Winter Hike

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On a cool and greyish day at the end of January I drove to Cooney Bay to hike along the beach and up the bluffs.    the road was very bumpy with deep puddles, but with slow driving I arrived at the parking area.     My hike was along the shoreline on sandy, then gravel, and then rocky shingle along the lakefront.    Tranquille River was frozen over with water running under the ice making the crossing difficult.    I got my feet wet going both ways. There was a steady wind out of the southeast, but there were geese and ducks on the water.    The shoreline is sandy near the outlet of the Thompson River, but size of … Continue reading →

Hiking the Estuary

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By the end of February a route that I try to hike is from the entrance area to Tranquille down to the shoreline where streams flow into the river, then along the rivershore toward Cooney Bay.    The whole area floods in late spring, but it is a wide estuary in the other seasons.   Conditions are wet after snowmelt, but we can pick our way downstream to get to a gravel beach. There are several streams which flow from the hills down to the river.    A faint trail heads southwest toward the wider estuary. We can follow the shoreline of the river, which braids out into several channels between silt islands, some still with ice. The beaches become wider … Continue reading →