Swan Lake and Christmas Hill

March 10, 2024March 11, 2024 saucee192 Comments

Again, this walk is based off of John Crouch’s “Walk Victoria” book, however, we did not park where Mr. Crouch suggested, nor did we once look at the map provided…

Therefore, this week I cannot tell you an accurate distance for the walk we undertook as we embarked on a (mis) adventure.

It started out well. We (R, Ryuu-chan, Dragon-kun, and I) parked at the Saanich Municipal Hall and headed to the trail that circles Swan Lake.

We followed the trail clockwise, and on to the bridge like path over the lake where we spotted a Cormorant.

We continue up around to the Nature House (education centre) and through a residential area towards Christmas Hill.

Steps leading up to the education centre

Near the entrance of Christmas Hill there were beautiful flowers in bloom and lots of fern.

Dragon-kun standing in a bloom of Glory of the snow (Chionodoxa forbesii)

We then headed up a number of stairs to the top of the hill and enjoyed a fantastic view.

We headed down the hill and took a “detour” finding ourselves on Quadra Street and to our delight in front of a Filipino cafe and bakery. We obviously could not miss this opportunity for coffee and cakes.

After our little break, we headed back up to Christmas Hill and came across a vernal (seasonal) pond which was formed over 12,000 years ago. Apparently, there are rare and endangered species in this area that cannot be found anywhere else on the hill… or so the faded sign says.

This is the last photo I took… for after this we found ourselves walking in circles… and up and down the hill.

R. was a sport and said it was good training for her Camino trip later this year. But I was starting to panic and thought we would need to call in search and rescue to get us off the dang hill and back to Swan Lake. (We could have stopped and asked any number of people we came across on the hill… but THAT would be cheating!)

In the end we found our way back to Swan Lake walked the remainder of the circular route and ended up back at the car. The walk was around 8 km.

The walk we did (kind of looks like a bird)

If you are in Victoria/Saanich and want to do this walk, there is parking by the Municipal Hall and there is also parking near the education centre just off of Ralph Road.

Walks and Hikes

Broadmead

January 28, 2024January 28, 2024 saucee19Leave a comment

This week’s walk is #17 from “Walk Victoria” by John Crouch. This walk has a short route, which Crouch says takes 1.5 hours to walk, and a long walk (2.5 hours). My friend R., usagi-chan, and I decided on the short route, which was roughly 7km long.

We started at Broadmead Shopping Centre (Broadmead was the name of the racing horse the late 19th century Victorian business man, R.P. Rithet, owned.)

Headed to Falaise Park.

Walked in a forested path along the Royal Oak Burial Park.

Instructions for the forested route were not very clear. Example, “Cross an intersecting trail and, after about 300 metres, in a cluster of tall cedar trees, follow the…” (the forest is FULL intersecting trails and cedar trees!!! Which cluster is he referring to?) I didn’t freak out too much as we were close to civilization, but I might bring an ordinance map next time.

There was a section which mentioned an alder filled gully… I misread it as Adder filled gully. I’m glad I had R, who is knowledgeable about plants, with me… I was about to hightail it out of there!

Interesting forest art on the path…usagi-chan said it looks a bit like a distant cousin

When we got to the top of the trail ( it was uphill a lot of the way) there was a Reservoir and the a path to McMinn Park via Grant Park.

We then walked through some residential areas and through another park path .

And back to the shopping mall.

The weather was quite warm 12•C and it was foggy. Perfect weather for a walk.

Walks and Hikes

Return to walking

January 21, 2024 saucee192 Comments

After my pilgrimage in Japan, I took a bit of an hiatus from walking.

Today with the aid of my friend R. I started walking again.

I hope to continue this trend of weekly walks throughout the year. I will be using different walking/hiking books I have to plan out my walks.

Today’s walk is #5 “Fairfield/Oak Bay” from Walk Victoria by John Crouch. My one criticism of this book is that the hikes are measured in the time it took John Crouch to walk the route and not in actual kilometres. Mr. Crouch wrote that it is a 3 hour walk… it took us 4.5 hours… of course we did stop to have tea and snacks at the coffee shop at Oak Bay Marina… but still.