Walk # 117 March 12, 2014 Exploring Gordon Head with Wenche in the lead
We met at the Tyndall park where there's lots of unlimited parking on a weekday. Wenche took the lead of the group of 17 eager walkers. Heading up San Juan and into the first of many laneways we walked through some lovely areas of what once was mostly market garden and flower production farms. Wenche took us on a large loop that went as far as Houlihan Court and through many more laneways and back to our starting place. The spring weather was great. Most of us were overdressed for the warm sun. A group of 14 of us went to the Smugglers Cove Pub for lunch afterwards.
Here's Phil's photos, Terry's photos
Here's Phil's photos, Terry's photos
Walk # 118 March 26th 2014 Walking the Lochside Trail in Central Saanich
The CAMRAmblers missed a walk last week due to bad weather and illness. On March 26th the CAMRAmblers walked from the entrance of the Saanich Artifacts park on Lochside Ave, along the Lochside Trail beside the Patricia Bay Highway to Mt. Newton Cross Road and down to the water at Saanichton Bay. We followed the path along the waterfront and back through some residential streets to Lochside and back to Mt. Newton Cross Road and back along the trail to our start. The highway noise was quite loud for part of the walk and that made it hard to hear what our fellow walkers were saying some times. The weather was pretty good however, as it didn't rain, but the sky overhead was quite overcast. We enjoyed a really good lunch at the Prairie Inn. The prices are very good for the lunch specials and the quality is excellent.
Here's Terry's photos, Phil's Photos ,
To view another "Canadian walking group" that was spotted click on this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WVTG3dXuVM
Here's Terry's photos, Phil's Photos ,
To view another "Canadian walking group" that was spotted click on this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WVTG3dXuVM
Walk #119 April 2nd 2014 Oak Bay - Behind the Tweed Curtain
On April 2nd 2014, on a sunny spring day the CAMRAmblers met at the end of Transit Road near Newport Avenue and walked straight down to Beach Drive. At the waterfront we turned right and walked along Beach Drive for three blocks to Monteray Ave. where we turned right again. We followed Monteray Avenue all the way back to Oak Bay Avenue, We found that we were too early for our lunch reservation at the Penny Farthing, so we walked up the Avenue to York Place where we walked to the end of this interesting street. There are several massive old mansions perched high on the hill that have been turned into multible family dwellings. Also we found a very overgrown property behind a rock wall with locked rusty gates. Somewhere behind this mass of vegetation and rust lies a forgotten property worth millions, just sitting in the middle of affluent Oak Bay gathering cob webs. We went back to the Penny Farthing and found that we could get in and take our seats for lunch. As our party was 18 persons we had the entire back patio area to ourselves.
Here's Claudia's Photos Phil's photos Terry's Photos
Here's Claudia's Photos Phil's photos Terry's Photos
Walk # 120 April 9th 2014 Brentwood Bay Walk
On April 9th 2014 it was a nice sunny spring day with very little wind. We met on Marchant Road in Brentwood and parked down near the end of the street nearest the waterfront. A short walk along Fisherman's lane to the beginning of the trail and path that leads into Ravine Park and along the sea wall in front of a large group of town house. We decided not to walk up the steep set of stairs, but walked around by road and up to Wallace Drive where we followed the edge of the road to Hagen Road and back to Marchant Road our starting place. A short drive back out the peninsula to the Prairie Inn for a good lunch. This walk was only 45 minutes for our group. About a mile and a half in length.
Here's Laura's photos, Here's Terry's photos
Here's Laura's photos, Here's Terry's photos
Walk # 121 April 16th 2014 Gowland Tod Trail to Tod Inlet revisited
On April 16th 2014 the CAMRAmblers went to the Gowland Tod Trail to Tod Inlet. This was our second visit to this park, and the lovely flowers, rushing stream and moss covered trees were as beautiful as ever. We walked down the main trail to the inlet and looked at the ruins of the historic cement plant and the pilings that were once the wharf. On the way back up the trail some of us took the side trails to see the views of the stream and we found a place where people had placed old bottles, pieces of shoes and other things that were used by the men that worked at the cement plant and lived in shacks along the trail back in the early 1900's. For lunch this time we went to the Red Barn Market and had some custom made wraps and sandwiches. We ate outside under the covered porch and it poured with rain for a while.
Here are Terry's Photos, Laura's Photos; Dave's Photos
Here are Terry's Photos, Laura's Photos; Dave's Photos
Walk #122 April 23rd 2014 From Esquimalt to View Royal on the E&N railtrail
On April 23rd 2014 the CAMRAmblers met at Judy's home in the Highrock area of Esquimalt and walked down to the E&N Railtrail and walked to the corner of Admirals Road and Colville Road. Since nobody else showed up to meet us we carried on across Admirals Road and into the newly constructed rail trail that parrallels the E&N Track. We walked along this path beside the Esquimalt Graving Dock and looked at the ships undergoing repairs and the Naval ships in CFB Esquimalt. Eventually we came to where the border of Esquimalt and View Royal joins and entered the Songhees First nations reserve, by way of the train tracks. There is no improvement there yet so we walked along the rail bed until we got closer to the Portage park boundry where the reserve lands end and another section of the rail trail begins. We detoured into the forest of the Portage Park and made our way to the stairs that lead up to the View Royal Municipal hall and the 4 Mile Pub next door. We had a nice lunch and tried the ales that are now made in the brew pub. Lois and Marion had driven to the pub to join us for lunch, some of us hiched a ride back to Judy's place so we didn't have to walk all the way back.
Here are Terry's photos
Here are Terry's photos
Walk # 123 April 30th 2014 Logan Park and Calvart Park
On April 30th the CAMRAmblers met on Hector Road at the beginning of the trail to Logan park. This was a nice trail that looped up into the forest and came out on Viaduct Road. Another trail brought us back to where we started. We decided to walk from there to the nearby Calvart Park that is off the side of a short little side road only about five minutes away by foot. The Calvart Park proved to be quite a bit larger and had some tricky rock outcrops to climb over, not to mention a few muddy parts. There were loads of wild flowers to admire and a rather large pond complete with a beaver lodge. This park took us much longer to walk than we had expected so we had to phone the restaurant to let them know that we were going to be about twenty minutes late for our reservation. I think that everyone enjoyed finding this little known park, that is so close to Victoria. The group had a nice lunch at the Crooked Goose Pub and many of us had the Kale salad for lunch this time. Yummy!
Here are Terry's photos
Here are Terry's photos
Walk #124 May 7th 2014 Queen Alexandra Center and Haro Woods
On May 7th the CAMRAmblers met beside Maynard park where there are no parking restrictions and walked through the lane from Hobbs Road to the school grounds on Haro Road. We walked down Haro Road towards the water front and through a path that took us to the waterfront beside the Queen Alexandra Center where we walked through that property admiring the view of Finnerty Cove and the center's grounds. Then we walked through some trails on the Haro Woods that took us up towards the Uvic married students resident's housing and turned onto Sutton Road and crossing again thrush the school yard we followed our way back through the path to Maynard park. We left our cars there and walked the two or three blocks to the Smuggler's Cove Pub for a nice lunch.
Here are Terry's photos
Here are Terry's photos