If I’m going to describe other people as groundhogs, then I guess I shall be one too. For the record, I was out of my hole and enjoying my shadow back in January without the safety of my groundhog transportation device (car). Today I did what I would describe as a medium length road bike ride (based on my current longest ride of just over 100km) through Downtown Victoria and Central Saanich. I started the ride with Michelle and one of her friends who was experiencing the joy/horror of riding a road bike for the first time in years. I think she did OK. After about 10km we went our separate ways and I headed out to Central Saanich via Prospect Lake Road. My preferred moniker for this road is the Roller Coaster as it has lots of ups, downs, and corners. The Roller Coaster’s one shortcoming is that the road surface is kind of rough; if a real roller coaster was this bumpy its riders would probably suspect that track failure was pending along with certain death. Thankfully, I had enough sauce today to make the Roller Coaster feel like a roller coaster instead of a 15 minute suffer fest.

GPS Data: 57.4km – 2h00m – 28.8km/h – GPS Route

A road bike ride through Downtown Victoria and Central Saanich. Click on the map to see detailed GPS information on the Garmin website.

The appropriately named epicenter of groundhog activities on this sunny/warm day in Victoria, BC.

I guess it's almost Daffodil time. This is a fairly common sight around Central Saanich.

We started out at the scenic Tillicum Mall parking lot in front of Kelsey’s Restaurant and headed north along Colquitz River Trail, which heads in the direction of Layritz Park and the Camosun College Interurban campus. As hiking goes, I would say we were hauling ass thanks to some wide, smooth, and hardpacked trail. At various points along this trail there are these interesting concrete platform thingies set up to allow crossing of or viewing of the river. Let me try and paint a verbal picture; imagine lily pad like things, strong enough to support a human and spaced not too far apart thus allowing you to walk across them to the opposite river bank. Not too long after we started, we hung a left on Marigold Road and headed over to Spectrum School. We took the pedestrian bridge over the Island Highway and walked down to Cuthbert Holmes Park. Given its proximity to the Island Highway it was hard to escape the vehicular noise, but it did subside as we headed deeper into the not terribly large park. Having not been in Cuthbert Holmes Park before I did not know what to expect; like most other little parks in Greater Victoria this is a good spot by my standards. Maybe it’s a little bit small, but that’s ok.

It seems like the Wednesday night hikes over the past few months have been trending towards the 6-7km length, this was a good reminder that a nice hour long 5km outing does the job too.

GPS Data: 4.7km – 0h53m – GPS Route

A Wednesday night hike along the Colquitz River and through Cuthbert Holmes Park near Victoria, BC. Click on the map to see more GPS data on the Garmin website.

Instead of one of my usual routes, like the sperm route (UVic and back), I set off somewhat willy-nilly on a route that included a lap of the Oak Bay Rec. Centre track, and several cool Oak Bay alleys. I don’t spend much time in alleys, but I think I like them. I think this may be because alleys are closer to trails than roads or highways. I would not likely be found running on a highway since I have to imagine it would be monumentally boring. Trails, pathways, and alleys on the other hand offer a more intimate experience in that it seems to me like I’m closer to my surroundings. I’ll quit BS’ing now and wrap up by saying what should by now be obvious; I like alleys and trails.

GPS Data: 7.6km – 0h40m – GPS Route

A 7.6km run through the guts (including a couple alleys) of Oak Bay near Victoria, BC. Click on the map to see detailed GPS data on the Garmin website.

Anywho, no surprise, but cemeteries and other burial sites are clearly end points in some respects, but also starting points for a variety of things like pseudo-detective work and the resulting stories about the lives led by the people who end up in said sites. Our tour was an Old Cemeteries Society of Victoria event that was Black History Month themed. I could try and regurgitate some of what I learned on the tour, but I won’t; suffice it to say that Victoria has some research-worthy and interesting black history. I thought the hour-long tour was pretty good and may check out some other weekly Society offerings.

After the tour wrapped up, the three of us did a cool-down loop along the Dallas Road waterfront. No, a cool-down was not really necessary, but it’s always good to do a beach cruise on a sunny day. Today was another personal reminder that there are things that I know little or nothing about. These reminders are everywhere for me, so I’m guessing they’re probably there for other people too. With that in mind, and while trying to hold back on the cheese, share some knowledge if you have some to share. I think this is what Web 2.0 is supposed to be about, along with sharing earth-shattering knowledge such as (disclaimer: the tweet below was not written by me):

• “OMGGGGGGGGGGGGG JUSTIN BIEBER JUST ADDED ME AND TWEETED ME :O u have NO IDEA HOW HAPPY I AM RIGHT NOWW!!!!!!!! this day just got better DD”

Oooh, what a nice day in the cemetery. I learned today that it is apparently not a faux pas to walk on top of graves. I suppose there will be regional opinions on this; if I'm dead wrong (tee hee) let me know what the protocol is.

Monkey trees are cool. Shall I try to learn more about their peculiar appearance and origins, or shall I just enjoy them.

I don't think I'll make a hobby of it, but tombstones/monuments are pretty diverse in their design, you might even say interesting.

A bit of a cloud bank rolling in from the west and we're in a cemetery, hmmm.

No I don't have a half hamburger and a side of fries to give you. Go bug someone else.

Somebody's log art on the beach near Ross Bay Cemetery. Looks better when I'm not speeding by on my bike.

Michelle and I rode our Nishitty commuter bikes to and from the the cemetery tour. Mine is too dope to show on this blog for fear of someone seeking it out and stealing it.

Onto the hike. We started out in Estevan Village and took the least direct route we could think of over to the south end of Willows Beach. It being a nice, somewhat moonlit evening at low-tide, we took the sandy route to Cattle Point and then ventured into Uplands Park. Rabbits were plentiful, but other than that, not much to report from our sad little loop of the park. Burning 300 calories or so on the hike was apparently sufficient in our minds to partake in a slightly over the top fish and chip feast when we returned to our starting point in Estevan Village. It was good, but not worth repeating on a weekly basis.

GPS Data: 5.4km – 1h44m (including fish break) – GPS Route

A Wednesday night nike at Willows Beach / Cattle Point / Uplands Park in Victoria, BC. Some fish and chips as well. Click on the map to see detailed GPS data on the Garmin website.

My plan today was to go a bit further than my previous outings this year (about 90km was my previous longest). So, off I went towards the north end of the Saanich Peninsula as on previous rides, the key difference being a trip up Willis Point Road to Ross-Durrance Road in Victoria’s Highlands area. Ross-Durrance Road is one of the coolest stretches of road I have ridden anywhere; winding, rolling, smooth – in short, fun. I guess I should point out that it delivers some pretty good pain as well, thanks to some nasty little climbs. To finish up, I headed through Langford, Colwood, and downtown Victoria. Apparently other Victorians figured it was a good day to get out as well; the walking paths along Dallas Road were pretty busy with all manner of biped and quadriped.

GPS Data: 107.5km – 3h40m – 29.3km/h – GPS Route

A 100km road bike ride on the Saanich Peninsula near Victoria, BC. Click on the map to see detailed GPS data on the Garmin website.

Crappy picture, but that is a sweet ride. Not quite what I'd expect from my mental picture of the typical Sidney resident.

Almost at landsend on the Saanich Peninsula. I took an unlisted option, i.e. back to Victoria.

Ahhh, look a the pretty trees. I don't think we are quite at the peak of cherry blossom action yet, but as every day goes by there are more and more examples like this. The smell good too.

Admittedly, I don't have much of a green thumb and likely never will, but I do appreciate looking at the results of other peoples efforts.

It’s really starting to feel Spring-like around here with cherry blossoms all over the place, relatively warm temperatures, less precipitation, and some Springy smells. The hike tonight was great with a clear, starry sky and good trails. Slightly disappointed – did not see a single slug tonight.

GPS Data: 6km – 1h18m – GPS Route

A Wednesday night hike at Thetis Lake near Victoria, BC. Click on the map to see detailed GPS information on the Garmin website.

Tonight the hike was something I’ve done a few times in the daylight, but never at night. Starting at the Gonzales Bay beach with the sound of wind and waves, we headed east through beachfront ritzville (no not a reference to the cracker). After some marveling at an impressive number of ceiling lights in one ritzville abode we popped up to Crescent Road and headed towards the Chinese cemetery on Penzance Road. Not much too see in the cemetery, so we moved along, uphill, through Trafalgar Park back to the road on King George Terrace. We made the decision to head over to Andersson Hill Park and did a nice little out-and-back trail with the highlight being views of McNeill Bay. The last half of the hike consisted of taking the road back to the bottom of King George Terrace where the stairmaster workout began leading us up to Walbran Park and eventually Gonzales Park. After a brief, and dandy-fine, gander at the city lights from the old observatory in Gonzales Park it was back down to the beach to finish things off.

Once again, a great way to spend part of an evening.

GPS Data: 6.8km – 1h38m – GPS Route

A Wednesday night hike at Gonzales Bay and McNeill Bay near Victoria, BC. The route included Trafalgar, Andersson Hill, Walbran, and Gonzales parks. Click on the map to see detailed GPS information on the Garmin website.

It looks like it’s possible to cross the creek and head south into the larger portion of Gowlland Tod Park (on the south side of Tod Inlet), but that sort of exploration will have to wait until sometime in the future.

GPS Data: 3.4km – 0h54m – GPS Route

A short hike at Tod Inlet / Gowlland Tod Park on the Saanich Peninsula near Victoria, BC. Click on the map to see detailed GPS data on the Garmin website.

I have ridden my bike along Wallace Drive, past the start of this hike, may times in the past and have never noticed any evidence of a creek in this area. Within a minute of the start of our hike you could definitely here it running. I like creeks.

Watch out, hairy trees along the trail may try to fondle you.

Tod Inlet was looking pretty serene in the late afternoon sun.

Things are pretty green on south Vancouver Island in the winter. Example of the day: some sun lit fern foliage.

This week’s Wednesday hiking outing was an excursion at Royal Roads University near Victoria, BC. This spot is a bit out of the way for downtown dwellers like me, but it really is a great spot to go. Of course it’s good during the day when you can see stuff, but I feel it is equally good in the dark (with some sort of light source), the perspective is just different. For a couple hours tonight my work friends and I meandered around the nice loamy trails that make their way through the trees at Royal Roads. It was great.

GPS Data: 8.5km – 2h04m – GPS Route

A Wednesday night hike at Royal Roads University. Click on the map to see GPS details on the Garmin website.