Blog: I Think It's This Way» Wednesday Hike – Mt. Wells – Victoria, BC

Wednesday Hike – Mt. Wells – Victoria, BC

Kris — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 06:54:04 +0000

OMG, it’s almost August. OMG, I just said OMG. Ok, enough of that. It was Wednesday and we walked, this time at Mt. Wells. As usual with Mt. Wells outings, we started out from the Humpback Reservoir parking lot; no blackberries yet, much to the dismay of some of our group. Despite the lack of berry power, we seemed to make it to the top of the hill faster than usual. Once at the top we did the requisite loitering to enjoy the views, then we headed back down.

GPS Data: 3.0km – 1h18m – GPS route

A 3km hike to and from the top of Mt. Wells near Victoria. Click on the map to see detailed GPS data on the Garmin website.

It's the Humpback Reservoir, except it's not really, it's just a utility building or something at the reservoir.

Looking towards Langford partway up the trail to the top of Mt. Wells.

In the middle of the summer it's pretty dry on Mt. Wells, which seems to enhance the likelihood that one will end up on their ass due to the marble-sized pebbles on the trail. Ahhh, maybe that's why the put in the handrail.

Marbles aside (actually I didn't mind the marbles) the views from the upper reach of Mt. Wells are pretty good.

Looking towards Humpback Reservoir and Mt. Finlayson from Mt. Wells.

Another view from the top of Mt. Wells, this time to the south.

The group, minus one (me), at the top of Mt. Wells. Another great night for a hike.

Road Bike Ride – Hurricane Ridge – Port Angeles, WA – Gigantic Hill

Kris — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 06:19:33 +0000

To put it bluntly, the ride up to the top of Hurricane Ridge from Port Angeles is hard. You see, it’s just over 30km long from the ferry to the top, which is at about 5,200ft above sea level. It’s a big freakin hill. I’ll be honest, I don’t really like doing this sort of ride purely for the exercise; I guess it’s partly the sense of achievement, but mostly it’s about the views, Hurricane Ridge is pretty spectacular.

Michelle, Kari, and I met at the Coho terminal (as in Coho Ferry terminal in Victoria) at about 5:30am to head over to Port Angeles. That’s now two weekends in a row where the alarm went off far earlier than I would have preferred. I don’t think I’ll make a habit of it, but it was pretty damn nice to roll through town down to the Inner Harbour at dawn. After about an hour and a half on the ferry we arrived in Port Angeles the starting point for our trip up the hill. From there it was up, up, up, seemingly forever, but it did eventually end with amazing views of the Olympic Mountains.

GPS Data: 74.0km – 4h52m (including stops) – about 1h48m from the visitor centre to the top – 20.8km/h (moving average) – GPS route

A 74km round-trip road bike ride from Port Angeles to Hurricane Ridge. Click on the map to see detailed GPS information on the Garmin website.

The Coho awaits in the early morning hours of July 25.

It was a pretty nice morning on the Inner harbour. That's the Johnson Street Bridge at the head of the Gorge Waterway.

More early morning Inner Harbour action, namely the Delta Hotel and some Vic West condos.

Me, Kari, and Michelle on the bow of the Coho Ferry prior to departure from Victoria's Inner Harbour.

Coho life ring. I seem to recall thinking that if for some reason I ended up in the water, my bike clothing would not offer much insulation, duhhhh.

There's probably a technical term for this... mooring line/rope?

A pretty big boat in the Port Angeles Harbour.

There seems to be a lot of metal art in Port Angeles. I don't recall seeing the same numbers of objects the last time I was in P.A.

Michelle looks giddy about the impending three hours of climbing. This was taken at the Olympic Park visitor centre.

Kari looked kind of giddy too. There were at least 10 other people on the ferry with us who were heading up to Hurricane Ridge as well.

The higher you go the better the view gets on the road up to Hurricane Ridge.

One of three short, but dark, tunnels along the way.

There's some debate about which half is harder, the first or the last. Even if the last half is easier by the numbers, it doesn't feel that way. It was mighty nice to see the lodge at the top signalling the end of the climb.

Yeah it's kind of cool, but isn't this how those man vs beast, man gets maimed videos start? In the background is the top of the ridge, on which I believe a couple of rope tows operate in the winter.

Olympic Mountains to the south from the lodge at Hurricane Ridge.

More mountain, lush looking valleys, and me.

There's apparently quite a bit of hiking in the Hurricane Ridge area. Someday, I/we will head over to do some hiking, but not after riding up the hill.

I saw it, I took photo of it. Didn't see too many dead trees on the way except for this one.

Still a few little wildflowers at Hurricane Ridge even though we're halfway through the summer.

Good work Michelle, you made it.

Heading back down in the hope of catching the 12:45pm ferry.

A somewhat torturous, several hour climb became a fun 45 minute descent.

More downhill riding on the way back to Port Angeles.

A bit of a Mt. Baker view from just above the Heart o' the Hills park toll booth. $5 per person for entry.

Lots of big trees = shade, which was welcome by this point of the ride. Still not quite back in Port Angeles yet.

With our hopes for the 12:45pm ferry dashed, it was off to the Sunday market on the Port Angeles waterfront. I guess it may not have actually been a regular Sunday thing, and maybe we lucked out, but it gave us something to do for four hours while we waited for the next ferry. Beware of the octopus guarding the port-a-crappers!

Hollywood sci-fi sand sculpture #1: Terminator

Hollywood sci-fi sand sculpture #2: IRobot

Hollywood sci-fi sand sculpture #3: Uhhh, Aliens and Futurama?

Hollywood sci-fi sand sculpture #4: any ideas?

Hollywood sci-fi sand sculpture #5: Star Wars

Hollywood sci-fi sand sculpture #6: that's an awesome Jabba the Hut

Port Angeles Harbour near the Coho terminal.

It pains me to mention cheesy vampire movies/shows, but didn't one of the characters in either Twilight or Vampire Diaries drive one of these?

MOMAR! It's capitalized, that means I'm yelling on the interwebs. Just kidding, I'm not yelling. Kari and Michelle do like their MOMAR jerseys though.

14 hours later and we're finally back in Victoria. The Port Angeles market was good, but next time I'll be aiming for the earlier ferry.

Hike – Goldstream Park – Victoria, BC

Kris — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 06:54:45 +0000

It’s the weekend and I don’t work on the weekends, so what am I to do, but hike or bike ride. Today it was the former… a hike with Michelle, Corinne, and Sheena. We went out for an exploratory hike at Goldstream, at least it was exploratory for me. Michelle and I have been up and down Mt. Finlayson a bunch (also located in Goldstream), but I have never been over to the west side of the highway. As it turns out, I probably should have done a hike like this a long time ago, since it was pretty fun.

Hike highlights included: nice trails, a couple otters, and Niagara Falls (not quite like the ones in Ontario, but still interesting to look at).

GPS Data: 7.0km – 2h21m – GPS route

A 7km hike at Goldstream Park near Victoria. Click on the map to see detailed GPS information on the Garmin website.

I like the forest, it's good. It was pretty warm today by Victoria standards, which when combined with lots of hills resulted in mega sweatiness.

A log crossing on the Prospector trail at Goldstream Park.

Can't remember the last time I posted a picture of an Arbutus tree. Well, actually, it probably wasnt' that long ago.

Michelle demonstrating parkour au naturel while taking the scenic route under the highway.

Oooh, a cave or tunnel or something. I'm not sure where which trail this was on, probably Arbutus Ridge Trail or Goldminer's Trail.

A note at the cave / tunnel entrance. Apparently, evidence of gold mining activity.

Railway trestle near Niagara Falls. Glad we didn't have to cross it; probably not supposed to anyway.

Heading downhill to the top of Niagara Falls. Slightly shady looking safety railings.

Niagara Falls and some other hikers/admirers.

The pond at the bottom of Niagara Falls in Goldstream Park.

My first underwater photo. You'd think with a waterproof camera that I might have tried something earlier.

Wednesday Hike – Cattle Point / Uplands Park – Victoria, BC

Kris — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 06:16:27 +0000

This week’s Wednesday hike didn’t come together until the last minute since Michelle and I didn’t get back from down south (Seattle/Portland) until Tuesday night. Consequently, I ended up choosing a pretty short route close to home at Cattle Point and Uplands Park. Despite the fact that it was not what you would call an epic hike, it was still pretty good. It’s hard to beat a nice sunny, summer night spent near the ocean.

The five of us decided to follow up the hike with a trip to Nostalgia, or was it Nostalgie, a Russian themed restaurant in Cadboro Bay. Russian? Yes, Russian. Maybe it’s just me, but I have not come across many Russian restaurants in my travels. As it turns out, Irina, one of my hiking cohorts is Russian, which seemed like a good enough reason to check the place out. I’ll spare you an attempt at a restaurant review since I have no business writing one, but I will say that I thought my Pelmeni (won ton like dumplings) and Michelle’s cabbage rolls were good. For what it’s worth, the food seemed to meet Irina’s standards as well.

GPS Data: 3.0km – 0h56m – GPS route

A 3km hike at Cattle Point and Uplands Park in Victoria, BC. Click on the map to see GPS details on the Garmin website.

Wednesday sailboat race spectating, or is it shop-talk?

Heading around the south end of Cattle Point towards Willows Beach.

Damn, foiled by the autofocus again. Oh well, could be worse I suppose. Nice flowers at the south end of Cattle Point.

I'm no tree master, but I think it's a Garry Oak. I know for sure that it resides in Uplands Park.

More sailboat action from a high point in Uplands Park.

Mmmm, blue sky. Uplands Park is pretty flat, but there are a couple slightly elevated, rocky spots like this one.

Sheena, one of the hikers in our group, was particularly interested in this statue for some reason.

War memorial in Uplands Park and more nice sky and clouds.

Yeah, more sailboats. Apparently, there are regular Wednesday night races out of Oak Bay Marina or one of the nearby ones.

As usual, it was nice to hang out near the water. There appeared to be a fog bank up towards Sidney.

What is this idiot doing? Looks like some kind of parkour, jazz-dancer freak. Oh wait... that's me... why's my delete button not working... ahhh, crap.

Wednesday Hike – Mt. Doug – Victoria, BC

Kris — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 06:51:14 +0000

Well it’s now looking and feeling like summer here in Victoria. Temperature is a fairly good indicator, but what I notice the most are the conditions on the trails. When you’re in the middle of summer or early fall, it’s pretty dry here, and the trails will show it… kind of dusty, with some fallen, yellowed leaves from various deciduous trees. This is opposed to the way things seem during the rest of the year… kind of damp. Tonight’s hike at Mt. Douglas (Doug for the locals) was, as usual, pretty damn good.

Six of us did some loopy, around-the-mountain type hiking and then headed up to the top where we spent some time taking in the views. It was clear enough again this week that we could see both Mt. Baker and Mt. Rainier on the horizon in Washington State.

GPS data: 5.1km – 1h39m – GPS route

A 5.1km hike at Mt. Douglas (Doug) near Victoria, BC. Click on the map to see detailed GPS information on the Garmin website.

Michelle, Christine, and Sheena heading starting the final ascent to the summit of Mt. Doug. Maybe that's overdoing it on the mountaineering lingo, I'll be more conservative in the future.

I think Bill forgot his hiking poles , but he seemed to manage fine without them.

One of the steeper parts of the trail on the last stretch up to the top of Mt. Doug.

Looking in a southerly direction close to the top of Mt. Doug. That's part of the Blenkinsop Valley down below.

A view to the north near the top of the Doug (Mt. Douglas). I'm pretty sure that's James Island and Sidney Island off in the distance.

Christine, Irina, and Bill at the top of Mt. Doug. Yeah, it's usually worth celebrating in whatever way you see fit.

Mt. Baker viewed from the top of Mt. Doug (looking to the east).

The view to the north or northeast from the top of Mt. Doug. What an awesome night for a hike.

Part of the distance/direction guide to other locales in the turret at the top of Mt. Douglas.

Looking south towards Victoria from the top of Mt. Doug. The Olympic Mountain Range is visible in the distance.

Midsummer dustiness on the trails at Mt. Doug.

Wednesday Hike – John Dean Park – Victoria, BC

Kris — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 06:07:02 +0000

Some Wednesday hikes are different than others. For example, there was the one where an owl almost took our heads off — feathery bastard. Tonight’s excursion to John Dean Park didn’t involve any wildlife encounters, but did take some effort to do since it’s a bit of a drive out and back. I guess that doesn’t really set it apart from other hikes in any truly notable way. I guess what does set it apart though, is the fact that John Dean Park is pretty damn nice, with a great view point at Pickels’ Bluff.

Our journey started at the main parking lot, which is conveniently located near the top of Mt. Newton. I think the trail sequence went something like Lily Pond Trail, View Point Trail, Woodward Trail, Montfort Trail, Slektain Trail, and then Thunderbird Trail and the road up to Pickels’ Bluff. Overall, kind of a counter-clockwise navigation of the park with an extra excursion up to the viewpoint at Pickels’ Bluff, which is well worth checking out at some point in one’s life.

GPS Data: 6.5km – 1h59m – GPS route

A 6.5km hike at John Dean Park near Victoria, BC. Click on the map to see detailed GPS information on the Garmin website.

Kind of shady in the forest today, literally. Consequently, not many trail photos except for this one taken near the end of the hike while heading down to Pickels' Bluff.

Meh, nice view, but not a great photo. I think that's the West Saanich Road observatory hill in the distance. Definitely looking south.

A view to the east from Pickels' Bluff towards Mt. Baker.

Looking east towards James Island and Sidney Island from Pickels' Bluff at John Dean Park.

Not sure if Trevor owns any running shoes or hiking boots, but he seemed content hiking in the Crocs, although he did mention that he should have perhaps brought the ones with the strap on the back.

Road Bike Ride – Fort Langley / Chilliwack – Canada Day Populaire 143

Kris — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 06:00:56 +0000

It’s almost time for commencement of the ridiculous – 320km in one day from Seattle to Portland. As July 17 approaches it’s becoming fairly obvious that there is not a whole lot more time for any meaningful training/preparation. Today Vince and I did what might be the last big ride before Seattle to Portland. The ride in question was a Canada Day randonneur event covering 143km, corresponding to the age of the country, between Fort Langley and Chilliwack.

Randonneur cycling according to the BC Randonneurs website is sometimes called “marathon cycling”, but isn’t a race. We arrived to the start area in downtown Fort Langley fashionably late, but still within the start window of 8-9am, and managed to get ourselves registered fairly quickly and painlessly. With the preliminaries out of the way we started off at a pretty casual pace under light rain. Since the start was spread over an hour long window there wasn’t any sketchiness for us involving other riders starting around the same time. The first 40km were great as we cruised along rolling, curvy, rural roads; the remainder of the ride was good also, but had some particularly long, not so interesting straight sections of road.

In the end, it took us just over five hours, including stops, to cover the 143km. I think we managed a pretty good pace and while I can’t speak for Vince, I felt reasonably good throughout the ride except for the last 20-30km (a hint of leg cramping and some general fatigue). I forgot my camera in Victoria, so no photos, but there might be something available on the Canada Day 143 Populaire web page eventually.

GPS Data: 143.6km – 5h09m (4h45m moving time) – 27.8km/h (30.2km/h moving speed) – GPS route

A 143km road bike ride between Fort Langley and Chilliwack. Click on the map to see detailed GPS information on the Garmin website.

Wednesday Hike – Partridge Hills – Victoria, BC

Kris — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 06:35:34 +0000

Back in May I did a mountain bike ride that included some of the Partridge Hills near Durrance Lake and thought to myself: “I should do a hike here.” Apparently, it takes me about a month to act on thoughts I have while bike riding – I guess this doesn’t apply to all thoughts while riding, otherwise I probably would have ended up in a ditch through inaction by now. Tonight, exactly one month after thinking about doing it, I did a Partridge Hills hike.

Nice trails, nice forest, nice water views… not much else to say.

GPS Data: 6.1km – 1h43m – GPS route

A 6km hike at Partridge Hills near Victoria, BC. Click on the map to see detailed GPS information on the Garmin website.

I'm not usually a fan of out-and-back hikes, but in this case it was all good because I do like winding, rolling, interesting trails.

Nice view north towards Bamberton from the top of Partridge Hills. I think pretty much any outing, hike, bike, or whatever, is better when you get a viewpoint like this.

Arbutus trees were fairly plentiful on the way up to the top of the hill. I won't complain, because I like Arbutus trees.

Oops, another Arbutus.

The rest of the Wednesday hikers on the way back down the hill from the summit.

It's like an Arbutus attack. Actually, I think I stuck this in because I liked how blue the sky was.

Sunlight through trees in the forest is pretty much alway cool looking to me.

Back at Durrance Lake at the end of the hike. There were a few Bald Eagles flying around making a bunch of noise, but I failed miserably in my attempts to take a picture of them.

Road Bike Ride – Saanich Peninsula – Victoria, BC

Kris — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 06:38:58 +0000

With my new raisin toast hero status (bestowed upon me by Michelle – I have no idea what it means), I’ve been seeking out stupendous, no miraculous, no super-amazing things to do. Clearly, I had no choice but to ride my bike 90km on this Tuesday night, in keeping with the super-amazing theme. Not only did I do this super-amazing ride, but… I did it fast… just like when you eat too much raisin toast and have to run to a certain flushable device common to most households.

Ok, fast is relative, but my 32km/h average speed over the 90km was pretty fast for me. After the usual 10-15 minute apathy filled start to the ride, things started feeling good and stayed that way for the remainder. This evening was one of those calm, quiet, nice smelling evenings (except for the occasional scent of road kill) and reminded me that calm, quiet, nice smelling evenings are damn fine for doing bike rides. Definitely a somewhat super-amazing outing for me.

GPS Data: 91.7km – 2h52m – 32.0km/h – GPS route

A 90km road bike ride around the Saanich Peninsula near Victoria, BC. Click on the map to see GPS details on the Garmin website.

Father’s Day Hike and Bike

Kris — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 06:22:57 +0000

Happy belated Father’s Day! Belated as in, most of the day is done as I’m writing this. I suppose I could regurgitate some Father’s Day Wikipedia information, but I’ll keep it real and blab about my Father’s Day activities with Michelle. Due to some geographical challenges, Michelle and I only had access to one father today… Tim, who joined us for a hike at Mt. Finlayson this morning. This afternoon a road bike ride and some virtual father interaction with Jim, not Tim, by way of the telecommunications (phone).

The Mt. Finlayson hike got off to a bit of a slow start thanks to my failure to turn off the headlights in the car last night. Minor additional delay came as a result of an impromptu fashion show involving father Tim… new shorts, new shirts, new man – ok, maybe not, but somewhat entertaining none-the-less. The route up and down Mt. Finlayson was pretty much the same as it always is except for our choice to take the older, steeper way up just below the tree line. Not sunny unfortunately, but it was good despite the clouds and lack of entertaining / frightening examples of ill-prepared human beings that we sometimes see along the way.

Our afternoon bike ride was delightful spinneroo through Central Saanich under somewhat clearer skies. Michelle, Heather, and I ended up doing about 60km, the first half and a bit at the end was nicely assisted with a tail wind and the remainder involved some minor headwind battling.

Hike GPS Data: 4.13km – 1h57m – GPS route

Road Bike Ride GPS Data: 59.3km – 2h33m – GPS route

A 4km hike up and down Mt. Finlayson near Victoria, BC. Click on the map to see detailed GPS information on the Garmin website.

60km road bike ride through Central Saanich near Victoria, BC. Click on the map to see detailed GPS information on the Garmin website.

The top of Mt. Finlayson on Father's Day. No rain, except for the sweat drops falling off the brim of my hat - yeah, I'm a sweaty bastard sometimes. That's Victoria off in the distance on the left.

Of course a Father's Day post wouldn't be complete without a touching pic of Michelle and Tim, her vader (no, not Darth Vader - father in Flemmish and some other languages).

Some other ants, errr people, enjoying the view from the top of Mt. Finlayson.

Saw this little elderly dude / dudette begrudgingly following its master up to the top of Mt. Finlayson.

Heather and Michelle traversing some Central Saanich farmland on the road bikes.

End of the road bike ride and heading back into Victoria on the Selkirk Trestle (part of the Galloping Goose). Looking along the Gorge Waterway towards downtown.