Blog: I Think It's This Way » Wednesday Hike – Rithet’s Bog – Victoria, BC

Wednesday Hike – Rithet’s Bog – Victoria, BC

Kris — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 06:57:50 +0000

This week’s Wednesday hike was at Rithet’s Bog. We’ve been to this bog several times over the past year and it’s always kind of nice. This time we did some urban hiking on the way to and from the bog through some of the nearby residential areas. The surrounding neighbourhoods are interesting / weird… giant yards, fancy landscaping, notable lack of human or automotive street traffic.

The loop around Rithet’s Bog was pretty much as per usual with the exception of a higher than average number of slugs along the trail. Nice hike.

GPS Data: 6.3km – 1h15m – GPS Route

A 6.3km hike at Rithet's Bog in Victoria, BC. Click on the map to see details on the Garmin website.

Wednesday Hike – Rithet’s Bog – Victoria, BC

Kris — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 06:37:37 +0000

It’s been almost a year since I took the plunge and committed to doing/organizing a hike every Wednesday night. Given what I would describe as a short attention span and sometimes fleeting interest in things, I’m kind of proud that, with the exception of maybe three or four, I have been able to get something together for almost 50 weeks out of the past year. I guess it’s the variety… we don’t do the same hike every week, and with varying conditions, it’s almost always interesting some way or another.

This week was a short, clockwise loop of Rithet’s Bog. The outing was devoid of the cloud and rain of the previous weeks, but it was surprisingly windy.

GPS Data: 4.1km – 0h49m – GPS route

A 4.1km hike around Rithet's Bog in Victoria, BC. Click on the map to see detailed GPS information on the Garmin website.

We did a clockwise loop around the bog. This is the view towards the middle of Rithet's Bog from the east side.

The trail around Rithet's Bog is of the hard-packed gravel variety. There are a few relatively small hills along the way, but overall it's a pretty easy loop.

A bog and bulrushes, who knew...

The last part of the loop around Rithet's Bog (on the west side). Looks nice, but it was definitely a night to tie down anything that might blow away.

Ohhh, isn't that cute... duckies in Rithet's Bog. It's actually pretty difficult to see the water in the bog from the trail except for this one spot along the west side.

Wednesday Hike – Rithet’s Bog – Victoria, BC

Kris — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 05:34:55 +0000

Does anyone like springing forward with the time change? I don’t, but… admittedly it’s pretty cool to have a couple hours of daylight after work. As of today, Wednesday night hikes will be headlamp-free until the fall. Oh yeah, it’s St. Patrick’s Day. Being a lightweight in the alcohol consumption department, this day is not really any different than any other for me, but that just means more green beer for those who really need it. Tonight’s hike at Rithet’s Bog offered up the kind of greenery I dig.

The hike involved some time on the Lochside Trail and some residential streets in the Broadmead area. The final half of the hike involved a lap around the bog and a straight-shot through Emily Carr Park back to the starting point. Although it’s not really natural, I kind of like the Broadmead area for its somewhat greener than average feel. Maybe it’s the gargantuan manicured yards in combination with the stands of large evergreens. Whatever the case, tonight was another good foot excursion with lots of Spring flora and some fauna.

GPS Data: 6.3km – 1h11m – GPS Route

A Wednesday night hike at Rithet's Bog in Victoria, BC. Click on the map to see detailed GPS info on the Garmin website.

Heading south on the Lochside Trail (a rail-trail conversion I believe).

Duckville at Rithet's Bog. Actually, there weren't that many ducks, but there were a few.

Another view of the Rithet's Bog pond taken from the south end of the park, looking sort of north.

Wednesday Hike – Rithet’s Bog – Victoria, BC

Kris — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 06:56:53 +0000

This week’s Wednesday Night Hike at Rithet’s Bog was the last of 2009. Before yesterday I had not ever done the Rithet’s Bog loop and as other new-to-me hikes tend to go, this one was pretty good. In case you’re a bit confused, since yesterday was Tuesday, not Wednesday, I did a run at Rithet’s Bog on Tuesday night and hiked with my work friends on Wednesday night.

The hike started at Royal Oak Centre on West Saanich Road, which gave us the opportunity to use the pedestrian tunnel under the Pat Bay Highway. Not that exciting, but still kind of interesting. After a bit of asphalt we got underway on the wide gravel path around the bog. The actual bog loop is only about 3km so we added on a bit extra by doing an out and back on Rolson Trail which ends at Royal Oak Drive. This being a night hike, the visual experience is a bit different than if it were in the daylight; the highlights were the pond decorated with Xmas lights near the end of Rolson Trail and what I think was a Barred Owl that was sitting on a branch right next to the trail (about 8ft in the air) towards the end of the hike. This was the best owl sighting I have ever had; we were about 10ft away and it just sat there looking at us as we looked at it — tres cool.

GPS Data (run on Tuesday): 6.4km / 0h36m / GPS Route
GPS Data (hike on Wednesday): 6.3km / 1h13m / GPS Route

A map of our hike route at Rithet's Bog near Victoria, BC. Click on the map to see detailed GPS data on the Garmin website.