Blog: I Think It's This Way» Wednesday Hike – Cattle Point / Uplands Park – Victoria, BC

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 – Willows Beach / Cattle Point / Uplands Park – Fish Feast

Kris — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 07:45:33 +0000

Not surprisingly there were fewer bodies out on the Wednesday night hike this week. The cause… Olympics. I suppose I could have been busy attending the Vancouver Olympics this week and last, but alas I made the choice to observe from afar. For me, as always, it has been the action that I appreciate the most, as opposed to some of the other Olympic thingies.

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.

Hike – UVic / Uplands / Willows Beach – Victoria, BC

Kris — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 03:42:48 +0000

Another hike today. This time around the hood, namely UVic, Uplands, and Willows Beach. It has occurred to me lately that I have been doing a reasonable amount of hiking, but not much else aside from work and other stuff. With Spring around the corner and the fact that I haven’t been doing it much, cycling has been on my mind a bit more lately. Before that gets going too seriously I think there will be a couple more weeks of laziness. I’m not sure I want to admit this, but I found myself watching some of the Much Music ‘Bring-It-On-a-thon’ today (horrible movies about the trials and tribulations of cheerleading). If ever there was an impetus to get off my ass sooner rather than later, escaping the ‘Bring-It-On-a-thon’ would probably be it, or perhaps I’ve turned a corner and am heading towards a dark, dark future.

Michelle and I were out hiking today by ourselves, mind you there were many other people out and about. Like most hikes, this was a good outing through some nice spots including Mystic Vale, Uplands Park, Cattle Point, and Willows Beach. To wrap things up, we stopped at Pure Vanilla for a panini, soup, and pumpkin spice cookie.

GPS Data: 9.6km / 2h01m / GPS Route

A map of a hike around parts of Oak Bay (UVic / Uplands / Willows Beach). Click to view detailed GPS data on the Garmin website.

No trip to the UVic area is complete without seeing a rabbit.

Hanging upside down at Henderson Park is mind-blowing.

A curious assortment of items near the south end of Mystic Vale. Sand dollars must be cheap these days since whomever put this arrangement together had a few to spare.

South end of Mystic Vale with sun through trees action.

About halfway down Mystic Vale in the middle of the Ewok forest.

Parc du chien. Adjacent to Mystic Vale. I'm just practicing my rather poor French. I'm not sure the park/field has a name.

Looking east or thereabouts from Cattle Point near Victoria, BC. Sunny, but cool.

Mt. Baker in Washington State. No eruptions today thankfully.

Poo-Jays, sh*thawks, seagulls, etc. Whatever you call them there were a good number hanging out at Cattle Point today. I actually don't mind seagulls, despite the fact that they seem to be quite adept at painting some parts of the world with their excrement.

More Cattle Point. Looking east towards the Georgia Strait.

In case you were wondering how Cattle Point got its name...

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

Thou shalt enter into my gut via my mouth! Pure Vanilla pumpkin spice cookie.

Pure Vanilla tuna panini and tomato/white bean soup. A tasty conclusion to our hike around the hood.

Wednesday Hike – Victoria, BC – Willows / Cattle Pt. / Uplands Park

Kris — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 20:00:12 +0000

The 20th Wednesday hike with my work friends has come and gone. The hike was a bit shorter this week since I was trying to juggle some trip-related preparation (Europe), but to be honest for a short hike it seemed long. We started at Willows Beach, headed to Cattle Point, and then went into Uplands park, all on a great fall evening.

Willows was much quieter than a couple months ago since the sun bathers have departed, now it’s just peeps and their dogs. Cattle Point doesn’t cover much real-estate, but is a nice little spot just north of Willows Beach. Since I’m easily amused by wildlife, I am happy to report that this was the money spot for this hike – seagulls galore, a couple seals, some black birds with red beaks, and a hawk or falcon of some sort. Uplands Park is surprisingly large and was a nice finish to the hike, with mostly flat and wide trails.

Willows Beach looking east at the start of the hike.

Cattle Point looking east.

Cattle Point looking north.