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

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

Kris — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 06:29:21 +0000

Very nice Wednesday hike in Oak Bay tonight with a surprising variety of wildlife (crows, seal, seagulls, engaged couple, etc.). We started in Estevan Village and headed toward Willows, then it was off to Cattle Point, and finally Uplands Park. There was some great sailboat watching from Cattle Point.

GPS Data: 5.4km – 1h11m – Garmin Website | GPX (right click to download)

The north end of Willows Beach.

Some Cattle Point flowers.

Wednesday night sailing off of Cattle Point.

A couple sail boats off of Cattle Point.

Wednesday night sailing action near Cattle Point and Willows Beach.

Cattle Point crow on a well used log.

T-rex conga line at Cattle Point.

Garry Oak tree at Uplands Park.

Beach art at Willows.

Wednesday Hike – Uplands Park – Victoria, BC

Kris — Thu, 12 May 2011 06:26:53 +0000

Spring seems to be taking its time getting going this year, but since I’ve been lazy for the last few months I’ve hardly noticed. Tonight, evidence of Spring was in plain sight at Uplands Park where there was Camas everywhere and all sorts of other green stuff. Saw what appeared to be a one-legged hawk and a couple rabbits for some added excitement. The route involved a little meandering in Uplands Park followed by a Cattle Point waterfront jaunt, and finally a Willows Beach cruise. Despite another somewhat cool and soggy evening, we had a pretty good hike.

GPS Data: 6.1km – 1h18m – GPS route

A 6km hike at Uplands Park, Cattle Point, and Willows Beach in Victoria, BC. Click on the map to see details on the Garmin website.

Tulip in Estevan Village in Victoria.

Camas in Uplands Park in Victoria.

A Cooper's Hawk in Uplands Park.

One legged Cooper's Hawk?

Wednesday sailboat races near Cattle Point.

Seagull at Cattle Point in Victoria.

Tree with rainbow in the background.

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

Kris — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 04:47:45 +0000

Awww, poor bloggy-poo, I’ve been neglecting you haven’t I. This week’s Wednesday hike was another outing at Willows Beach, Cattle Point, and Uplands Park. The sky was clear, assorted beasts were swimming, trails were good… ahhh, this is the life.

GPS Data: 4.2km – 0h59m – GPS Route

A 4km hike at Willows Beach, Cattle Point, and Uplands Park. Click on the map to see GPS details on the Garmin website.

Willows Beach, looking towards Oak Bay Marina.

Sunset at Willows Beach.

Run – Willows Beach / Uplands Park – Victoria, BC

Kris — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 03:52:54 +0000

Tis the season for my temporary interest in running. Technically, I suppose I actually started last week, but was sidelined for a day or two by a blister… damn blister. Aside from the blister, I have been somewhat surprised at the lack of DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) on the last couple runs… perhaps I’m speaking too soon.

Anywho, my run tonight was nothing spectacular in terms of the numbers, but I was satisfied. Running along the water at Willows Beach was all good. No, there wasn’t any Baywatch-esque sand running.

GPS Data: 6.1km – 0h32m – GPS route

A 6km run through parts of Oak Bay including Willows Beach, Cattle Point, and Uplands Park. Click on the map to see GPS details on the Garmin website.

Photo / Video Walk – Birds, Beach, and Rain

Kris — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 00:45:54 +0000

I guess this isn’t really random as the category implies… I did not randomly go to Willows Beach to record some video and take photos of birds, rain, and assorted other things. I suppose this outing was somewhat spontaneous, but that certainly doesn’t qualify as random. Anywho, here’s some video and photos of my rainy day outing at the beach.

The three contortionists and an onlooker.

The eye socket, sans eyeball. In case you really think this is a skull and are somewhat repulsed, it's actually a log.

People like to make beach structures at Willows, this being a fairly average example.

I've been sucking at the macro photos lately, so I tried using the auto settings for this one and the others in this post. The anti-shake seems to do a pretty decent job.

Someone on Dalhousie Street seems to have a lot of snails... I guess I mean that they seemed rather abundant on the sidewalk in front of one or two houses in particular.

More auto-setting, sort of macro photography. Tree with red leaves, not sure what it's called.

Playground equipment. I suppose you might be thinking... thanks for pointing out the obvious.

Parlez-vous Francais? Some upgrading to Willows Elementary includes several of these types of things on the walls. I think they look pretty good.

It was kind of nice to have some rain again after several weeks of dryness here in Victoria.

Fish on the fence, or is it a net.

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.