walking

Sunday we walked a short distance on the 10km trail around Beaver Lake.

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We got a couple of Subway sandwiches and had a picnic lunch at Saxe Point Park in Esquimalt.

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After texting Uriah in Tofino, we dropped by his brother's home to give him his b'day card. He gave us an update on Uriah's situation and it sounds pretty good. We wished the kid well and offered any assistance requested.

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SharBen texted their activities with photos and we reciprocated.

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The Benz ran well and the AC kept us cool.

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Labels: elk/beaver lake regional park, saxe, walked

Sunday morning I cycled a 35km loop from home out and around Elk/Beaver Lake returning via Lochside Trail.

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We took a ride around the defunct Royal Oak Golf Course on the outbound leg.

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Mountain Equipment Coop (MEC) had a 5k/10/Half Marathon Trail Run in progress when we arrived at the Filter Beds Parking Lot.

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The event named the: MEC Victoria Race Three 2019: Trail

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The day was perfect for any outdoor activities.

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Labels: DelSol, ebike, elk/beaver lake regional park

Friday morning I cycled 34km roundtrip from home and around Elk/Beaver Lake Park. The ride took me two hours.

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After joining the Lochside Trail at the Blenkinsop Greenway, I cycled northbound to where it crosses Hunt Rd.

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From here my route turned left to Fowler Rd and up the hill where it becomes Sayward Rd.

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Sayward Rd crosses the highway and Brookleigh is the road which lays at the northern end of the lakes

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Bear Hill Rd is the deadend access to Elk/Beaver Lake Park's fishing dock and multi-use trails.

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This Sidney & Victoria train right-of-way ends at Beaver Lake Road (at its southern connector) which takes one south to Horticulture Centre of the Pacific (The Gardens at HCP) and onward to the University of Victoria Technical School campus at Interurban.

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I call this The Inland Interurban Trail not to be confused with the designated trail on teh shoulders of Interurban Road.

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Labels: cycled, elk/beaver lake regional park

Thursday morning I drove to Brookleigh Road at the north end of Elk Lake with my bike and trailer.

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From Fisherman's Wharf I cycled with Burley Flatbed Cargo Trailer in tow sputhbound to the Retriever Ponds beside Beaver Lake.

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There I recorded some video with my Yuneec CGO3 cameras. Yes, I have two.

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The whole exercise was a tes of my new equipment and how best to operate it.

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I was amazed how busy this trail is with mostly walkers -- and their three dogs -- on a weekday morning. While cycling this 3km section -- inbound and outbound -- I'm sure there were some 40 others on the trail in a short window of 1½ hours.

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Labels: cycled, elk/beaver lake regional park, yuneec

Tuesday I walked from Feltham Clinic thru to Crawfords' home at Malton Ave. in Saanich and back.

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Prior to that, I drove to Elk/Beaver Lake ponds to check out the sticks piled at the outlet from the Retriever Ponds and photographed the entire site

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We had lunch at Curry Point

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The cleaning lady was in and did what appears to be nothing. Just sayin'.

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Labels: elk/beaver lake regional park, walked

Monday we picked Liam up at UVic after his class and had lunch at MexiGo. He gave us a scintillating updated regarding his world travels over the past year.

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Afterward, he and I walked around the Retriever Ponds at Elk/Beaver Lake Park.

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Labels: elk/beaver lake regional park, walked

Wednesday I walked 7½km total, out and back, along the Elk/Beaver Lake Park trail on the western side of the lakes.

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The trail is built over the right-of-way of the old Victoria & Sidney (V&S) Railway. It tracks the lakeside for most of its length.

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Shawn ? was walking with his lady friend, Barbara.

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The weather was overcast but most pleasant for walking with some light, occasional drizzle.

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My phone decided to disconnect from the network for some reason but restarting it reconnected it.

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Five years ago, April 12 2013, I did a pro bono survey of the Elk/Beaver Lake Park Pond outflow culvert which flows into Colquitz Creek.

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At that time it was determined the flooding of trails in the park was not as the Capital Regional District (CRD) was reporting but due to this culvert being plugged with debris. The CRD claimed the flooding was caused by beaver dams in the ponds. No beaver sightings have been made in this area for over thirty years. There were no beaver dams in the ponds during the time this survey was done by Bill Irvine in 2013.

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April 2013 Youtube VIDEO by WJI

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As of April 2018, it appears the level of the ponds has been reduced by approximately 500mm (20inches) over the intervening five years. Apparently, this has been accomplished by cleaning out the plugged culvert.

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This is good. Presumably there are no more complaints about dogs getting their feet wet (like in the original complaint that made the local newspaper) and the water foul are as abundant as ever. Everyone and everything should now be content. Thank you CRD.

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Labels: crd, elk/beaver lake regional park, walked

According to my View Ranger GPS app in my Samsung Galaxy Note 5 smartphone we walked 8.5km (8500m) this morning. We started at the south end of Beaver Lake then followed the 10km, loop trail northwest through to the fishing dock.

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Your assignment, should you choose to accept it, is to find out where the 9km marker is located. The circular trail around the adjoining Lakes of Elk and Beaver Lake form the 10km walking, cycling, horseback riding route.

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We found the 9km marker on the way back from the fishing dock to the south parking lot. Good luck in your search.

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GPS Coordinates 9km Marker: 48° 30' 47.00" N 123° 24' 6.00" W

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This railtrail is located in the Capital Regional District's (CRD) Elk/Beaver Lake Park. This right-of-way (RoW) operated as an active railway between Victoria & Sidney from 1892 to 1919. We rank this 4km section of this trail within the top-three-trails-in-the-world we've hiked or cycled.

Labels: elk/beaver lake regional park, walked

Friday we walked at Elk/Beaver Lake Park and checked out the weir while there.

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Everything looks cool.

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Took lots of pictures.

Labels: elk/beaver lake regional park, walked

Wednesday we walked 8km (5miles) roundtrip on the western side of Elk/Beaver Lake Park. This 4km section of railtrail lies atop what used to be the Victoria & Sidney Railway (V&S). The original steam train service was relatively short lived operating between 1894-1919. The trail today connects Beaver Lake Road in the south to Brookleigh Road to the north. This trail circles the two lakes to form a 10km loop. We haven't walk here since May 2012.

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Our main interest in being here this day was to checkout the construction of the new weir at southern outlet of Beaver Lake. For years the lake level and Colquitz River waterflow have been controled by a weir at this location. For whatever reason the Capital Regional District (CRD) is building a replacement weir while the older weir remains fully functional. The entire construction site is fenced off so it impossible to get close enough to take any descent photographs of the operation but we did our best.

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What a beautiful place to walk. On a hot day like this day, we chose the better part and confined our walking to the shady, forested trail on the western side of Beaver and Elk Lakes. We could have done the ten kilometre loop but fully half of it is in the bright sunshine. It's a no brainer.

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V&S Plaque

Labels: elk/beaver lake regional park, walked

Today we walked 3km at Elk/Beaver Lake Park in the area of the Beaver Lake Ponds and Beaver Lake. it that sound somewhat confusing it's because there's really only one big lake but it has two names: Northern body is Elk Lake and (smaller) southern body it Beaver Lake. The ponds are simply -- ponds.

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A woman walking the Beaver Lake Trail on the western side suffered a heart attack (MI) so the place became very lively with Saanich Fire Department (SFD) Emergency Medical Team (EMT) personnel and ambulance attendants. Two ambulances, one firetruck, one vehicle towing an ATV in its trailer and another midsized unit from SFD were in the parking lot upon our return.

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We hope the woman so affected is doing well. Most people know what a great job these trained professional do on a daily basis but for those of us who have viewed their activities from inside the ambulance their skill and dedication takes on a whole new dimension. yes, I thanked the young fireman who was monitoring the stationary equipment and he said: Thank you. What more can we say?

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1-minute VIDEO

Labels: elk/beaver lake regional park, saanich, walked

Today was our day-off from walking but we did drive out to Elk/Beaver Lake Park to checkout the Beaver Pond's trail which received considerable media coverage this year due to flooding. We've been keeping an eye on it because the Capital Regional District (CRD) gave what we consider to be hyperbolic reports by blaming some, allegedly, non-existent beavers who dammed the ponds to facilitate the building of their lodge. We are of the opinion this is total nonsense. The ponds do have the word 'beaver' in their name but to our knowledge the last, unconfirmed, reported beaver and lodge sighting in this area was in 1995. This information is from a report published by Aqua-Tex Scientific Consulting Ltd..

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We saw no evidence of any beaver activity as we walked from the Equestrian Centre Riding Ring through the flooded location and on to the main trail and return.

Labels: elk/beaver lake regional park, gps, walked

Wednesday we walked 2400m from Beaver Lake southern parking lot over to the Beaver Ponds and return. We were doing a reconnaissance mission to check the flooding of a trail in that area. Is this deje' vu all over again? lol

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Yes, the trail is still flooded. The water's only about 90mm deep but enough to get one's feet wet if not wearing gumboots.

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Anyway . . . a most pleasant morning and we were back home before eleven o'clock. We have been invited to tea this afternoon so that will be something completely different.

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GPS Coordinates for flooded section: N48°30.650', W123°23.908'

Labels: elk/beaver lake regional park, walked

Friday we walked 3km on the Beaver Lake trails. Sunny morning but winds are still sharp. We parked first at the Equestrian Centre parking lot and checked out the still-flooded trail north of the Beaver Lake Ponds.

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We left there and parked in the main parking lot at the southern end of Beaver Lake. This parking lot is actually built right over what were formerly the filter beds when the Victoria Waterworks drew water from this lake to supply Victoria's needs. Many remnants remain from this 1910 major undertaking. The purpose of these filter beds was to remove any unwanted fish and tadpoles from the water supply before it reached Victoria consumers.

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We walked northwestward along the lakeside trail until reaching the maintrail on the western side of the lakes. This trail is built atop what was the railbed for the Victoria & Sidney Railway (V&S). The trail today connects Beaver Lake Road in the south to Brookleigh Road to the north -- a distance of some 4km. We turned back southward once reaching maintrail and picked up another trail heading eastward back to the Beaver Lake Ponds. Today's photos was taken from the western side of these ponds.

Labels: elk/beaver lake regional park, railtrails, walked

Today we walked 3500m in Elk/Beaver Lake Regional Park. We wanted to see if the flooding had subsided to any degree but to the contrary it's increased.

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We checked out what appears to be an abandoned beaver lodge in one of the Beaver Lake Ponds. Using the 4200mm digital focal length on my Canon S5is we able to get some remarkable photographs. The best way to check it out would by in a dinghy or similar floating craft none of which we have access to.

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Anyway, we enjoyed a 40-minute walk after leaving the ponds. We walked the loop on the east side of Beaver Lake. Just another day in paradise.

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I took images with three of my cameras this morning: Sony DSCW-570 (16MP); Canon S5is(8MP) and my GoPro HD video(1080P). No photos taken today with my smartphone but DID have the SportsTrackLive app running to record our GPS track. Just to be on the safe side, I also had my Magellan Explorist 210 handheld GPS unit in operational mode. Just checking to make sure everything is still working -- if you get my meanin'. lol

Labels: elk/beaver lake regional park, walked

Today we walked around in Beaver Lake Ponds Park which is located at 720 Beaver Lake Road. Access from Beaver Lake Rd is onto Glencoe Rd which is also the entrance to the Capital Regional District's (CRD) maintenance yards and also the the Equestrian Centre. From here one can view the retriever pond from numerous vantage points along its eastern shore. The footpath depicted herein crosses Glenco Rd and connects the main Beaver Lake parking lot to the Interurban Multi-use Trail on the western side of Elk/Beaver lakes. This latter section of trail is approximately three-kilometres in length between Beaver Lake/Beaverdale roads and Brookleigh Road to the north.

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Contrary to recent reports there is no weir in the Beaver Lake retriever-ponds' outflow culvert and no recent beaver activity. The outflow culvert underneath the park footpath is -- and probably has been for years -- blocked with debris and sediments. There is a second such outflow culvert underneath Beaver Lake Road (mere metres' distance downstream) and it too is equally blocked, apparently due to poor maintenance practises.

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Beaver Lake Ponds Park culvert VIDEO

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Elk/Beaver Lake Adjustable Weir video

Labels: crd, elk/beaver lake regional park, walked

Wednesday we walked 3km at Elk/Beaver Lake Park. After parking the limo in the main parking area to the south of Beaver Lake we walked the Pipeline Trail to Pipeline Rd. then northward again on the westside Main Trail to the Waterside Trail of Beaver Lake. We spoke with a walker who had just came from the northwest end of Elk Lake (Brookleigh Road). He reported no trail flooding in the area.

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This is why we visited the park this day: To checkout reports in the Time-Colonist (TC) stating a beaver dam & lodge was obstructing waterflow from the lake causing flooding of an unidentified section of trail. We saw no evidence of any beaver activity during this trip nor have we ever seen any in all the years we have frequented this park.

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Why the TC chose to publish a photo of someone's dog getting its feet wet and not a photo of the alleged beaver lodge is anyone's guess. perhaps because there is no such beaver lodge? Remember: beavers are not fish and do not live under water; beavers are mammals and live in lodges which are built above water on waterways where they breath air and raise their young.

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Here's a video showing how the weir is supposed to work. Note water is let out of the lake by raising the weir's gate thus permitting water to pass underneath. its adjustable gate. Elk/Beaver Lake Adjustable Weir video

Labels: crd, elk/beaver lake regional park, walked