I co-lead our Y walk on Tuesday with Karen Burch. The walk started at Cattle Point with its own history marker (cattle being required to swim from ships to land), the Uplands and Estevan areas including Uplands Park, the historic Tod House and Willows Beach. Per GPS, walk was 7.4 km with an average walking speed of 3 km/hr. With the snack break the walk took 2 hours.
We wanted to walk Uplands Park because of its rocky area, Garry Oak meadow and the rock cairns that mark native burial spots that date back about 1,500 years. A seach of the Internet turned up information that rock cairn funeral practices were common around Victoria and is explained nicely in the following link
http://www.friendsofbeaconhillpark.ca/history.htm
Tod House sits on a large parcel of land on Heron Street and is a graceful white framed home built in 1850. It is registered as a Heritage House and has been listed as the oldest residence in Greater Victoria.
Willows Beach is a favourite place to walk, or to sit and people and dog watch or, on clear days, to gaze at snowy Mount Baker. Up until the mid-1800s Willow Beach was a First Nations village. Its history and culture are explained on a local information board (but I didn't have pencil/paper or camera to record the detail!!)
