A Cowichan Valley Walk By Farms, Fields And The Sea

On a beautiful, sunny, warm Saturday morning Paulette, Rylie and me went for a rather long walk that unexpectedly, at least for me, took us along a road that right through the middle of Cowichan Valley farmlands. I’ve driven along this same road probably hundreds of times but never really stopped to look around and see just how nice these farms are and how well kept and managed they appear to be. Although it was a pretty long walk it was well worth it.

We walked for a mile past beautiful farmlands

Over the past few years, one of our regular hiking trips has been to Manley Creek Park which has a rather short trail that winds from a parking lot down to the ocean. Paulette goes hiking on Thursday mornings with a group of women from her sorority and she said they went on a great hike that started well away from Manley Creek but eventually led to it then up the hill, through some fields, a marsh, woods and ended with a walk back along a road with lots of farms. Sounded good to me so I said o.k.

A lot different view than just driving by in a car – sheep grazing

I’m still kind of amazed at how nice the farms are and find it hard to believe I’ve driven past these places for over 20 years now without really paying much attention to how really spectacular they are.

This is a huge dairy farm

Dairy farming is a big deal in the Cowichan Valley. For decades, all the farms sold their milk to a locally owned firm appropriately named Island Farms. None of the big supermarket chains like Safeway had been successful in getting Island residents to buy their company brand milk only and were forced to sell Island Farms or lose business. A few years ago, a big Canadian company bought out Island Farms but wisely decided to leave the name remain and let the operation run as it always had.

Llamas, Alpaca’s – I have no idea

We walked right by a bunch of what I’ll call Llamas. They could be Alpacas for all I know and I’m sure some reader will clue me in. I know the last time I put a photo of these same type of critters my Alberta friend JB (John and Brenda’s Incredible Journey) was quick to correct me as I got it wrong. Probably wrong this time too!

Before we got to the road that took us by the farms we took a trail through the woods with their now familiar covering of maple leafs but shortly after that Paulette showed me a new path that was completely different from any I’ve been on in that area.

A narrow trail through a stand of Birch trees

This narrow path wound its way through a stand of Birch Trees – hundreds of them. I don’t think I’ve seen this many Birch trees on any of our other walks. It’s always great to run across something new on these hikes.

There were a few little ponds along the way as well

Getting back to familiar ground for me we looked across open fields that led us down towards the ocean.

These long wide trails gave us a great view of Saltspring Island directly across from us in Cowichan Bay.

In total, this walk took us close to 2 hours and I accomplished my goal of 10,000 steps all in one go which I liked. The distance we walked was a little over 7km.

It was a perfect way to spend a nice, fall morning but unfortunately I had to mow the front lawn in the afternoon which wasn’t so perfect. Heck, it’s November – can’t the grass please stop growing now?

One last pic of Mason and Carrie heading home with Halloween loot

Thanks for visiting!